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of the ferocious young Zulu nation.
The years 1830–34 saw the Great
Trek North by the Dutch Boers in
search of land to escape from British
rule, the Orange Free State being
established in the 1850s.
Competition for land made it
difficult for Africans to move around
and practice their traditional way of
life, and required excess population
to split off, find unclaimed land, and
settle and start anew. Overstocking,
excessive cropping, and drought
made life impossible, and the social,
economic and political order was
unable to cope with the new
challenges. The Mfecane, meaning
“the crushing” or “scattering,”
describes a period of widespread
chaos and disturbance in southern
Africa which, in around 1815–40,
saw political changes, migrations,
and wars that led not only to the
emergence of the Swazi and Zulu
nations, but eventually also to the
founding of present-day Lesotho,
Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Transvaal,
and Tanzania.
The Zulus
In 1818–28, the warrior leader, Shaka
Zulu, unified his people and turned
them into a powerful fighting force,
moving against other Africans and
Europeans in South Africa. Shaka’s
organization was something
previously unknown in Africa, being
a powerful, centralized militaristic
kingdom. The army had around
40,000 men, organized by age and
segregated from society, with
women and old men doing the work
of the villages. Shaka’s army was
successful because it trained hard
and was disciplined in the use of
short, stabbing spears as well as
long assegais.
After his mother’s death in 1827,
Shaka’s behavior grew more erratic,
his cruelty extending even to his
own people. During this mourning
period for his mother, Shaka ordered
that no crops be planted during the
following year, no milk (the basis of
the Zulu diet at the time) was to be
drunk, and that any woman falling
pregnant would be killed along with
her husband.
Despite the death of Shaka in
1828, assassinated by two of his half-
brothers, Zulu power continued to
expand. The Anglo-Zulu War was
hard-fought on January 22, 1879,
and the Zulus actually defeated the
British at Isandhlwana; the British,
however, triumphed at Rorke’s Drift
later on the same day.
A Concise History of Africa
The Zulu
The Zulu is a Bantu ethnic
group of southern Africa.
Its language is Zulu.
Text-Dependent Questions
1. Who where the Boers and what country did they originally
come from?
2. Who established the Orange Free State?
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