John Robert Dunn (1834–1895) was a South African settler, hunter, and diplomat of Scottish descent. Born in either Port Elizabeth or Port Natal in 1834, he spent his childhood in Port Natal/Durban.
When Dunn was still young, his father was trampled to death by an elephant. His mother died a few years later. He started to earn a living by working for transport riders and hunters. His love of hunting and his skill with a rifle took him across the Tugela River into Zululand on a regular basis, where he became fluent in the language and was befriended by local chiefs. Their hospitality often included offering him a wife, and though he was previously married to Catherine Pierce - daughter of a white settler father and mother of Cape Malay ancestry - he accepted a total of 48 Zulu wives during his lifetime, much to Catherine's disapproval. Dunn built his home at Mangete, near the Ngoye Forest in Zululand.
Read more about John Robert Dunn: Career, Later Years
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“I do not wish to see John ever again,—I mean him who is dead,—but that other, whom only he would have wished to see, or to be, of whom he was the imperfect representative. For we are not what we are, nor do we treat or esteem each other for such, but for what we are capable of being.”
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