Antagonists in JOHN DUNN

Talking about the antagonists in my books this week, and that leaves my last book, JOHN DUNN. It could be said that he had a few antagonists, but first on the list would be Theophilus Shepstone, the Natal Secretary of Native Affairs. He never really had it out personally with Dunn, but he did conspire against him and he did secretly hate him.

Theophilus Shepstone wanted the African natives to believe that it was he who was their best friend. He spoke their languages, he spent time in their villages (kraals) and he set aside reserves in which they could live. (Interestingly, those reserves, I believe, were the beginning of the Apartheid setting that plagued South Africa in the Twentieth Century.)

But Theophilus Shepstone betrayed the Zulus. He wanted to be a leader of his own nation or kingdom. At first he envisioned his subjects to be the indigenous Africans, and he sided with the Zulus in their disputes against the Boers. But when he was presented with an opportunity to rule the Transvaal, which was the country where the Boers lived, he reversed himself and sided with the Boers.

So how does all that make him John Dunn's antagonist? In effect, John Dunn was a white Zulu. He lived in Zululand, was best friends with the Zulu king, had fifty Zulu wives and over a hundred children who were half Zulu. He supported them all. He built homes and schools for his wives and children. He fed them and clothed them all. But Shepstone hated him for it and for the fact that the Zulu king gave Dunn a subkingdom of his own to rule. And that irked Shepstone no end.

When there was a job opportunity for a transport service through Zululand, Dunn was perfect for the job. But Shepstone did not want to give the job to Dunn. When the Zulu king heard about that, he made it clear to Shepstone that he would permit no other man to have that job, since it involved escorting members of an enemy tribe through Zululand. Shepstone had to relent. Dunn got the job. But the worst transgression against the Zulus Shepstone committed was his support of the British when they declared war against the Zulus. (Three of his sons fought in that war on the side of the British.)

Yes, Dunn fought for the British, too, but only near the end of the war and only because they were going to hang him if he didn't. And helping his decision was the fact that rogue Zulus burned down his houses and the towns he built for his family and people in his territory. It was a complicated time for Dunn, to be sure. And Theophilus Shepstone did his best to make it increasingly so.