The Zulu Kingdom was a Southern African state that resided in what is now South Africa. The small kingdom is famous for their part in the Anglo-Zulu War as well as their migration to southern Africa and infamous king Shaka Zulu. The Zulus are considered one of the many Bantu Empires. The Zulus were able to resist the Scramble for Africa in the beginning. Eventually succumbing to European power after Shaka Zulu’s death, the Zulu people were able to retain pride in their heritage, history, and culture. This paper will contain key information about Zulu Kingdom history, such as who and where the kingdom originated and how it came to fruition. The politics of the Zulu Kingdom will also come into play as the intricate changes the Zulu Kingdom must be explained in relation to Shaka Zulu. The cultural aspects of the Zulu Kingdom will also be examined, as the arts such as dance and sculptures have brought much context to current historians views on the Zulu Kingdom. Finally, the Zulu Kingdom has impacted much of current Africa. I will explain the past, current, and future influences that the Zulu Kingdom has presented in history, culture, politics and religion. I will discuss how much of The Zulu Kingdom impacted neighboring civilizations and how the importance of the Zulu Kingdom affected how we learn about african civilizations. Shaka Zulu will be covered extensively as he was in power for the most important parts of Zulu’s history and is understood to be the biggest influence on the Zulu Kingdom. The importance of learning about the Zulu Kingdom must also be addressed. Much of African history is impacted by Zulu movements, so if one is to learn and better understand African Civilization, one must learn more about the Zulu Kingdom.
The Zulu Kingdom was active from 1817 to 1879. The Zulu people, originally the Nguni people, were situated near the White Mfolozi River. The Kingdom’s success must be accredited to Shaka Zulu, born 1787, who was the illegitimate son of Senzangakona, chief of the Zulus. Shaka and his mother were exiled by Senzangakona, and eventually found refuge in Mthethwa, a neighboring civilization (Zulu Kingdom). Mthethwas was ruled by Dingiswayo and eventually Shaka fought as a warrior under Dingiswayo. When Senzangakhona, the Zulu chief died, Dingiswayo helped Shaka claim his place as chief of the Zulu Kingdom around 1817. Dingiswayo lent Shaka the military support to assassinate shaka’s younger, but senior brother Sigujana, and make himself chief. Shaka remained loyal to Dingiswayo and was grateful for the assistance. On Dingiswayo’s death, Shaka expanded his reign over the Mthethwas people. Shaka continued this pattern of growth until he controlled from roughly the Mzimkhulu River in the north, to the Tugela River in the south and from the Drakensberg mountains eastward to the coast (Zulu Kingdom).
Under Shaka, a system known as amakhanda was established, and young men were drafted into amabutho which were age sets for military organization. Shaka learned this tactic while serving under Dingiswayo in the Mthethwa military. The amabutho’s purpose was to defend against country raiders and provide protection for refugees. Shaka also used his military for expansion of his rule. Shaka’s military frequently went on campaign. The goal was to extend their assaults further afield, and the neighboring areas were stripped of their land and cattle, the two main units of wealth during this time period. If a ruler was to resist the overpowering of Shaka and his army, the region would be either conquered, destroyed or, like the Thembu and Chunu, driven off as landless refugees (Shaka Zulu, 2018). Shaka left the administrative duties of whatever land he conquered to the reigning chief or another member of the traditional ruling family which was to be appointed by himself.
Shaka’s wars created a great amount of slaughter of civilian people and caused many migrations around the region. Neighboring rulers Zwangendaba, Mzilikazi, and Shoshangane felt the fear caused by Shaka’s impending conquering and moved northwards into the central African interior. Shaka caused a domino affect as these rulers also caused war and destruction of the land they invaded in the process of avoiding Shaka and developing their own kingdoms. An estimated number of more than a million people died as a result of Shaka’s military moves. The forced migrations Shaka’s wars between 1818 and 1828 are known in various parts of southern Africa as the Mfecane, Difaqane, Lifaqane, or Fetcani (Shaka Zulu, 2018). The impacts of Shaka’s military were profound in that starvation, economic crisis and chaotic population shifts followed wherever Shaka’s forced went. These shifts determined the African societies we see today as the cultures and people created a dynamic shift in population densities of Zulu people.
