Chaka
Born to a chief who will not own him, a boy grows up beaten by his half-brothers until a bath in a river pool brings him a serpent and, soon after, a doctor named Isanusi who offers greatness on terms to be settled later. Each victory over the neighbouring clans calls for a stronger medicine than the last, and the medicine calls for whatever its owner most loves. Mofolo wrote it in Sesotho around 1910 from oral accounts of the Zulu king, and his mission press held it back for years, uneasy about a book that made a heathen conqueror a tragic figure.
Open Chaka in the archive — filters, lineage graph and full facet browsing.
Lineage
Attributes
Genre
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
Plot structure
Emotional arc (story shape)
Quest object (Greimas)
Conflict
Culture / tradition
Closest analogues
- 53% · 13 shared
- 52% · 13 shared
- 51% · 12 shared
- 50% · 12 shared
- 50% · 12 shared
- 48% · 11 shared