The Zulu Kingdom Essay Example

style="text-align: justify">He increased control over the defeated chiefs when they accepted his dominion or when he considered them loyal favorites. Dingiswayo’s exercise of force was said to be relatively mild beyond the actual conquest, and the chiefdoms submitting to his power and offering tribute were largely left intact. (Deflem) Shaka Shaka was born in 1787 whose father was chief of a small Zulu clan about 10,000 people. His mother, Nandi who was not at all politically significant was subsequently forced to leave the clan thus Shaka was raised and brought up among his mother’s people and outsiders.

Shaka and his mother were constantly treated badly and historians attribute such treatment to be responsible for Shaka’s ferocity later on. He finally end up with the Mthethwa where he proved himself a skilled warrior in Dingiswayo’s army. He entered Dingiswayo’s army in 1809. Being used to fighting mean and bigger boys while growing up, he easily adapted to the army where he caught Dingiswayo’s attention. He became the leader and commander of Dingiswayo’s regiment and eventually became the chief’s protege.

Shaka’s clan was part of Dingiswayo’s Mthethewa confederacy and being a protege of Dingiswayo, he eventually gained the throne upon his father’s death to whom Dingiswayo intervened in the succession despite the fact that Shaka had little claim to the chieftaincy. Upon assuming the chieftaincy Shaka instituted innovations early on. He ran long distances without footwear in order to harden himself physically. He began to drill his men the same way sometimes with less or no food or water at all. Shaka’s reputation as being a hard and bloodthirsty leader became more widespread.

He

would force his men to run along thorny bushes and those who showed fear and hesitation were killed for being a coward. In 1818, two years after Shaka became chief of his father’s clan, his mentor Dingiswayo was captured and killed by Zwide who also launched a series of attacks on the Mthethwa confederacy. The confederacy which Dingiswayo held began disintegrating and Shaka who stepped in with his small but very dangerous arm against Zwide’s large one. At the start, Shaka avoided head on confrontations with the Ndwandwe armies but would chase and harried after retreating enemy forces.

Eventually he gathered the Mthethwa into his small army and integrated them into the Zulu clan and defeated the Ndwandwe as well. Period of Despotism Because of the success of his conquest, Shaka soon thereafter engaged in extensive programmes of incorporating the people from Zululand and Natal. His methods were considered effective although very brutal. Some of the leaders of the conquered kingdoms were retained while those who resisted were killed as Shaka did not take prisoners. Old people were killed while the young ones were placed in the regimental system.

Under his rule, the Zulu kingdom or society was considered violent. Political, social and economic aspects were arranged to support the militarisation of society. It was often compared to ancient Sparta, but, in fact, the proportion of the male population involved full-time as warriors was substantially higher than in Sparta. (Mills). Compared to Sparta to which the military was mainly limited to the elite, the Zulu kingdom was comprised by the military with all the able-bodied young men.

Terror went hand in hand

with violence during the reign of Shaka who ordered executions to those who angered him. Thus when his mother died, Shaka who was torn with grief ordered that all sexual activities be banned and those who did not display grief were killed. When Shaka changed the internal political structure of the kingdom he mandated that his warriors remain unmarried and ordered that the organization of the age-grade regiments a matter of his personal decision, thus further weakening traditional kinship ties and the powers of the elders in favor of his central authority.

However, Shaka’s authoritarian rule relied mainly in the delegation of chiefly powers. He was assisted staff of chiefs who surrounded him in the royal kraal (a territorial dwelling unit with the house of the King located at the center). While Shaka needed the chiefs to execute his will, he was careful to limit their effective powers and stir rivalry among them so they would check one another but never dispute his will. (Deflam) In economic terms, Shaka insisted that all trade remain a royal monopoly.

Trade was never a huge element, but there was certainly some limited trade with Mozambique and later with a small group of Englishmen who established a small trading post on the coast at present day Durban in the early 1820s (a lot of our information about Shaka and the Zulu kingdom comes from these traders whom Shaka permitted to stay there). (Mills) Because of the delicate balance of Shaka’s authoritarian rule and the reliance of the kingdom on the various chiefs while being assaulted by terror ceased to be maintained.

This disintegration manifested when Shaka’s

mother died. Such regime of destruction and viciousness finally affected the people’s loyalty for Shaka. In 1828, three conspirators, two of which were brothers of Shaka, stabbed him to death. Dingane, one of the assassins and a brother of Shaka, then murdered his fellow conspirators and became the new King of the Zulu. Despite his despotism, Shaka was responsible in successfully building a large kingdom within a period of 10 years.

Moreover, the Zulu kingdom maintained its own identity even if it faced a lot of disasters although some areas were vastly devastated and destroyed culminating in a period of turmoil. The Fall of the Zulu Kingdom As the era of Shaka’s militaristic and authoritarian rule ended, the kingdom’s effects all through out southern and central Africa were felt. At the end of the process, not only the northern Nguni been incorporated in the kingdom or had been driven out. Those refugees and chieftains displaced by the conquests of Shaka organized and became powerful units once again.

Shaka’s successor, Dingane tried to restore political order and peace throughout the kingdom and promised to bring forth happiness once again, he failed in such endeavour. Like his predecessor, terror and violence were once again used to restore political order and strengthen the weakening system of the kingdom. The tribes that have been unified under the authoritarian rule of Shaka became conscious of the disintegration of the Zulu kingdom and tried to remove themselves under Dingane’s rule. Dingane in response to the situation used Shaka’s method again.

During Shaka’s regime, the British and Boer settlers in the area had not interfered with Zulu rule, largely

because they could not stand up to the military might of Shaka’s army. But as the European presence grew stronger and the economic advantages of trade with the Zulu decreased, the autonomy of Zulu political developments were affected. Dingane’s brother Mpande joined the Europeans, and, united in military force, they rebelled against the Zulu king. Dingane retreated into Swaziland, but in 1840 he was killed by conspirators led by Mpande, who took over the Zulu throne. (Delfem)