As they were before the white man came
The author came to South Africa as a missionary in 1883, and in the course of the ensuing years gained for himself the reputation of being the greatest authority on the Zulus that South Africa has yet produced, his Zulu-English Dictionary, published in 1903, and Olden Times in Zululand and Natal, published in 1929, are already classical works of reference.
The Zulu People is by far his most ambitious work: it is indeed his lifes work in that is material was collected over the years 1883 to 1935, largely by personal contact with the Zulu himself (including natives then living who were related to Dingane, Mpande, etc.) and supported by research into the writings of hundreds of early travellers, explorers, missionaries, adventurers, etc.
This book is unquestionably the most exhaustive work that has been so far produced on the Nguni Bantu from which, of course, the Zulu people came.
