JOHN DUNN
Native chief, British spy and polygamous founder of a huge family

John Dunn is unique in South Africa's historical annals for he founded a distinct new community. The product of Dunn's union with forty-nine wives was an estimated one hundred and fifteen children the overwhelming majority of whom were classified as "colored'. Yet,John Dunn unknowingly bequeathed a bitter sweet legacy to his descendants. The distribution of John Dunn's property was immediately cloned with dispute. The chiefs beneficiaries of John Dunn's fortune did not have long to enjoy it before natural calamities of catastrophic magnitude erased the accumulated wealth of half a century in less than two years. The Dunn's were reduced from a position of comparative to one of poverty and ever destitution Dominic Dun said of this calamity that what had been a land of plenty became a land of desolation and moaning of bitter complaints of lean stomachs and downright starvation. From 1898 onwards many of John Dunn's descendants were forced to leave Dunn's land and seek employment in Natal, the Transvaal and the Cape. The Diaspora has continued to the present day of Dunn's descendants having settled as far afield as the United Kingdom, Canada Australia and the United States of America. In the 1950s Gladstone Dunn a grandson of John Dunn, became the spokesman for the Dunn community. He and his relatives had of wrestle with the interrelated problems of insecurity of land tenure. Gladstone Dunn's energies were devoted to promoting sugar cane production. This would make the Dunn community more prosperous and check he further out migration of Dunns from Zululand.

In 1974 Daniel (Dan) Dunn son of Gladstone Dunn, was elected as Chairman of the John Dunn's Descendants Association. He has proven to be one of the most dynamic and effective leaders that the Dunn clan has ever produced. Daniel Dunn set out to achieve three goals for his people. The Dunns have succeeded in a large measure because they identify strongly with their remarkable ancestor &endash; whose qualities of individualism and single-minded determination have inspired a sense of pride and perseverance in his descendants. The spirit of unity displayed by the Dunn community is a testimony to the towering personality of one of South Africa's legendary figures.

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Right now I am questioning the information in the following paragraph.

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"During the Anglo-Zulu War Dunn sided with the British and betrayed Cetshwayo. When hostilities ceased, the vanquished kingdom was divided into 13 chiefdoms and Dunn was rewarded with the largest portion, the southern region, stretching from the coast to the Buffalo River. John Dunn was described in 1880 as follows: ‘a handsome well-built man about 5 ft 8 in height, with a good forehead, regular features, and keen grey eyes; a closely cut iron-grey beard hides the lower half of his bronzed, weather tanned countenance, and a look of determination and shrewdness is discernible in every lineament.’

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I am disputing the information provided relating to the fact that John Dunn sided with the British and betrayed Cetshwayo.

This information is essentially not accurate or true. John Dunn never betrayed Cetshwayo, the truth of the matter was he was not really clear or certain that the British would attack the Zulus. John Dunn was trying to do the best for both sides, the British and the Zulus.

The truth of the matter is that the British Army captain, Joshua Walmsley betrayed John Dunn, and lied to him of the British intentions. When he met with John Dunn before the invasion, he told John Dunn that he had two options, the first was to stay north of the Tugela River and be murdered by the invading British forces or he could move his family south of the river and save his and his families lives. John did not have any time to warn Cetshwayo of the impending invasion and did his due diligence towards his family. He moved all his family south of the river and as a result they all survived. During the invasion, the British destroyed everything they came across north of the river, that included John Dunns main homestead, including all his historical documentation. When John received the warning from Walmsley, he did not have any time to gather any of his possessions. All of John Dunns documents and correspondence after the 1879 British defeat of the Zulus is currently saved and kept in the Killie Campbell museum in Durban.

Thanks
Lawrence Lamprecht

https://www.jstor.org/page-scan-delivery/get-page-scan/41801328/0

Descendants of John Robert Dunn, b5

Wives :

Catherine Dunn, Indlunkulu

References :

https://www.jstor.org/stable/41801328

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Robert_Dunn

https://www.anglozuluwar.com/images/Journal_14/Dunn,John.pdf

https://www.africa-ata.org/zulu.htm

https://www.britishempire.co.uk/maproom/zululand/johndunn.htm

https://eshowe.com/john-dunns-grave/

https://fliphtml5.com/xdoe/wksj/basic

John Dunn Foundation https://www.dunnsland.com/

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