“At the beginning, I thought we were digging a deep hole for ourselves, as people feel so passionately about this character,” says Angus Gibson, the director and co-creator of South Africa’s biggest-ever production, Shaka iLembe .

The character in question is King Shaka, or ShakakaSenzangakhona, the most famous of the Zulu kings who ruled in a pre-colonial era. A hugely important figure in South Africa’s Zulu culture, he has often been portrayed in Western media as a brutal warlord, a contrast to the tough military and political leader that most scholars agree he was. The desire behind the making of the series was to right that wrong.

Gibson, Desireé Markgraaff and Teboho Mahlatsi — the experienced trio behind Shaka iLembe production house Bomb! Productions — knew the project would

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