THe Zulu kingship and army

Shaka kaSenzangakhona (ca. 1787–1828), king until 1828 – murdered by his half-brothers Dingaane and Mhlangana. Dingaane got rid of the evidence (Mhlangana and another dozen half-brothers).

Dingaane kaSenzangakhona (ca. 1795–1840), half-brother of Shaka, king from 1828 to 1840 . His personal claims to fame were the murder of Piet Retief and his followers, the sack of Durban and the battle of Blood River all in 1838. While Dingaane removed twelve of his half-brothers when he took the throne, he left four alive. The most capable of these was Mpande. In 1839 he led an inroad into Zululand, defeated Dingane and chased his followers to the north, where Dingaane was murdered by locals. The Boers proclaimed Mpande to be king of the Zulus, and matters proceeded from there.

Mpande kaSenzangakhona (1798–1872), half-brother of Shaka and Dingaane, king from 1840 to 1872 broke with tradition as he wasn't murdered (which, for Zulu kings was a novelty). While he wasn't as militaristic as his predecessors, his amabutho carried on as normal (expanding the empire). Mpande died in 1872, apparently of natural causes (which set a precedent). He was followed on the throne by Cetshwayo.

Cetshwayo kaMpande (1834 -1884), son of Mpande, king from 1872 to 1879, presided over the British invasion of Zululand (technically). He had ended the Zulu expansion and made treaties with both Boer and British. Guess who didn't keep them....

The Zulu army

The Zulu army was reorganised by Shaka after he seized power in 1816. Before he came to be King, tribal conflicts were, for the most part ritualised with few casualties caused by the light throwing spears used. Shaka introduced the short, heavy-bladed thrusting spear known as the assegai, he also introduced the basic tactic used by all Zulu armies – the horns of the buffalo (izimpondo zankomo). In this, an enemy would be pinned by a frontal attack, then flanked and encircled.

The army was known as an Impi, made up of several amabutho which were age-grade regiments. Zulu boys from the age of fourteen lived in an amakhanda (military kraal) where they herded cattle, tended crops and received mandatory military training. This lasted for two or three years, after which they were formed into their amabutho, where they spent a further eight months before dispersing to their home areas, where for three months of the year they served as both police and enforcers. In essence, they were “a strong, well-regulated militia”. A standing army they were not.

Shaka also introduced women into the amabutho, principally to gain some control over marriage. He needed this as once married, a Zulu's allegiance was transferred to his family or his local chief. This meant that he was no longer in the army. The whole regiment was effectively given reservist status (in modern parlance). Shaka made it almost traditional that no man could marry before he received the isicoco (head ring).What the women in the various amabutho wanted doesn't seem to have mattered in his thinking (no change there then). This was rarely granted before the warrior was 35, so effectively an individual Zulu spent at least 20 years in the army.