Shaka Zulu History
Shaka Zulu history: Shaka Senzangakona, who was probably born in the late 1780s, led the growth of the powerful Zulu empire during a time when there were a lot of big changes in politics, society, and the environment in southern Africa. In both historical and modern accounts, Shaka has been called the “African Napoleon,” a military genius, a founding statesman, a dictator, and a powerful myth, among other things. This makes him a controversial figure. He is the main focus of historical accounts that show how the building of states in eastern and southern Africa in the 1800s had “Zulucentric” roots.
In the 1810s, the KwaZulu-Natal area of South Africa saw the rise of the Zulu monarchy. Iron Age farmers who spoke Bantu moved to this rich, well-watered area by the year 300, and by the year 1000, they had created agropastoralism. By 1800, the people who lived there had already moved into many small towns with anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand people. Communities within a chiefdom were connected by marriage and blood ties, but they stayed connected to the chief through clientage and a partial exchange of tribute.
In the early 1800s, many things came together to cause social stratification and competition between these chiefdoms over resources and trade. Starting in the middle of the eighteenth century, selling ivory to Europeans was a major driving force in the rise to riches and power of certain chiefdoms at the expense of others. Securing political dominance required dominance in strategic areas, such as control of trade routes and the dwindling elephant population.
Even more so, a string of devastating droughts and famines accelerated the process of political amalgamation, in which powerful leaders like Shaka strove to turn preexisting social links between chiefs and people into military kingdoms to defend resources. There was a need for military units to protect and spread control over hunting areas, trade routes, and rich land, therefore, young men in the amabutho (circumcision age groups under the jurisdiction of the chief) were employed in elephant hunting. In the end, this led to the rise of formidable military powers engaged in bloody competition for territorial dominance.
Thus, the conditions that generated an increased desire to control commerce, land, and labor are the roots from which the Zulu and other large nations in southeastern Africa grew. Shaka became a major figure in this setting. Shaka and his mother Nandi fled the house they had with his father Senzangakona after his mysterious birth. As he came back from exile, he refined his talents as a strategist and warrior, and in 1816, he took control of a small Zulu chiefdom that was subservient to the Mthethwa paramountcy.
Shaka was a man of great talent, might, and ruthlessness, and he wasted little time capitalizing on political advantage and the novel strategy of up-close spear warfare that had proven effective in battle. Shaka prevented the subservient Zulu from siding with the Mthethwa during a dispute between the Mthethwa and the Ndwandwe chiefdoms. Once the Mthethwa were defeated, Shaka was able to use this strategy to free himself from their control and repel the invading Ndwandwe.
After that, Shaka honed his leadership skills over his youthful regimental soldiers and the creative forces of society, turning the Zulu nation into a formidable military power. The Zulu eventually expanded their dominance to the north and south after consolidating control over the territory and its inhabitants. They overran most of KwaZulu-Natal, forcing several client chiefdoms away, and instituting tribute ties over an increasingly stratified society. Many people attribute the rapid conflicts and migrations of the 1820s and 1830s to Shaka and his seeming central participation in these events, and hence call this period of history the Mfecane.
Nevertheless, it is now accepted that European raiders, slavers, traders, and immigrants had (to differing degrees according to different readings) an important impact on African communities and the creation of African states in southern Africa. It is clear that Shaka and the Zulu kingdom were not alone to blame for the massive social and political upheaval that preceded the establishment of other powerful African kingdoms in the area. To establish their new kingdoms, African politicians adopted either defensive or aggressive measures, depending on the specifics of the situation.
Zulu raiding, particularly for livestock, increased when Shaka came to power, and Zulu dominance spread as Zulu soldiers were stationed in forts across the region. Yet this was a precarious authority, plagued by both internal strife and foreign threats. As the dominant Zulu royal dynasty imposed disparities of ethnicity, rank, and money between themselves and subordinate peoples, the kingdom became deeply divided and unequal. When the Ndwandwe planned an invasion in 1826, it heightened Shaka and the Zulu aristocracy’s already heightened sensitivity to internal dissent.
But despite the Ndwandwe’s defeat, tensions remained high. In his time of sadness after his mother’s death, Shaka resorted to extreme cruelty by ordering the execution of his Zulu political opponents. Concerns within the royal family about Shaka’s abuses led to his murder in 1828 at the hands of his half-brothers and an aide. However, the kingdom was solid enough to weather the problem of succession, and Dingane, one of the killers, became king in Shaka’s place. Dingane established his authority as king through a combination of appeasement toward his amabutho and the chiefs and harsh repression of his political opponents and those who had fled their homes during Shaka’s reign.
Dingane gave his soldiers access to cattle, the lifeblood of the Zulu economy, through violent assaults against neighboring chiefdoms. In addition, he expanded the trading network that had been set up by Shaka with the southern British outpost of Port Natal (now Durban) to buy weapons and military instruction for his troops. The fall of Zulu power in the region began in the latter 1830s, as European participation and expansion within the kingdom increased. By the middle of the 1830s, Dingane had severely limited connections with the British because he was so annoyed by their efforts to prevent the gun trade and, more importantly, because they were sheltering a large number of Zulu dissidents.
Dingane’s downfall was precipitated by the advent of Boer voortrekker immigrants headed by Piet Retief in 1837, who posed an even greater threat to the Zulu realm. Dingane, well aware of the voortrekkers’ expansionist tendencies, executed Retief and a group of his men after they had tentatively negotiated the cession of Zulu land for colonization. Andries Pretorius took over as leader of the Boers, and soon after, the Zulu were dealt a devastating blow at Ncome (Blood) River. After then, tensions between the Zulu and the white colonizers only increased.
Dingane’s half-brother Mpande’s dynastic aspirations, which were at odds with those of the Trekkers, coincided with the rise of the latter in a peculiar turn of events. Mpande fled the kingdom in 1839, but he later formed an alliance with the Boers and returned with them to destroy Dingane. A major shift occurred at this time in the Zulu empire. While Mpande and his successors managed to maintain independence until 1879, his coronation by the Boers indicated that white interference would play an increasingly significant role in the weakened country.
Also Read: Anglo-Zulu War, 1879-1887
