141:, he was served with an ultimatum by the British at the same time as Cetshwayo. He had to forgo any position of neutrality and sided with the British. In the aftermath, he was allocated land in a buffer zone between the colony and Zululand. Besides his first wife Catherine, he took many Zulu women as wives and left a large Christian progeny when he died at age 60 or 61.
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kraals at
Mangete, Emoyeni and Ngoya with wives at each place. He banished several wives for breaching his household rules and executed at least two for adultery. His wives and children were not allowed to interact socially with his white guests and his coloured children were discouraged from any serious interaction with their black siblings.
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years and 84 years since the death of John Dunn, that the Dunn family was able to obtain title deeds for
Dunnsland, i.e. Mangete and Emoyeni. This process, complicated by racial legislation, was driven by Daniel Dunn, great-grandson of John and the then chairman of the Dunn's Descendants Association.
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and heart disease and was buried at
Emoyeni in the Colony of Natal, having married 48 wives and fathered 117 children. He was survived by 23 wives including Catherine, besides 33 sons and 46 daughters. Catherine died on 27 January 1905, at age 72. All of Dunn's dependents were settled on a 40 km
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With use of his land, Zulu marriages and the loaning of cattle, Dunn built a network of clients and contacts along the
Zululand coast that allowed him to exploit the region's wealth. During the 1860s, he was involved in the trade of firearms into Zululand with the exchange of cattle for rifles via
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Settlement of 1879, Dunn was given the largest piece of land of all thirteen rulers in the subdivision of
Zululand, which was also closest to Durban, placing him in charge of a buffer zone between the British and the less-trusted rulers. These subdivisions would last until Cetshwayo returned from
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Dunn's residences were constructed in the form of traditional Zulu kraals. His western style house stood at its centre, with separate beehive huts for his wives, soldiers, servants and Zulu visitors, cattle kraals, stables and food storage pits, all surrounded by a hedge of thorns. He maintained
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After the battle, Cetshwayo then clashed with two
English traders and took 1,000 head of cattle. His involvement in the battle led to resentment towards Dunn by the white settlers of Natal, so on his own account he re-crossed the Tugela to ask the winner, Cetshwayo, to return the cattle that had
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In 1856, Zulu prince
Mbuyasi, outnumbered by his brother Cetshwayo's forces, had requested help from Walmsley, which was refused. Dunn was sent instead to negotiate peace terms between the two warring Zulu brothers, which failed. With a small force of Native Police, Dunn supported the Zulu king
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Starting 1971 however, a neighbouring Zulu chief laid claim to the 68 farms. The situation escalated from 1996 onwards when chief Nkosi
Mathaba began settling his Macambini clan members on the Dunn farms, and some 2,000 squatters built their shacks on the cane plantations. In 2004, after an
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Dunn lost his parents early. When he was 14, his father was trampled to death by an elephant. His mother Anne died three years later. He started to earn a living by working for transport riders and hunters. His love of hunting and his skill with a rifle took him across the
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of nine to fifteen cattle for each of the other forty-six wives. The Zulu wives came from twenty-three different clans mostly from the southern and central coastal regions. All were married in the native custom, though some were baptised, converting as Roman
Catholics or
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to Fort
Pearson to receive Bulwer's ultimatum for Cetshwayo. Fearing for his life, he did not deliver the ultimatum to Cetshwayo and retired to Emangete, wanting to remain neutral in the conflict between the British and the Zulu.
177:, due to being not of age and the lack of a contract, he wandered disillusioned around Zululand. Here he eventually met the Natal agent Captain Joshua Walmsley and returned to Natal with him, acting as his interpreter until 1856.
257:, to present Cetshwayo with an ultimatum that amongst other things, included the disbandment of the Zulu Army and the age-group system within twenty days, which he could not and would not accept. Dunn accompanied the Zulu
226:. Another important business income for Dunn was hunting. Organising his Zulu subjects as hunters, guides and porters, they successfully hunted for ivory, hides and skins, but by 1880, game had become scarce in Zululand.
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ancestry - he accepted a total of 48 Zulu wives during his lifetime, much to Catherine's disapproval. Apart from two wives presented to him by Cetshwayo after a gift of two firearms, he followed Zulu custom and paid
269:. He was persuaded to take part on the British side by Lord Chelmsford and was in charge of the Intelligence Department. He and his scouts provided excellent service to the British forces and took part in the
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Dunn was born in Port Alfred in 1834. He was the son of Robert Newton Dunn. Resident of Port Elizabeth, Robert Dunn was one of the early settlers at Port Natal. On his mother's side, he was the grandson of
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On 18 October 1872, King Mpande died at the age of 74 and Cetshwayo became king. Dunn's power and influence rose; he handled nearly all of Cetshwayo's foreign correspondence. Though
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exile in January 1883. Then the thirteen chiefs were disposed, Dunn lost his power and income and was included in a large native reserve under the control of the British Commander
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became the Zulu sovereign. He acted as Cetshwayo's secretary and diplomatic adviser and was rewarded with chieftainship, land, livestock and two Zulu virgins.
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He was able to identify and exploit various opportunities for trade. He represented both colonial and Zulu interests, and rose to some influence and power when
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workers to Natal for the agricultural industry, from the former. He would later be appointed as Protector of Immigrants for Zululand in 1874 by
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and John Dunn". English in Africa, vol. 15, no. 1, 1988, pp. 29–53. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40238613. Accessed 11 June 2020.
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reserve near the Tugela River. Their ownership of the land was confirmed by the John Dunn Land Distribution Acts of 1902 and 1935.
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Ballard, Charles (1980). "John Dunn and Cetshwayo: The Material Foundations of Political Power in the Zulu Kingdom, 1857-1878".
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eight-year court battle, the land was restored to the Dunn family, of whom almost 1,000 were still resident on the farms.
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belonged to the traders. Cetshwayo agreed, and requested that Dunn become his advisor in matters related to the
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where they soundly defeated the British, they were themselves defeated at the
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Though he was already married to Catherine Pierce - daughter of a white
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of 1879 forced John Dunn to pick sides, and he sided with the British.
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Hurwitz, N. (1947). "The Life of John Dunn, The White Zulu Chief".
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In 1853, after a failure of payment for a transport to the
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and Cetshwayo had successfully resisted attempts by the
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South African hunter, settler and diplomat (1834–1895)
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Illustrated History of South Africa – The Real Story
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and the British to encroach on their territory, the
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645:. South Africa: Reader's Digest.
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363:Apartheid
339:Anglicans
296:. In the
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