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Top level
Zulu Leaders
Shaka Zulu (ca. 1787 - 1828) changed the Zulu tribe from a small clan into a nation that held sway over a large proportion of Southern Africa. His military prowess and new tactics, his practice of destroying his enemies and assimilating the remainder marks Shaka Zulu as one of the greatest Zulu chieftains.
Early years. Shaka Zulu.
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Shaka Zulu
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Shaka Zulu was the first and illegitimate son of the chieftain Senzangakona and Nandi, a daughter of a past chief of the Langeni tribe. The Zulus had a practice of uku-hlobonga — a heavy-petting, safe-sex practice, that got out of hand in this case.Shaka Zulu was disowned by his father, he spent six years at his father's kraal, ridiculed by his peers. After allowing a sheep to be killed, he and Nandi returned to her people, the Langeni, where they were also unwelcome.Shaka Zulu did not forget these transgressions, and exacted fearsome retaliation later. Shaka Zulu. and Nandi found refuge with her aunt at the mDletsheni clan which dwelt directly under the powerful Mthethwa and their aging king Jobe. Jobe was succeeded by his son Dingiswayo - Godongwane.
Shaka was about twenty-three years old when Dingiswayo called up the emDlatsheni iNtanga (age-group), of which he was part, and incorporated it in the iziCwe regiment. Shaka Zulu served as a Mthethwa warrior for six years, and distinguished himself with his courage, rising to a general. Dingiswayo, having himself been exiled after a failed attempt to oust his father, had brought back new ideas of military organisation, in particular the regiment impi and a chain of command. Most battles before this time were to settle disputes, and the appearance of the impi dramatically changed warfare. More powerful armies caused the Mfecane migrations - conquest, disrupted societies fleeing, and in turn using the same military techniques to destroy other societies, that caused other wars and more displacement. Shaka Zulu saw, and improved upon, Dingiswayo's new techniques, both under Dingiswayo and later to extend his own power under the Zulus.
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King Shaka Monument
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Shaka Zulu's Military Revolution
When Shaka Zulu became Zulu chief he institued a regimental system similar to that of Dingiswayo and replaced the light throwing javelins, called assegais with heavy-bladed thrusting spears called iklwas. Shaka Zulu also introduced a larger, heavier shield made of cowhide and taught each warrior how to use the shield's left side to hook the enemy's shield to the right, exposing his ribs for a fatal spear stab.
Discipline and close combat characterized Shaka Zulu's army. To toughen his men he discarded their leather sandals, having them train and fight in bare feet. Shaka Zulu's troops practiced by covering more than fifty miles in a fast trot over hot, rocky terrain in a single day so that they could surprise the enemy. Young boys joined Shaka Zulu's force as apprentice warriors and served as carriers of rations and extra weapons until they joined the main ranks.
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Zulu Countryside
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Prior to Shaka Zulu, most African combat included mass attacks accompanied by spear throwing with little maneuver. Shaka changed that with a tactical innovation called the buffalo formation.Bull Horn Shaka observed the formation from high ground and controlled the sections of it by foot messengers.
Shaka Zulu's strategy in employing his buffalo tactics was simple. His initial attacks came against smaller bands and clans, giving him easy victory. He then offered the survivors the choice of either death or joining his force. Those who chose to join Shaka Zulu, as most did, had to give up their tribal affiliations. They not only joined the Zulu; they became Zulus. The new warriors received training in the Zulu style of war and were integrated into the regiments.
Half a century after Shaka Zulu's death, the Zulu nation still employed his buffalo formation to defeat their enemies and repel invaders, reinforcing Shaka's reputation as one of modern Africa's most influential military leaders.
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Tugela River
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Return to the Zulu. Shaka Zulu.
In 1816, after the death of his father, Shaka Zulu seized power over the then-insignificant Zulu clan. His first mission was to exact revenge on his childhood enemies - many of whom he had impaled on stakes as fatal punishment. With the Langeni, if they could not name a time when they helped him or Nandi, they suffered the same fate. He then set about building his impis. He was dissatisfied with the long throwing assegai, of which traditional warriors carried three - he could see no point in throwing away a weapon. According to EA Ritter (sometimes considered rather dramatic), Shaka Zulu visited the blacksmiths anonymously - a shadowy group on the edge of society, as they were rumoured to use human body fat in the smithing process. He requested that they design him a new weapon - the Iklwa, a short stabbing spear, with a long, swordlike spearhead. It was named for the sound made as it went in, then out, of the body. Shaka changed the nature of warfare in Africa from a ritualised exchange of taunts with minimal loss of life into a true method of subjugation by wholesale slaughter.
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Nguni Cattle
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Shaka Zulu introduced the Impi, his army units, and their tactics, which he borrowed from Dingiswayo - an offensive strategy called the 'charging bull', in which the massive front (chest) would march into the enemy head on, while the side flanks (the horns) would then try to surround the enemy at the same time in a circular movement. This encirclement would ensure no escape or retreat for enemy forces, guaranteeing their destruction from the Zulus' stabbing spears.
He still recognised Dingiswayo and his larger Mthethwa clan as overlord after he returned to the Zulu, but a year later he betrayed Dingiswayo to Zwide, king of the northern Ndwandwe clan, in a divide-and-conquer strategy which benefited his still (in 1500) small Zulu clan.
Shaka Zulu tried to form an alliance with the scattered Mthethwa clan, and the Qwabe, against Zwide, but was rejected by the Qwabe. He mustered his impis, and defeated the Qwabe in late 1817.