Shaka and the development of his military system caused major economic and social changes. Any young men able to fight were drafted into Shaka’s army, often prohibited to marry until given permission. Economical growth was determined by wealth of cattle. The cattle wealth of the whole community throughout the kingdom was improved by war as Shaka obtain enemy land. Many of the people in the conquered areas resented and resisted Shaka’s rule. These people suffered so much at the hands of Shaka and lost much of their lives, so it is understandable why they never came to identify themselves as Zulus. Instead these people chose to identify themselves as members of their past chiefdoms. The Zulu ethnic group was and is made up of those who identify themselves as Zulus, based on their common language, culture, and ancestry (Elizabeth A. Eldredge, 2014).
Even though Shaka did a lot of damage to the diversity of African chiefdoms, before Shaka’s time, the Zulu ethnic group and the Zulu kingdom did not exist. Until Shaka chose to encompass neighboring lands, the only way to be a Zulu was to be a member of the Zulu chiefdom or the Zulu lineage. The existence of the Zulu ethnic group resulted from the creation of the Zulu kingdom by Shaka. Before the 1810s, the future Zulu people had no overarching name for themselves. They identified with their chiefdoms, which included Zulu, but many others as well. Many of these differently identifying people spoke languages that aligned with their chiefdom. Lala, Mbo, Ntungwa, abaSenhla, abaSenzansi, and, most notably, Nguni, were commonly spoken. Each of these languages came from many different chiefdoms, so it would be inaccurate to say that all of these people were Zulu. None of these categories coincide with the present-day Zulu ethnic group. Many of these ethnic categories do not even align with current Zulu today, such as the Xhosa and Swazi. Shaka’s reign caused Zunda to be known as isiZulu, the Zulu language, and the other languages went from being independent languages to just different dialects of Zulu (Elizabeth A. Eldredge, 2014).
Similar to how Europe enforced the english language, the Zulu elite promoted their Zunda dialect as a standard language, isiZulu, that all the people of the kingdom should adopt. Anyone who did not speak Isizulu was mocked and denigrated for their ways of speaking. The idea of common ancestry was both a legacy of the pre-Shakan era and the result of active social engineering by the Zulu elite (Elizabeth A. Eldredge, 2014). Lala, Mbo, Ntungwa, and Nguni were all based on the idea claiming that the progenitors of different lineages shared common ancestors, as was the case with the Qwabe and the Zulu. These are considered to be manipulated or invented during Shaka’s reign to foster unity between the Zulu elite and the people they had conquered (Elizabeth A. Eldredge, 2014). This idea that “everyone is a Zulu even if they’re not” was perpetuated in a way that pressured abandonment of past cultural identities and further hindered cultural diversity in a time of universal conquering by Shaka’s reign.
European influence was also in the mix during Shaka’s kingship. Shaka knew quite a lot about the neighboring Europeans in the Cape Colony before he met with them. Historians said that Shaka was very interested in the Europeans historians had said:
“Tshaka liked Europeans, who were first reported to him as people white in colour who had come out of the water and whose hair was like maize tassels…He called the white people abakwethu. Shaka was determined to gain as much information as possible about the Europeans at the Cape Colony in order to deter their territorial expansion and pursue his own expansionist ambitions. Shaka, from the incessant enquiries made of his interpreter, Jacob, received so much information respecting Europe and our sovereign (whom he called umGeorge) that he expressed a desire to send chiefs to visit both the Colony and England.” (Elizabeth A. Eldredge, 2014)
Shaka learned about the Europeans from direct contact with the traders from Port Natal and with Portuguese who passed through. These people shaped Shakas impression of the Europeans and they tended to purposely influence a positive influence on Shakas impression. The year prior to Shaka’s death, 1827, marked a clear turning point in history because of Shaka’s decisions that were consciously linked to his relationship with the Cape Colony. Shaka made sure white traders be given favorable treatment, gave them land, and allowed them to build a settlement at Port Natal. Shaka wanted to gain from the white traders technological developments and wanted to learn about their warfare strategies. Shaka was also not blind to the advantages that trading with them would bring him. There were no conflicts between the whites and the Zulus during Shaka’s reign. Shaka did not want the Zulu Kingdom to suffer from disagreements with the military forces of the Cape colonial government. Under the freeing power of being supported by foreign traders, Shaka became a cruel tyrant. He was no longer admired and appreciated by his kingdom. His people began to resent their king because of his frequent cruelties. When Shaka’s mother died in 1827, Shaka went mad and began executing people during the mourning ceremonies because they showed insufficient grief (Extra Credits, 2015).
