Zululand - Heart and Pulse of the Zulu Kingdom

The Bill of Fare
Considering the equation of cattle and wealth, it's hardly surprising that only people of rank and affluence regularly enjoyed beef dinners outside of special occasions. Even then, the boiled or roasted chunks were apportioned in hierarchical terms of body parts...from sirloin for the chief down to spleen for the most junior herd-boy. Maize 'porridge' of various consistencies was the principal staple, with assorted side dishes of tubers, legumes and leafy vegetables. This would usually be accompanied by a bowl of pre-prepared, sour clotted milk - almost never 'straight' from the cow. Ranking alongside beef as a luxury for most ordinary folk was traditional beer - a pinkish, nutritious and minimally alcoholic sorghum brew.

zoom James King's sketch of King Shaka Source: Cape Archives

Heaven's People
According to oral tradition, Zulu's descendants - the amaZulu, or People of Heaven - settled the White Umfolozi valley under the chieftainship of Zulu's great-grandson Ndaba kaPhunga - The Man of Affairs. The Zulu continued to live a peaceful existence when the mantle of leadership was passed to Jama - He of the Stern Countenance - even though crucial power struggles were developing all around them as paramount chiefs dreamed of statehood. The Zulu chiefdom was small, relatively insignificant and subordinate to Dingiswayo, ruler of the emerging Mthethwa state. Zulu territory was, however, strategically important to Dingiswayo's rivalry with the equally-rapacious Ndwandwe leaders, and he cultivated the allegiance of Jama's heir-apparent, Senzangakhona - He Who Acts with Good Reason. When Senzangakhona succeeded his father in the late 1700s, Dingiswayo afforded him freer rein and military expansion in exchange for securing a 'buffer zone' against the Mthethwa's enemies. Senzangakhona never lived to see the ultimate result of the Mthethwa- Ndwandwe battle for supremacy - he died in 1816, a year before the Ndwandwe defeated the Mthethwa army, overran their territory and killed paramount chief Dingiswayo. All that now stood between the Ndwandwe and total dominance of the entire region between Phongolo and Thukela Rivers was the small Zulu state under its new leader - the illegitimate son of Senzangakhona and Nandi - King Shaka.

Enter Shaka Zulu
Nandi had conceived before official recognition as the chief's wife, and her obvious pregnancy was unconvincingly dismissed as affliction by an intestinal beetle known in Zulu medical circles as a 'shaka'. That name was duly given to the baby upon his birth in 1787. Although his father's eldest son, Shaka's ill-timed arrival denied him heir- apparent status, but overlord chief Dingiswayo was aware of Shaka's courage and budding military genius. And after Shaka had orchestrated the murder of his younger brother and legitimate heir to the Zulu throne, Dingiswayo sent a military force to assist Shaka seize the chieftainship. The young leader justified his overlord's patronage with regional military successes against the Mthethwa's enemies, but when that state was overrun and Dingiswayo assassinated, Shaka Zulu found himself the sole object of Ndwandwe battle plans.

Survival and Imperialism
The Zulu repulsed wave after wave of Ndwandwe regiments, eventually forcing them to flee northwards. Shaka, however, realised a more permanent solution was essential and set about building up his army while devising lethal new tactics and weaponry. To maximise the efficiency of his innovative horn-shaped attack formation, the long throwing spear and full-length body shield of his forefathers were replaced by the short stabbing spear and small shield of highly effective hand-to-hand combat. Shaka then set about earning his reputation as the 'Black Napoleon', conquering and dispossessing in all directions. Small chiefdoms that submitted to Shaka gained protection in exchange for army recruits, women and cattle to bolster the burgeoning Zulu state. Larger chiefdoms - some of which still harboured grand ambitions - saw their rulers and important families murdered and replaced by Shaka's carefully chosen 'puppets'. By 1819 the newly forged Zulu nation was the largest and most populous ever seen in southeastern Africa. And their leader was Shaka - King of the Zulu.

Cementing the Realm
Shaka set about consolidating his empire, building enormous military barracks in strategic locations and populating them with vast numbers of new recruits. He also created 'women's auxiliary' regiments and manipulated marriage within the corps, thus integrating men and women of subordinate chiefdoms into the Zulu state, while constantly reminding the vassal chiefs of his authority and power. They withheld tribute at the peril of being dispossessed altogether...their cattle and other prized possessions - including womenfolk - either added to the royal inventory or distributed among those in Shaka's favour. The royal cattle herd was greatly bolstered when Shaka refined the age- old practice of sequestering desirable young women - paid in tribute or seized by force - and offering them as brides to 'social climbers' for vastly inflated dowries.

Enemies Within and Without
Shaka's reign was never secure, and maintaining the Zulu kingdom's boundaries required further military campaigns. Clans driven westwards into the Drakensberg mountain range were left without livestock or the leisure to plant crops, and turned to desperate, grisly means of survival in the so-called Valley of the Cannibals.

Opposition to 'Shaka the Usurper' festered within the divided royal house, too, and while an attempt on the king's life in 1824 may well have been a family plot, it was officially blamed on the dissident Qwabe people...many of whom were subsequently hunted down and killed.

zoom Henry Francis Fynn

English Medicine
Shaka's recovery received assistance from a most unlikely quarter in colonial adventurer Henry Francis Fynn who, with a small negotiating party, had arrived at the king's homestead in August 1824 to seek trading rights. These British had created a tiny settlement at Port Natal - now Durban - having sailed north from the already-established Cape Colony in search of ivory and exotic animal hides. Shaka's gratitude was shown in a document he signed ceding 'chieftainship' of Port Natal and its environs to the white traders...who returned to their settlement, hoisted the Union Jack and formally took possession of their gift in the name of Great Britain. It was undoubtedly not King Shaka's intention to renounce sovereignty in favour of King George IV, but the die was cast...

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