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Ntunjambili
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Zulu Civil War.Shaka Zulu.
His first major battle against Zwide of the Ndwandwe was the Battle of Gqokli Hill, in Shaka's territory. Masterful tactics in spite of being outnumbered 2:1 won the battle for Shaka, though his forces were too small to defeat the Ndwandwe.
The Ndwandwe thus remained Shaka Zulu's main enemy, and Shaka laid up stores in anticipation of the next attack. Again, traditional conflict dictated that the burning of the main kraal would disable the defending force - Shaka ordered that food should be moveable.
A year later Zwide invaded again, but after a fruitless search for Shaka Zulu's main army and suffering attrition from harrying attacks, they returned north. Another EA Ritter story relates that while Zwide's forces were laid up in a forest, Shaka instructed saboteurs to infiltrate the enemy forces. The codeword and answer was :- Are you Ndwandwe ? Yes, I am the real Ndwandwe. In the middle of the night, the infiltrators stabbed their neighbours and cried out. The Ndwandwe forces were so spooked that they lit fires and stayed up that night, while the saboteurs slipped away after claiming to have seen a sorcerer riding a hyena in the woods.
At the Mhlatuze River, Shaka Zulu waited until Zwide's army was halfway across the river and attacked the divided forces. Zwide was defeated, the Zulu raced to the Ndwandwe royal kraal, sang their victory songs, and took the Ndwandwe by surprise.
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Shaka was killed while bathing on this stone
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Mfecane - The Scattering. Shaka Zulu.
See main article: Mfecane
The increased military efficiency led to more and more clans being incorporated into Shaka's Zulu empire, while other tribes moved away to be out of range of Shaka Zulu's impis. The ripple effect caused by these mass migrations, known as the Mfecane, had effects as far away as present-day Zimbabwe where local Ndebele people can claim their descent from Mzilikazi, one of Shaka Zulu's generals who returned insufficient tribute to Shaka Zulu while he was on expedition. The demoralised state of many such refugee clans undoubtedly made them easy for both the British and the Voortrekkers to subjugate, and thus indirectly advanced the cause of colonialism, with the Anglo-Zulu War.
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Death and Succession. Shaka Zulu.
Although Shaka Zulu made preliminary contacts with Europeans from the British Empire, he was killed by his half-brother and successor Dingane with help from another brother Umthlangana (Mahlangane) and his induna (advisor) Mbopa before he could test his strategic brilliance against an army equipped with flintlock muskets. His successors got plenty such opportunities, both against the Voortrekkers and against British forces. Later in the 19th century the Zulus would be one of the few African peoples who managed to defeat the British Army at the Battle of Isandlwana. Shaka left no children, as he saw them as potential rivals. He did have a large harem, but these were mostly girls he used as trade and gifts for other chiefs.
Shaka Zulu's name was derived from the Zulu word iShaka - an intestinal beetle on which menstrual irregularities were usually blamed - as Nandi was said to be suffering from this because of her out-of-wedlock pregnancy.
List of Zulu kings
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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Warrior in full Regalia
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This List of Zulu kings gives a list of Zulu chieftains and kings from their earliest known history up to the current monarch:
• Malandela kaLuzumana
• Ntombhela kaMalandela, son of Malandela.
• Zulu kaNtombhela, son of Ntombhela, founder and chief of the Zulu clan from ca. 1709.
• Ghumede kaZulu, son of Zulu, chief of the Zulu clan.
• Phunga kaGhumede (d. 1727), son of Ghumede, chief of the Zulu clan up to 1727.
• Mageba kaPhunga (d. 1745), son of Phunga, chief of the Zulu clan from 1727 to 1745.
• Ndaba kaMageba (d. 1763), son of Mageba, chief of the Zulu clan from 1745 to 1763.
• Jama kaNdaba (d. 1781), son of Ndaba, chief of the Zulu clan from 1763 to 1781.
• Senzangakona kaJama (ca. 1762-1816), son of Jama, chief of the Zulu clan from 1781 to 1816.
• Shaka kaSenzangakhona (ca. 1787-1828), son of Senzangakona, king from 1816 to 1828.
• Dingane kaSenzangakhona (ca. 1795-1840), son of Senzangakona and half-brother of Shaka, king from 1828 to 1840.
• Mpande kaSenzangakhona (1798-1872), son of Senzangakona and half-brother of Shaka and Dingane, king from 1840 to 1872.
• Cetshwayo kaMpande (1826 - February 1884), son of Mpande, king from 1872 to 1884.
• Dinizulu kaCetshwayo (1868-1913), son of Cetshwayo kaMpande, king from 1884 to 1913.
• Solomon kaDinizulu (1891-1933), son of Dinizulu kaCetshwayo, king from 1913 to 1933.
• Cyprian Bhekuzulu kaSolomon (4 August 1924-17 September 1968), son of Solomon kaDinizulu, king from 1933 to 1968.
• Goodwill Zwelethini kaBhekuzulu (b. 14 July 1948), son of Cyprian Bhekuzulu kaSolomon, king since 1968.
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Cetshwayo's Grave
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Reference: Wikipedia.
Shaka Zulu
Other information & Tours
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Colourful Necklaces
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Zulu Culture
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King Dinzulu Township & Upliftment Tour.
King Dinzulu Township and Upliftment Tour
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Green huts in Zululand
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Walters Traditional Zulu Village
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Kid on the Block
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Cowards Bush
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Zululand Eco-Adventures.
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