Through an examination of key aspects of the historical processes of the making of the image of the early nineteenth-century Zulu king, Shaka, this study offers a new perspective on the potency of the symbol of Shaka in South Africa today. Three historical developments emerge as central to the making of the image: the incorporation of aspects of indigenous discourses on Shaka into the writings and practices of early nineteenth-century European traders, and the colonial officials who followed them; the appropriation of Shaka and Shakan times as a model for the Natal Native Administration; and the subsequent transformation of the image of Shaka and Shakan times into metaphors for contemporary politics. Where previous studies have focused on the manipulation of Shaka and Zulu history in the service of immediate political interests, investigation of the three historical developments draws attention to the limits on the acts of" inventing" and" imagining" of Shaka and Shakan times which prevailed in the past, and the way in which the history of the image itself constrains manipulations of Shaka in the present. The study assesses the capacity of the oral traditions recorded by James Stuart to provide material on indigenous discourses and practices, and traces the development of the idea of the special" expertise" of native administrators, linking it to the origins of anthropology in South Africa.