The culmination of the resentment ended with Shaka being assassinated by his two half brothers Dingane and Mhlangana. Dingane then murder Mhlangana and took the throne for himself. The Zulu Empire was comprised of over a quarter million people at Shaka’s death. Dingane was not known for his mercy, and the support he first earned as an alternative to Shaka’s violence soon dwindled as he exhibited his own similar taste for violence. In the process of securing his spot on the throne, Dingane executed all of his royal blood relations in order to make sure his position was not threatened. Dingane also made sure any supporter of Shaka(past or present) was executed in order to prevent any objection to his position (Michael R. Mahoney, 2012).
The trade with European bodies helped with cultural development of the Zulu Kingdom. While political and economical impacts were being made by Shaka and eventually his brother, the trade, arts, and religion were constantly shifting. The Zulu were pastoralists.5 Wealth determined by number of cattle. The Zulu people did not keep slaves and valued women labor and reproductive ability, so many men would trade daughters for cattle (Zulu Kingdom). Cattle were not only important for wealth but also for ritual significance, for it was only through their sacrifice that the spirits of the ancestors could be propitiated. Cattle were of basic material importance too, as providers of milk, hides. The Zulu also tilled the soil for crops of indian maize and millet. The Zulu had limited agriculture knowledge, but compensated with their cattle herds. The women were in charge of tending to the crops as well as routine domestic duties. Men were in charge of caring for livestock, discussing politics, and going out to hunt or fight (Zulu Kingdom).
The Anglo-Zulu war has been extensively discussed throughout history, but the direct effects of the British invasion of 1879 on Zulu civilians is hard to determine. British burned the grain-stores and drove flocks of cattle away. Much of the Zulu empire was affected by the Anglo-Zulu war. As chiefdoms changed and the social constructs shifted, the introduction of new diseases and epizootics arose (Flint, 2008). During this period the sharing of medical ideas and materia medica was necessary and civilizations demanded new health responses. The decline of the Zulu kingdom and the rise of urbanization, migrant labor, and consumer culture resulted in the disappearance of specialized knowledge of herbs, gathering techniques, and medical practices (Flint, 2008). The Zulu people were able to progress health wise by cultivating indigenous and protein-rich millet, sorghum, jugo beans, cowpeas, dates, and nuts, as well as greens, round potatoes, pumpkins, melons, berries, and fruit. The Zulu people also benefited from the vitamin C obtained from the popular beverage utywala, a homebrewed millet and maize beer (Flint, 2008). The most important blow to the fabric of Zulu society was represented by the spectacular destruction of the amakhanda, those centers of royal authority (John Laband, 2007). John Laband can be quoted to say
“Since in his settlement of Zululand on September 1 the victorious Sir Garnet Wolseley abolished both the Zulu monarchy and the amabutho system that sustained it, the amakhanda were not rebuilt. Instead, political power devolved once more to the great chiefs and British appointees, and the young men of Zululand, rather than serving the king in their amabutho as they had since the days of Shaka, fell once more under their chiefs’ localized authority. ” (Laband, 2007)
These people struggled with the constant power shifts, but overall, The Zulu population was able to adapt to their constantly changing environments and make progress in their own way.
The cultural and geographic impact of the Zulu Kingdom cannot be denied. The ever expanding civilization caused a migration so strong that the displacement of many was unavoidable and spread like wildfire throughout Africa. The Bantu people from the Zulu kingdom can be seen throughout history and the art and culture can be seen in different locations than the Zulu Kingdom resided. The shifting of populations caused a diversity that rings throughout history. Many of the locations we learned about in African Civilizations had people descended from the Zulu Kingdom. For example Ethiopia has shown to hold Zulu populations and exhibit some of the Zulu culture like cattle for wealth and status. It can be hard to write about the cultural impacts of the Zulu Kingdom because much of their history was not written down, so a lot of what we know today is only known by word of mouth that spread throughout the continent. We can still see the presents of the Zulu Kingdom in certain dialects and art we see today in Africa. The bantu people hold a strong presence over Africa and much can be gained by exploring their impact on African culture and society.
What I learned most during this assignment was the importance that Shaka held for the entirety of the Zulu Kingdom history. Even after Shaka died the kingdom still felt the effect of his reign. His rule ended on a bad note and he of course would never be know for his grace and mercy, but his military strategies impact the society for progress and growth. His relationship with Europeans also helped protect the Zulu people to an extent. I also learned that is is very hard to learn about certain cultures when they have no written history. I found it difficult to find concrete information on the Zulu Kingdom as much ofis was spread by word of mouth. One must also approach this subject of the Zulu Kingdom with the perspective that Dr. Brookins discussed. More than likely the stories of the common people are not being told, and the history of Shaka has probably been dramatized. Overall I think I learned much about African history but not nearly as much as there is still to be learned.