The Progenitor
Sunday, January 24, 2021
  • Login
  • Register
  • Home
  • Around the world
  • History
  • Entertainment
    BOB MARLEY: Biography, Life & Legacy

    BOB MARLEY: Biography, Life & Legacy

    MICHAEL JACKSON: Biography, Career, Albums and Facts

    FELA OLUSEGUN RANSOME-KUTI: Nigerian musician Biography and Facts

  • Politics
  • Culture
  • Poem
  • Sports
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Around the world
  • History
  • Entertainment
    BOB MARLEY: Biography, Life & Legacy

    BOB MARLEY: Biography, Life & Legacy

    MICHAEL JACKSON: Biography, Career, Albums and Facts

    FELA OLUSEGUN RANSOME-KUTI: Nigerian musician Biography and Facts

  • Politics
  • Culture
  • Poem
  • Sports
No Result
View All Result
The Progenitor
No Result
View All Result
Home History

SHAKA ZULU: Biography and Facts

admin by admin
May 8, 2020
in History
4 min read
0
SHAKA ZULU: Biography and Facts
0
SHARES
213
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

RELATED POSTS

kofi annan/theprogenitor.com

KOFI ANNAN: A Legacy Of Peace

June 18, 2020
nelson mandela/theprogenitor.com

NELSON MANDELA: An anti-apartheid hero who fought against Institutionalized racism in South African

June 12, 2020

 

Shaka kaSenzangakhona also known as Shaka Zulu was the leader of the Zulu kingdom from 1816 to 1828. He was one of the most influential monarchs in the Zulu kingdom. His life is the subject of numerous colourful and exaggerated stories, many of which are debated by historians.

Shaka’s birth: He was born in the lunar month of uNtulikazi (July) in the year of 1787 near present-day Melmoth, Kwazulu-natal Province. Shaka was the son of Senzangakona, chieftain of the Zulu, and Nandi, an orphaned princess of the neighbouring Langeni clan. Because his parents belonged to the same clan, their marriage violated Zulu custom, and the stigma of this extended to the child. The couple separated when Shaka was six, and Nandi took her son back to the Langeni, where he passed a fatherless boyhood among a people who despised his mother. In 1802 the Langeni drove Nandi out, and she finally found shelter with the Dletsheni, a subclan of the powerful Mthethwa. When Shaka was 23, Dingiswayo, the Mthethwa paramount chieftain, called up Shaka’s Dletsheni age group for military service. For the next six years, he served with brilliance as a warrior of the Mthethwa Empire.

His Father’s death: Senzangakona died in 1816, and Dingiswayo released Shaka from service and sent him to take over the Zulu.They were among the smallest of the more than 800 Eastern Nguni–Bantu clans, but from the day of Shaka’s arrival they commenced their march to greatness. Shaka ruled with an iron hand from the outset, melting out instant death for the slightest opposition.

Shaka Zulu: The Story of a Ruthless Ruler | Ancient Origins

His first act: his first act was to reorganize the army. Like all the clans, the Zulu were armed with oxhide shields and spindly throwing spears. Battles were little more than brief and relatively bloodless clashes in which the outnumbered side prudently gave way before extensive casualties occurred. Shaka first rearmed his men with long-bladed, short-hafted stabbing assegais, which forced them to fight at close quarters. He then instituted the regimental system based on age groups, quartered at separate kraals (villages) and distinguished by uniform markings on shields and by various combinations of headdress and ornaments.He developed standard tactics, which the Zulu used in every battle. The available regiments (known collectively as the impi) were divided into four groups. The strongest, termed the “chest,” closed with the enemy to pin him down while two “horns” raced out to encircle and attack the foe from behind. A reserve, known as the “loins,” was seated nearby, with its back to the battle so as not to become unduly excited, and could be sent to reinforce any part of the ring if the enemy threatened to break out.

Within two years Shaka bested the only clans large enough to threaten him, the Ndwandwe and the Qwabe, and in a series of annual campaigns he then struck at and smashed the complex network of clans living to the south of the Zulu territories. By 1823 the region was a depopulated ruin of smoking kraals, and the terrified survivors had broken up tribal patterns as far away as the Cape Colony.

Mfecane: Although Shaka’s depredations were limited to the coastal area, they led indirectly to the Mfecane (“Crushing”) that devastated the inland plateau in the early 1820s. Marauding clans, fleeing the Zulu wrath and searching for land, started a deadly game of musical chairs that broke the clan structure of the interior and left two million dead in its wake. The Boergreat Trek of the 1830s passed through this area, succeeding only because virtually no one was left to oppose them.

The first Europeans arrived in Port Natal (present-day Durban) in 1824. A dozen settlers of the Farewell Trading Company established a post on the landlocked bay and soon made contact with Shaka, whose kraal Bulawayo lay 100 miles (160 km) to the north. Fascinated by their ways and their artifacts but convinced that his own civilization was much superior, he permitted them to stay. Two of the early settlers, Henry Francis Fynn and Nathaniel Isaacs, became fluent Zulu linguists, and most of what is known of early Nguni history stems from their writings.

His Mother’s death: In 1827 Nandi died, and with his mother’s death Shaka became openly psychotic. About 7,000 Zulus were killed in the initial paroxysm of his grief, and for a year no crops were planted, nor could milk—the basis of the Zulu diet staple—be used. All women found pregnant were slain with their husbands, as were thousands of milch cows, so that even the calves might know what it was to lose a mother.

His death: Early in 1828 Shaka sent the impi south in a raid that carried the warriors clear to the borders of the Cape Colony. They had no sooner returned, expecting the usual season’s rest, than he sent them off to raid far in the north. It was too much for his associates, and two of his half brothers, Dingane and Mhlangana, together with an induna named Mbopa, murdered him in September of that year.

Related

Tags: AfricanHistoryleaderSouth Africazulu
ShareTweetPin
Previous Post

Interesting Facts You Should Know About Africa

Next Post

BOB MARLEY: Biography, Life & Legacy

Related Posts

nelson mandela/theprogenitor.com

NELSON MANDELA: An anti-apartheid hero who fought against Institutionalized racism in South African

8 months ago
jaja of opobo/theprogenitor.com

KING JAJA OF OPOBO: A Slave Who became King

8 months ago
idi amin/theprogenitor

IDI AMIN: Known as; The Butcher of Uganda, One of the Cruelest in The World History

8 months ago
sarahforbes/theprogenitor

SARAH FORBES BONETTA: The Yoruba Slave Who Became Queen Victoria Of England Goddaughter

8 months ago
Load More
Next Post
BOB MARLEY: Biography, Life & Legacy

BOB MARLEY: Biography, Life & Legacy

THE QUEEN OF SHEBA: History and Facts

THE QUEEN OF SHEBA: History and Facts

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • 21.5M Fans
  • 79 Followers
  • 27.7k Followers
  • 78.8k Subscribers
  • 657 Followers
  • 22.9k Followers

RECOMMENDED

kofi annan/theprogenitor.com

KOFI ANNAN: A Legacy Of Peace

June 18, 2020
james harrison/theprogenitor.com

JAMES HARRISON: A Man Who Donated Blood Every Week For 60 Years

June 18, 2020

Media

  • About Us
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact

© 2020 THE PROGENITOR - No. 1 history website.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Around the world
  • History
  • Entertainment
  • Health
  • Politics
  • Poem
  • Contact

© 2020 THE PROGENITOR - No. 1 history website.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
Skip to toolbar
  • About WordPress
    • WordPress.org
    • Documentation
    • Support
    • Feedback
  • Log In
  • Register
  • 🔗 AMP