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History of KwaZulu (Kingdom of the Zulus) ZULULAND
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North of Durban lies Zululand. Zululand is a place of hills, valleys and battlefields.– The climate is hot and humid on the coastal belts, but where the land is raised on the shoulders of the hills, the sea breezes sweep in, cooling the air and carrying misty rains which keep the vegetation green, luxuriant and fill the many rivers.
These conditions are ideal for wildlife. The African continent is home to the world's greatest variety and concentration of game, and no part offers more favorable conditions than Zululand. |
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The people who occupy Zululand today arrived mostly at the beginning of the 17th century. They called themselves Nguni. The cultural life of these people was primitive but rich. They believed in a rather vague 'NkulunKulu' (the great one), or omnipotent god, but had no fixed religious rituals. Of more significance to them was the super natural world which they believed to be densely populated by ghosts. Every pool, waterfall, prominent peak or rock was associated with a supernatural creature.
Out of a fragmented Nguni tribe migrated a young son who left his home to find a place in the sun for himself. His name was Zulu, which in the language of his people meant 'heaven'. Life was lazy and quiet– a lull before the storm of change which was to make the peaceful little clan of the Zulu's the most feared nation of warriors in Africa.
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The Chief who made the Zulu's Supreme |
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At the beginning of each winter the all-conquering Zulu regiments would gather in the ancestral lands to pledge themselves to new conquests with the salute:
'Ngathi, impi -because of us, war'. |
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The man who ruled over the Zulu's at this time of their greatest glories who had, lead their growth from a small tribal clan into a dominant power on the coast on the South East Africa, was called Shaka. He was the result of a chance meeting between the youthful chief of a Zulu clan, Senzangakhona and a pretty young girl called Nandi from the neighboring Langeni clan. Three months after their alliance, word reached Senzangakhona that the girl was pregnant. The young chief tried to talk his way out of the situation: "perhaps she is simply harboring iShaka" (an intestinal beetle).
Six months later the 'beetle' arrived in the shape of a lusty son who was promptly name Shaka. The boy was taunted for his illegitimacy, but soon proved himself a courageous warrior. When still young he invented a Short broad bladed spear, the "assegai" which proved to be a devastating weapon.
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Shaka became chief of the Zulu's in 1816 when he was just 30. Over the next few years he systematically attacked every independent tribal group in the vicinity, either driving them away or absorbing them into the Zulu nation. |
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In 1823 Shaka was triumphant. His army was supreme and his followers delirious. In the hot summers his people tilled the fields and armorers made spears and shields. Each winter was a time for war, and raids were launched wherever a tribe could be found in possession of cattle or other forms of wealth. In 1827, Shaka's mother, Nandi died. Henry Fyn and several British ivory hunters were with Shaka them, hunting elephants in the Mhlatuze valley. They left a description of the incredible sequence of events when Shaka heard of his mother's death. In an explosion of grief, about 7000 tribal people were massacred. On 22 September 1828, two of his half brothers Mhlangana and Dingaan strode into the kraal where Shaka was sitting and stabbed him to death. The next day the corpse was bundled into a black ox-hide and buried together with a few belongings, into an empty corn pit. |
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Big White Chief |
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One of the most extraordinary characters in the history of South Africa was a man by the name of John Dunn - the man who became the greatest white chief of the Zulu's. Dunn was born in Port Alfred in 1833, the son of a Scottish immigrant to South Africa.. His father was trampled to death by an elephant and his mother died a few years later. Young John earned a living working for transport riders and hunters. After the Zulu War in 1879, the British authorities appointed John Dunn as the chief of a large area of Zululand north of the Tugela. |
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During his expeditions into Zululand he befriended the Zulu king Cethswayo, who invited him to become his advisor.
After being appointed chief, he built himself a residence at Emoyeni near the Indian Ocean, some 30 miles north of the Tugela river. He adopted the Zulu custom of 'lobolo' (paying money to the father of the bride), married forty-nine wives and had one hundred and seventeen recorded children. Dunn was not well disposed towards missionaries. They criticized him for deviating from a European lifestyle, especially by marrying a great number of African women. Dunn, on the other hand, thought that Christianity would undermine the social system of the Zulus in which he, being himself a chief, had a vested interest.
Over the years, Dunn became a real power in Zululand. He even employed a European tutor to educate his 117 children. He ended up with so many dependants, that after his death in 1895 the government commission allocated to them a 4000 hectare territory between the Tugela and the Mhlatuze.
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