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Some
historians offer that Shaka (1787 - 1828) was as child of prophecy,
destined to conquer and then to lead the previously unknown Zulus
to unite the tribes of South Africa, through bloody spears and shields,
into a strong economic co-existence... a military nation, all under
a single, brilliant ruler... the warrior King... Shaka.
Shaka Zulu's journey from his mother's (Nandi)
unwed pregnancy, by young Zulu Chief Senzangakhona... the young
chief trying to avoid political conflict, denying responsibility
by stating "perhaps she is simply bearing iShaka (an intestinal
beetle)... to Nandi and unborn Shaka's virtual banishment... to
Shaka becoming a young man, fighting as another tribe's common soldier,
his innovative leadership eventually enabling him to quickly surpass
his military trainers, teaching them new strategies and devising
new weapons...
Becoming the master, he led his new army to return
and conquer both his birth land and his father, where Shaka fulfilled
his compelling destiny to create and lead new, dominant armies to
conquer rival tribes and fold them into his newly supreme, Zulu
empire.
"The Ultimate African-warrior King",
his matchless armies swept through South Africa, like the Roman
Legions of antiquity moved through Europe and Asia, repeatedly achieving
countless victories, uniting a fractured South Africa to grow in
strength and newfound prosperity.
Anticlimactically, however, and like Julius Caesar,
Shaka eventually suffered betrayal and assassination by those within
in his small, trusted inner circle... Dingane and Mhlangana, his
half-brothers.
Shaka's famous broad-blade stabbing-spear, the
"iKlwa", as legendary as King Arthur's Excalibur, is romanticized
to have either been magically forged for or to have been conceived
by Shaka.
Whether the sword type was already available
prior to Shaka is not important, relative to history's reverent
memory of the great King Shaka's renowned rise to power. His dominant
leadership and conquering fame rivals that of Alexander the Great,
the Caesars, Napoleon, and Genghis Khan.
At Shaka's apex, the European colonization of
Africa encountered King Shaka's armies of nearly 85,000 Zulu Warriors,
repeatedly suffering tremendous losses. Nonetheless, the imperialist
colonists' desire to exploit the continent's abundant resources
was too powerful to withstand. The Zulu empire, just as history's
other great empires, declined to it demise and Shaka's assassination.
The Zulu empire had finally suffered a deathblow,
and the European invaders eventually ensured the people's instability
and inability to fight back, when using vastly superior firepower,
they later defeated and exiled Zulu King Cetshwayo and divided the
vast Zulu empire amongst 13 pro-European-colonists chiefs. Their
plan has since endured, casting the nation into nearly two centuries
of constant turmoil, apartheid and persistent civil wars.
Reputed by some to be heroic, and by others to
be cruel and ruthless in his bloody carnage and empire building,
Shaka's history will always be tainted by the fact that those events
were mostly recorded by the literate Europeans who had invaded the
continent, ultimately intent on its abundant riches, minerals, gold,
silver, gems, and generous diamond mines. The colonists left written
accounts intended to both document and serve their own interests.
Nonetheless, history's fascination with Shaka's
omnipresent character, both regal and ruthless, reverberates through
his descendants and the spirit of his Zulu people.
The greatest African leader in history, Shaka's
strength of convictions, doctrine of discipline, powerful life force,
and belief in a united South Africa has been imprinted on the annals
of time and the legend of what was one of the world's most dominant
empires.
One of history's greatest leaders, uniters of
people, and most important warrior Kings, he is... Shaka Zulu.
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| Picture
taken from the Zulu! Website, at http://www.kwazulu.co.uk |
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| Shaka,
as a young warrior. (from the Cape Town Archives, colour ©KGH) |
| Picture
taken from "The Zulu Kingdom" page at http://www.suedafrika.net |
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| Picture
taken from the Zulu! Website, at http://www.kwazulu.co.uk |
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