John Dunn, Cetywayo and the Three Generals

John Dunn (1834-95) became an infamous figure (‘a perfect gorilla’) in Britain after his involvement in the Anglo-Zulu war of 1879. A British subject who had lived all his life in South Africa, he spent his early years learning to be an expert hunter of large game before becoming a confidant of the Zulu king Cetshwayo, quickly accumulating wealth and power; although already married, he took forty-nine wives and fathered one hundred and seventeen children. However, when war broke out he sided with the British against his former friend and patron, and was rewarded with a huge tract of territory in the former Zulu kingdom. This book, published in 1886 and edited by his friend D. C. F. Moodie (1838-91), presents his side of the story, and contains fascinating insights into an extraordinary life lived among the Zulus in the nineteenth century.