AN ARTICLE ON THE

NDEBELE STATE
CONTENTS
 THE STORY OF TSHAKA ZULU

THE STORY OF MZILIKAZI KHUMALO

THE STORY OF LOBENGULA

THE END OF THE STATE

Tshaka Or Shaka
This article is written like a personal reflection or opinion essay .

Shaka Zulu

1824 European artist's impression of Shaka with a long

throwing assegai and heavy shield. No drawings from life
 are known.[1]

Reign 1816 – 1828

c. 1787
Born
KwaZulu-Natal, near Melmoth

22 September 1828 (aged 40 or 41)

Died
KwaDukuza, KwaZulu-Natal

Issue None known or recognized

Father Senzangakhona kaJama

Mother Nandi

Sigidi kaSenzangakhona Zulu (c. 1787 – 22 September 1828), also known as Shaka[a] Zulu
(Zulu pronunciation: [ˈʃaːɠa]), was one of the most influential monarchs of the Zulu Kingdom.

He was born in the month of uNtulikazi (July) in the year of 1787 near present-day Melmoth,
KwaZulu-Natal Province.

Tshaka Zulu was one of the greatest warriors in the world. His battle techniques
revolutionized the way wars were fought in Africa. Tshaka introduced new battle
techniques and weapons. His army consisted of different regiments or impis. Each regiment
consisted of boys of a certain age. Each had its own shield, war cries and uniform. Tshaka 
devised innovative tactics and weapons to establish nineteenth-century Zulu dominance of
Africa and increase his control over a population that began at 1,500 and grew to more than
250,000. Known to friend and foe alike as cruel, bloodthirsty, and deranged, Tshaka still
managed to develop a military system that reined supreme for more than fifty years after
his death.
Tshaka (also known as Chaka, Shaka)  was born an unwanted son of a minor chieftain. At
the age of six, Shaka and his mother were dismissed from his father's tribe. They left to live
under the great King Dingiswayo, who later influenced Shaka's development and way of
thinking. Although Shaka was just an ordinary herd boy,  his acts of bravery were the type
of deeds legends were made of. For example, when he was 13, he attacked and killed a
black Mamba snake that had killed a prize bull he was guarding. And, at the age of 19, he
killed a leopard by piercing its heart with a spear and crushing its skull with a club. Shaka's
illegitimate birth in about 1787 to a Zulu chief, Senzangakhona, and a woman of a lower-
class clan (Nandi) led to his harsh treatment as an outcast, perhaps the root of his own
future ruthlessness. The name Shaka itself translates as "intestinal parasite," or more
simply as "bastard."
After the death of King Dingiswayo in 1818, Shaka became Chief of Chiefs and proved to
be one of the greatest yet most misunderstood kings in all of African history. On becoming
King Shaka called his capital Bulawayo. Shaka is renowned for his military genius,
discipline and attempt to unify the warring tribes of the Zulu Nation. With the force of
arms and diplomacy, he unified his people so effectively that he was able to resist the
invasion of white people from Europe and maintain peace among Black People in the south
part of Africa. Shaka built a Zulu Nation that expanded over a hundred thousand square
miles of land and created a military machine capable of inflicting heavy casualties on
British troops and calvarymen armed with rifles, cannons, rockets and other advanced
weapons.

Ultimately, Shaka's end came from internal rather than external enemies. Shaka's erratic
behavior worsened with the death of his mother in 1827. The often cruel treatment of his
own subjects, including execution for "smelling like a witch" and arbitrary mass executions
of entire villages, created terror within his civilian subjects. His army also grew unhappy
with the constant operations, which ranged farther and farther from home as Shaka sought
new tribes and lands to conquer. Shaka's enforcement of chastity in his warriors also
lowered their morale.
The training regime was very strict. Shaka tolerated no weakness in his men. He drilled
them vigorously, and forced them not to wear sandals. Even though this allowed the men to
run faster it meant that they often got thorns stuck in their feet. To toughen their feet Shaka
made them run on beds of thorns and any man that cried out in pain was killed.
By the time of his mother's death, Shaka no longer took the field at the head of his army,
further eroding the confidence of his people. On September 23, 1828, Shaka's half brothers
Dingane and Mhlangana assassinated him. His killers buried him in an unmarked grave
somewhere near today's Natal village of Stanger.