The Zulu- South Africa's People of Heaven

The Zulu, or "people of heaven" have long considered their KwaZulu domiciles as a heaven on earth. They settled here only in the 16th century, on lands originally inhabited by the San Bushmen. Their ancestors, the Nguni, had been pushing southwards from the central Africa's Great Lakes region for at least three thousand years.

The San hunter-gatherer society was very sparing in its demands on the land. The arrival of the Nguni, a people with numerous cattle herds and great thirst for land, put the Bushman under great stress and severe disadvantage. The San however had great influence over the Nguni, whose traditions and customs possess sturdy strains of the San culture, including the distinctive click consonants of the spoken tongues.

As the Nguni increased in numbers they split into three main groups, which are today classified as the northern Nguni -Zulu, the southern Nguni -Xhosa, and the Swati. The Zulu derive directly from a clan head of the Nguni named Zulu or "Heaven", who established a territory bearing his own name or KwaZulu in the Umfolozi valley.

The Zulu were a fairly insignificant power, even among the Nguni, until the arrival of Shaka Zulu. Shaka, born around 1787, was first-born son to Chief Senzangakona, but was considered illegitimate as he was born before his mother was properly married. Shaka's name derived from the subterfuge that his mother Nandi initially used to explain the swelling of her belly in the first months of her pregnancy. She explained that she was infested with 'shaka' -an intestinal beetle.

Though Zulu custom required that the eldest son succeed the father in office, and Shaka was indeed Senzangakona's eldest son, he was not accepted as his father's heir. Mother and child were ostracised, and eventually exiled to Chief Dingiswayo's territory of Mthethwa. Here Shaka was incorporated into warrior-hood. He proved to be an outstanding student and graduated into a fearless warrior. Around 1812, on the death of his father, Shaka accepted Dingiswayo's aid and, by arms, reclaimed his place as heir to the Zulu throne.

Thus did Shaka rise to be chief of his people by 1816. He was a man gifted with great daring, cunning and imagination. He repulsed numerous attacks by the Ndwandwe- a rival and more militarily superior Nguni people, and eventually forced the enemy to flee northwards. Shaka appreciated that the Ndwandwe would rise again unless he created conditions to make it impossible.

Above all else a military leader, he devised such weaponry, battle tactics and training methods that resulted in an unbeatable army among known enemies of the day. Among the drastic changes he implemented in his army, included the abolition of male circumcision. He also replaced the long assegei spear with the short iklwa that was better suited for close combat.

He created a standing army, derived from young Zulu's males under the age of 40, who were not allowed to marry while in service. By numerous treacherous devices -war, assassination, deceit and intimidation - he subdued smaller and larger clans, and gathered all to his realm. Within three years to 1819, the Zulu nation emerged as the largest and most feared in the whole of southeastern Africa. And Shaka, now King Shaka, was sitting pretty as its head.

During Shaka's rule, Zulu lands expanded in area more than one hundred fold, to reach about 11,500 sq miles. His success however caused unprecedented mayhem in the region, and aroused bitter jealousy amongst rivals and compatriots. He also ruled with an iron fist and was such a tyrant as had never risen before in this part of the world.

Shaka was done to death by Dingane -his half brother, in 1824. The Zulu kingdom survived him, but his legacy was to be severely tested, later in the century in conflicts with new rivals - the British and Boers.
Dingane's reign was maintained by the flow of blood, as he sought to put away other royals and those who had done well under Shaka. His end came in 1838 after a confrontation with Voortrekkers that resulted in defeat at the Battle of Blood River. Dingane had agreed to cede to the Boers the lands south of the Tugela River to the Mzimvubu River, but thereafter relented and had 100 of them killed.

Dingane's successor was his half-brother Mpande, who had been in alliance with the Voortrekkers at the Battle of Blood River. The Boers settled in the lands they had negotiated with Dingane, but were evicted in 1842 after war with the British. The British had all along been uncomfortable with the Boers proximity to the British settlement of Port Natal (now Durban). Mpande maintained good relations with the victors.

Cetshwayo succeeded Mpande after a short succession struggle. The British were very keen to cut down the Zulu nation to size, and they goaded Cetshwayo to war. The Battle of Isandlwana in January 1879 saw the Zulu emerge victorious. But at the Battle of Ulundi, fought a few months later, the mighty Zulu nation was defeated. This was the first time since Shaka that the Zulu had drunk from the bitter cup of defeat. The indigestion it caused marked the beginning of the end of Zulu grandeur.

Chief Bombatha led their last organised uprising against European domination in 1906. The rest of the 20th century, particularly under Apartheid, was a largely an unhappy period. But the Zulu kingdom maintained autonomy, except for a short period between 1933 and 1948. They today remain a kingdom under the South African government, with King Goodwill Zwelethini kaBhekuzulu as the current monarch.

The Zulu have vibrant traditions, and their everyday lives gracefully inter-twin old and modern- in beliefs, arts, music, rites and rituals. The traditional religion is grounded on Nkulunkulu, the creator of all things. But Nkulunkulu is a grand deity, who does not stoop to be involved in mortals' daily lives. For mundane day-to-day troubles, believers consult with the spirits of the dead that watch over the living. To interact with the spirits, divinations are performed through a diviner, seer or witchdoctor- Sangoma, who in most cases is a woman.

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