hiefs could understand what I was talking about"(Cory 74).In contrast to the early opinions of the Zulu people, Joseph Shooter, a missionary from Europe, asserts in his book, The Kafirs of Natal and the Zulu Country, that the Zulu had a tradition of a "Being" whom he identifies as Unkulunkulu who was a kind of creator. He shares Gardiner's belief that over time the Zulu people had lost an "original" knowledge of true religion and that missionaries had arrived during a time of general apostasy. Shooter's account of Zulu religion presents a general overview and weaves together various themes in a creative way which appears to be the first systematic attempt to see Zulu religion as a whole. "This tradition of the "Great-Great" is not universally known among the people. War, change, and the worship of false deities have gradually darkened their minds, and obscured their remembrance of the true God"(Shooter 160). Shooter also states that the Zulu people believe in life after death. "The Kafirs believe that, when a person dies, his i-bloze or isi-tute survives. These words are translated 'spirit,' and there seems no objection to the rendering"(Hexham 360). With regards to a Supreme Being, Shooter explains that the Zulu people have preserved the tradition of a higher power whom they call the "Great-Great". This tradition, however, is not universally known among the Zulu people. There is one tribe in Natal which still worships the "Great-Great," though its recollection of him is very dim. "When they kill the ox they say 'Hear Unkulunkulu, may it always be so.' So when a person is sick, they say, 'Hear Unkulunkulu may be recover"(360). Clearly, Shooter wanted the Zulu to have a 'traditional' belief in God and was forced to interpret their apparent lack of such a belief in terms of their degeneration as men in rebellion against the truth of God.Nine years after Joseph Shooter published his book another missionary was busy observing t...
