Fired up by king, Zulu nationalism confronts modern South Africa

[WorldNews]

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By Ed Cropley JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A crowd of stick-wielding supporters at a soccer stadium roared their approval as South Africa's Zulu king, Goodwill Zwelithini, insisted he was not behind a wave of violence against migrant workers he had compared a month before to head lice. Remarks like those, with the direct threat of violence, have alarmed politicians and activists in South Africa, who say they amount to an open challenge to the post-apartheid order and its elected leadership, from the traditional head of its biggest ethnic group, the 10 million strong Zulu nation. "This man is laying the basis for a serious contestation that South Africa is going to have," said Nomboniso Gasa, an expert in traditional law at the University of Cape Town, who was involved in negotiations to end white rule two decades ago. He has started with the most vulnerable - those who always suffer prejudice - but he's also saying to government and everybody else who is opposed to his absolute authority as a Zulu king: 'You watch it.'" Finding a role for traditional ethnic chieftains in a large multi-ethnic democracy has been a challenge since the days of apartheid, when white rulers often empowered tribal leaders as an alternative to giving blacks a real stake in state power.

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