Why shaka became so well known

Zulu society — much like Sparta — was entirely restructured to support the army. In just a couple of years, his army had brutally executed, displaced or assimilated a vast territory with more than , inhabitants who became his subjects.

Despite its violent methodology, his clan had formed one united nation — the biggest and most powerful in southern Africa.

An increasingly cruel and paranoid Shaka Zulu was assassinated in , but that didn't mark the end of his effects on the history of southern Africa. Besides creating a political entity in the Zulu Kingdom, Shaka's military campaigns caused the massive displacement of people, a crisis that became part of a decades-long period of turmoil historians call the Mfecane or the "scattering".

Shaka was king of the Zulu people. Shaka is famous for uniting the Zulu people. Log in. South Africa History. Add an answer. Want this question answered? Study guides. Q: Why was Shaka Zulu well known?

Write your answer Related questions. What does Shaka Zulu mean? Did Shaka Zulu kill his son? Why was shaka a great worrier? Was shaka Zulu a general? Did shaka Zulu have siblings? Shaka zulu did what? What tribe did shaka Zulu lead? Shaka thus spent his earliest years at his father's esiKlebeni homestead near present Babanango, in the hallowed locality known as the EmaKhosini or Burial-place of the Kings, where Senzangakhona's forebears, the descendants of Zulu Nkosinkulu , had been chiefs for generations.

The relationship of Senzangakhona and Nandi seems to have been unhappy and ended in the chieftain driving Nandi from his court. Nandi and her son sought sanctuary in the Mhlathuze Valley of the Langeni people. Here, growing up as a fatherless child, Shaka seems to have been the victim of humiliation and cruel treatment by the Langeni boys. At that time there were two strong rival Nguni groups, the Mthethwa led by the paramount chief Dingiswayo, and the Ndwandwe under the ferocious Zwide.

Later, probably at the time of the Great Famine, known as the Madlantule c. He thus grew up in the court of Dingiswayo, who welcomed them with friendliness.

Shaka, however, suffered much from the bullying and teasing of the Mthethwa boys, too, who resented his claims to chiefly descent. As he grew to manhood, Shaka began to discover new talents and faculties. Outwardly, he was tall and powerfully built, and his skill and daring gave him a natural mastery over the youths in his age group; inwardly, he was developing a thirst for power. Probably when he was about twenty-three years old, he was drafted into one of the Mthethwa regiments where he found a satisfaction he had never known before.

With the impi in the iziCwe regiment, he had the companionship he had previously lacked, while the battlefield provided a stadium in which he could demonstrate his talents and courage. His outstanding deeds of courage attracted the attention of his overlord and, rising rapidly in Dingiswayo's army, he became one of his foremost commanders. At this time, Shaka was given the name Nodumehlezi the one who when seated causes the earth to rumble.

While in the Mthethwa army Shaka became engrossed in problems of strategy and battle tactics, and Dingiswayo contributed much toward Shaka's later accomplishments in war. Militarism was thereafter to be a way of life for him, and one that he was to inflict on thousands of others. On the death of Shaka's father c. But, as Dingiswayo's favourite, he seems to have been granted an unusual amount of freedom to carve out a bigger principality for himself by conquering and assimilating his neighbours, including the Buthelezi clan and the Langeni of his boyhood days.

According to the diary of Henry Francis Fynn, Dingiswayo's death c. However, it is known that when Dingiswayo fought his last battle, Shaka did not arrive at the scene until after his overlord's capture. He thus retained his forces intact. Zwide later murdered Dingiswayo, and, when the leaderless Mthethwa state collapsed, Shaka immediately assumed leadership and began conquering surrounding chiefdoms himself, adding their forces to his own and building up a new kingdom.

Zwide decided to smash his new rival. After a first expedition had been defeated by the superior control and strategies of the Zulu at Gqokoli Hill, Zwide, in April , sent all his army into Zululand. This time Shaka wore out the invaders by pretending he was retreating and drawing Zwide's forces deep into his own territory; then, when he had successfully exhausted the invaders, he flung his own regiments on them and defeated them conclusively at the Mhlathuze river.

This defeat shattered the Ndwandwe state. Part of the main Ndwandwe force under Shoshangane, together with the Jere under Zwangendaba, the Maseko under Ngwane, and the Msene led by Nxaba, fled northwards. The survivors of the main Ndwandwe force settled for a time on the upper Pongola River. In , under Zwide's successor, Sikhunyane, they again fought the Zulu, but were totally routed.

The majority then submitted to Shaka. He was able to recruit additional warriors from these sources and proceeded to train them in his own methods of close combat. Home Culture Is Shaka Zulu based on a true story? By Carole Sakar Last updated Mar 19, Contents hide.

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