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End of a dynasty: the last days of the Prince Imperial, Zululand 1879, by Paul Deléage; translated by Fleur Webb. Scottsville: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2008. xx, 212pp. ISBN 978-1-86914-138-7.
Paul Deléage, a young newspaper reporter attached to Le Figaro, was sent to report on the Prince Imperial's African adventure during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. In fact, he was the only French correspondent to cover the war, and almost immediately after his return to France he published this book under the title Trois mois chez les Zoulous et les derniers jours du Prince Impérial. Remarkably, this is the first occasion on which this important primary source has been published in English. It provides a fascinating account, not just of the life of the Prince Imperial in the weeks leading up to his death at the hands of a Zulu ambush, but of the war as a whole, as seen by an outsider, not unsympathetic to either the English or the Zulus.
Like all good reporters, Deléage had an observant eye. As he travelled through the country, he noted down details on such topics as the building of the railway from Durban to Pietermaritzburg, the French Catholic missions in Natal, the organisation of the postal services, the army's need for forage and supply, the condition of the horses, the British army's use of flogging as a punishment, and much more. He mixed easily with the English army officers he met (frequently commenting on how good their French was), and he also reported positively on the Zulus that he met, at least once he was away from Durban. Amongst those he met were Hamu kaNzibe, Cetshwayo's brother who had gone over to the English side. A true Frenchman, he found himself more interested in Hamu's wives than in the chief himself, afterwards regretting he had not stayed longer in "the agreeable proximity of the beautiful girl" who had served him with a cup of 'Cafre' beer.
Deléage first met the Prince Imperial in Pietermaritzburg in the course of his journey up to Zululand. He never makes his own politics explicit, but it seems likely that he had republican rather than Bonapartist leanings. He admits...