THE ZULU NATION: By SimoTheFinlandized / Paul Palazzolo - 2021 CE

====================================== THE ZULU NATION: By SimoTheFinlandized / Paul Palazzolo - 2021 CE ====================================== The Zulu Nation arose to prominence from the peoples of southern Africa, having achieved dominance through their force of military weapons-&-armor, and enforced a hegemony which fundamentally changed the history of the continent of Africa. In the end, although defeated by a more technologically-advanced colonial power, they landed heavy telling blows on one of the world’s most formidable military forces. ====================================== In the late 18th century, the Zulu Nation was a very minor tribal chiefdom composed of several semi-nomadic Nguni clans based within the south-west of Africa, living off of grazing herds of cattle and growing crops. Zulu women farmed and managed the families. Men fought, hunted, and cared for the cattle. Cattle are an integral part of Zulu culture, a denomination of wealth and status, a key part of ritual, and more practically their primary source of food. Each clan-based kinship group bound itself to others through a network of social obligations, family ties, and allegiances. This sociologically and culturally sophisticated web-of-contacts accelerated the aggregation of the Zulu Nation from a mere disparate collection of insignificant clans into a much more organized state, led by up-&-rising chiefs whose power was growing by the start of the 19th century. ====================================== Enter Shaka Zulu, the most powerful and fearsome of the Zulu kingship, and the transformation of the ibutho system of recruitment and the impi into a formidable, standardized army was well underway. Shaka Zulu came to power with fewer than 2,000 Zulu people under his command, controlling an area smaller than that of modern Monaco. Eleven years later, however, the impi had well over 50,000 warriors, and the Zulu Kingdom had conquered and subsumed all their regional rivals. Warfare, too, changed from small-scale raiding and minor-league conquest to devastating scorched-earth tactics. But the Zulu were the unrivaled masters of southern Africa, and at the time of his assassination, Shaka Zulu had conquered well on the scale of Alexander The Great. This conquest, however, had profound ripple effects throughout Sub- Saharan Africa. Shaka’s conquests touched off a wave of refugee migrations and ancillary wars that transformed central and eastern Africa. This event, known as the "Mfecane", is still studied and debated today, as it was a catalyzing moment in African history, and would eventually result in the creation of new African nations that would later resist colonialism. ====================================== Shaka Zulu's half-brother Dingane became King Of The Zulu after assassinating Shaka, in response to Shaka’s increasing brutality as ruler, and it was during King Dingane's reign that the Zulu Kingdom began to come into increasing conflict with European colonists in South Africa, namely the bush-pioneering European-descended agricultural-&-pastoral and technically-advanced Dutch-speaking Boer Republics who were beginning to quickly spread into and occupy territory that was largely vacated in the midst of the Mfecane. King Mpande, by far the longest-reigning Zulu King, began his reign by overthrowing the former King Dingane. King Mpande stayed on better terms with the Boers (some of whom had actually helped and supported with his rebellion), but rising tensions due to colonial expansion and the cutthroat politics of reigning over the subjected nations (and his own crown succession as well) left his reign with a somewhat mixed historical assessment. King Mpande was succeeded by his eldest son King Cetshwayo in 1872, his exact date of death concealed to cement Cetshwayo’s ascent to the throne. King Cetshwayo, a grandiose admirer of his great-uncle Shaka Zulu, set about rebuilding the impi and expanding its formidable military ranks. Now, matters with the European colonial powers came to a full head-on hot-zone. Claims to land ownership by the British and Boers (made more pressing with the discovery of gold and diamonds in the region) were hotly contested by the Zulu Kingdom, who remained the most powerful African nation in the region. The British pressed ahead with a plan to confederate South Africa, and in doing so made a series of provoking demands against King Cetshwayo. The proverbial final straw was that King Cetshwayo disband his army. Cetshwayo refused; the British declared war in 1879. ====================================== The British Army was a modern, sophisticated, industrial-era military force, with professional officers and NCOs, Gatling guns, repeating rifles, a highly-developed sense of cultural superiority, and the latest (extremely racist) cultural theories of the age, so it was a considerable shock when it lost the Battle of Islandlwana to Cetshwayo’s traditional yet highly-effective impis, suffering greater than 70% casualties in the process. The Zulu out- maneuvered, out-fought, and thrashed one of the best armies in the world in a straight-up fight in the field, and then repeated the process twice more at Intombe and Hlobane. This unforgivable blow to British pride resulted in much public pearl-clutching at home, many self-justifying memoirs, and a full-throated jingoistic response. Victories had proved costly to the Zulu armies, and the British continued to supply reinforcements and refine tactics until finally, the British directly invaded Zululand, besieged the capital at Ulundi, and captured King Cetshwayo. He was taken to London and paraded about as a captive until the public sentiment judged the whole affair unseemly gloating (Cetshwayo’s manner during this time was judged to be quite stoic, and his personal dignity befitting a monarch). King Cetshwayo was returned to Zululand where he ruled on as one of thirteen vassal chieftains in Zululand for the British. ====================================== Their heartland divided, the Zulu would be subject to almost a century of harsh colonial rule and apartheid in South Africa. A diaspora due to endemic cattle-disease and lack of economic opportunities led to many Zulu people working in the mines and cities of South Africa, sometimes organizing their own labor unions. The large landholding of KwaZulu was originally set up as a "bantustan" or territory set aside for specific ethnic groups within South Africa. In the 1970s, a Territorial Authority for the landholding of KwaZulu was established, giving it some additional political and economic autonomy. In 1994, the South- African province of KwaZulu-Natal was formally established with additional regional autonomy, and encompassing some of the lands of the old Zulu Kingdom. Two areas in KwaZulu-Natal are UNESCO World Heritage Sites today: uKhahlamba-Draksenberg Park, and iSimangaliso Wetland Park. Both sites have considerable natural beauty, ecological value, and cultural importance. The Zulu people still retain pride in their military and cultural heritage, practicing both traditional dances and newer forms, like the gumboot dance. The modern-day Zulu king now serves as a ceremonial head-of-state, a guardian of traditional Zulu culture, and as a living link to the Zulu diaspora and the world. ======================================