This is the tale of a Victorian rom-ance between a young African who claimed to be the heir to the Matabele throne and his beautiful English bride. Peter Lobengula arrived in Southampton on 21 April 1899. He was part of a ragged troupe of actors assembled by a maverick cockney showman, Frank Fillis. Lobengula performed in Savage South Africa at the Earls Court exhibition centre. The show, a sensational hit, provided audiences with "authentic" recreations of African village life and mock-ups of British battles. The centrepiece was a minor incident in December 1893 during which an isolated corps of British soldiers was overwhelmed and defeated by Prince Lobengula's army in what is now Zimbabwe. Peter played the part of Lobengula, the man he claimed was his father. Also part of the show was a beautiful young pianist, Kitty Jewell, the daughter of a wealthy Cornish mining engineer who had arrived in South Africa in the 1890s. It is uncertain whether Kitty first met Peter in Bloemfontein, or once the show was under way. It doesn't really matter, because uncertainty is a central theme of the book.
What we know for sure is that the marriage of Kitty and her prince took place in August 1899, despite desperate attempts by the Church to block it and in the wake of huge press controversy. It did not last. The couple divorced in February 1902 and Peter later married a woman from Belfast, with whom he had four children. He died, in extreme poverty in 1913, from tuberculosis, which he contracted from working in a coal mine. Nothing is known of what became of Kitty.
Ben Shephard pieces together the little firm evidence there is to reach plausible conclusions about the truth behind the strange story of Peter Lobengula and his claim to the Matabele throne. His book is an accomplished feat of investigation and imaginative reportage.
