WARRIORS

 Hello ladies and gents this is the Viking telling you that today we are talking about 

Amazing Facts About the Zulu Warriors

Although the word “Zulu” means “Heaven,” for generations Zulu warriors gave their enemies hell. From a small tribe as late as the 1816, they were organized and invigorated by the legendary Shaka Zulu to become the dominant kingdom in South Africa. Even when the British armies arrived with their advanced weapons, the Zulu soldiers were still able to give them a run for their money and sometimes defeat them in spectacular fashion.

What were the secrets of their military success? What did a Zulu warrior carry into battle? What was their training like? Let’s get to know these warriors from a bygone era better. You’ll likely find some surprises waiting for you below.

 Shaka Zulu Redefined War

When Chief Senzangonka died in 1816, the Zulu were another unremarkable Nguni-Bantu tribe among hundreds and local wars tended to be relatively harmless affairs. The warriors of the Zulu tribes and their rivals would line up and be as likely to only throw insults at each other as spears. Considering that the tribe was estimated to have numbered only about 1,500 members, they could hardly be expected to field armies that could leave vast battlefields covered in the corpses of their enemies in their wake.

That changed when Senzangonka’s mantle was taken on by distinguished soldier Shaka Zulu. He began disciplining, organizing, and most importantly rearming his soldiers. Under Shaka, the Zulu began relying on shorter spears called assegai. Unfit for throwing, these spears required them to get up close with their enemies, and immediately the nature of combat became more personal and committed for the Zulu while becoming vastly more terrifying for their enemies. Within 12 years, the Zulu went from another modest tribe to a kingdom which fielded armies of more than 35,000. The Zulu Kingdom would only last a little over half a century before being destroyed by the British Empire, but its stamp on history would last.    

The Great King Went Mad

While Shaka Zulu’s ambitions and statesmanship inarguably were momentous for the Zulu, they ended on a nearly tragic note. In 1827, Shaka’s mother died, and the grief of this drove the king insane. By the time of his assassination on September 22, 1828, he had banned the planting of new crops and the drinking of milk. Being pregnant was punishable by death, as was being the spouse of the offender with child.  

There are historians that have cast doubt on the truth of these claims of Shaka Zulu’s homicidal despotism. Beyond European prejudices at the time, Shaka Zulu’s successor and half brother King Dingane had been one of the three people directly involved in assassinating the king and throwing his body in an empty grain pit. Dingane reigned for 12 years, and that was plenty of time to spread propaganda about the man he’d murdered to give his dominion the appearance of greater legitimacy as he spent much of his time killing Shaka’s loyalists. However justified Shaka Zulu’s murder was, he was still sufficiently loved by his people for a memorial to him to be constructed on what was believed to be the site of his death.

No Permanent Soldiers

The Zulu Kingdom did not have a specially designated, full-time warrior class. Every able-bodied man from age 18 to 40 was eligible to be called up to serve. They would be put into regiments called amabutho and given matching uniforms. The older soldiers were given seniority of rank. They fought the kingdom’s enemies, policed the communities, and at times were pressed into manual labor on domestic projects. While on duty they would be housed in barracks called the amakhanda.

Beyond the existence of the barracks, there was by no means enough of a supply reserve or infrastructure for the army to be assembled for prolonged periods of time. After whatever campaign they had been assembled for was judged to be complete, they were disbanded to return home to their farming, goat-herding, etc. This left the king with a timetable that was usually limited to only two to three weeks for full mobilization, one of the disadvantages which would spell the kingdom’s doom in the Anglo-Zulu War.  

Horns of the Buffalo

The tactic Shaka Zulu’s troops became famous for as they conquered their neighbors was known as the “Horns of the Buffalo” or “Horns of the Beast.” In effect, the main body of troops would attack the enemy head-on while the fleet-footed soldiers would serve as the horns by running around both ends of the enemy line and attacking from the rear. It’s a strategy also known as a “double envelopment.” If pulled off properly, it could lead to the practical extermination of an enemy army.

The most famous example of the Zulu goring an enemy on the horns of the buffalo was the Battle of Isandlwana during the 1879 Anglo-Zulu War. Of 1,200 Colonial troops that were fully equipped with state of the art weapons, including artillery pieces and rockets, only about 60 survived the attack by King Cetshwayo’s army. It was a defeat that caught Europe completely by surprise, as up to then the Zulu armies were dismissed as only mobs of rabble that no modern army had to worry about.  

Quick Gun Adopters

The initial mental picture most people will have of a Zulu soldier is someone equipped only with a spear, a club, and a leather shield. In the 1964 film classic Zulu, a few Zulu warriors shoot at the British soldiers for a short scene during the 1879 Battle of Rorke’s Drift. The character Commander Adendorff speculates that the Zulu had gathered them from fallen colonial troops at the Battle of Isandlwana, which had happened earlier that day. In fact the Zulus already had a stockpile of tens of thousands of guns from the Anglo-Zulu War’s outset that they’d been building up for years.

Zulu leaders realized shortly after the 1838 Battle of Blood River that they needed to get their hands on firearms. Ngidi ka Mcikaziswa, the Zulu commander for that battle, bitterly admitted that musket volleys were capable of making his warriors who’d always died facing the enemy turn tail. The Zulu Kingdom primarily turned to diamond mining and ivory harvesting to pay for all the imported guns, and unfortunately for them they tended to be stuck with outdated flintlock muskets, surplus from the Napoleonic Wars. 

They were only accurate at all for distances of about 50 yards, which was scarcely farther than a spear could be thrown. Ammunition was limited too, meaning that the Zulu weren’t able to train with the firearms very well. So guns were principally used to fire an initial volley before a charge, or to snipe their opponents with limited success.

And as always have a chilled day from the Viking