The king of South Africa’s large Zulu community has challenged a professor and cultural expert to a stick fight, saying he had been insulted, along with the entire Zulu nation.
King Misuzulu kaZwelithini issued the challenge to Prof Musa Xulu in front of thousands of people who had gathered at his newly built royal palace for the annual Reed Dance.
“We are angry and we will do anything to protect and preserve our cultures,” he said, according to the Timeslive news site.
Prof Xulu told the BBC he took the king’s personal challenge as a joke; however, he said he was worried for his safety in case he was attacked by other Zulus.
“I have received threats from hired assassins,” he said, adding that he had lodged a formal complaint with the police.
King Misuzulu did not specify exactly what Prof Xulu had said to anger him, but he was quoted as saying: “It pains me to see another man telling me how to do my job.”
“It is okay if he is against me, but when he insults me, he insults the Zulu nation as well,” he said, according to the IOL site, in what was reportedly an unusually short speech on one of the major events in the traditional Zulu calendar.
“If his friends are here, go and tell him that there is a fighting ring – if he wants a stick fight because I can take him up,” said the king, aged 50.
Prof Xulu told the BBC he believes the king was angered by an interview he gave to local media, in which he said that the move to the new eMashobeni palace could be seen as wasteful, given that 152 million rand ($9m; £6.5m) had been spent on renovating the Enyokeni palace where the Reed Dance had been held since 1984, when the ceremony was introduced to South Africa.
But “talking about public finance is not an insult,” he said.
“I’m not his spokesperson,” he added, noting that he has doctorates in Zulu music and cultural tourism.
“I have nothing personal against the king.”
On the question of stick-fighting, he said this was part of Zulu culture, but those fighting had to be equals and “I’m not equal to the king”.
The 64-year-old professor also said he had not done any stick-fighting since before he was a teenager.
King Misuzulu was crowned in 2022, after a year-long feud following the death of his father, long-time King Goodwill Zwelithini, and then his mother shortly afterwards.
Two of his brothers challenged Misuzulu’s claim to the throne, but he has been recognised by both the Zulu royal household and the South African state.
The throne has no formal political power, but about a fifth of South Africa’s 64 million people are Zulu and its monarchy remains hugely influential with a yearly taxpayer-funded budget of more than $4.9m (£3.5m).
The Zulu kingdom has a proud history. It is world-famous for defeating British troops during the 1879 battle of Isandlwana.
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