The Zulu Kingdom was a pre-colonial African state located in what is now modern-day South Africa. The kingdom was founded in the early 19th century by King Shaka, who united a number of small clans into a powerful military force. The Zulu Kingdom reached its peak of power in the mid-19th century, but it eventually fell to British colonization in the late 19th century.
During this time, there were instances of violence and conflict between the Zulu Kingdom and European colonizers, including the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. However, it is important to note that the Zulu Kingdom was not the victim of genocide, as the term "genocide" refers to the deliberate and systematic extermination of a racial, ethnic, or national group.
While there were certainly instances of violence and conflict between the Zulu Kingdom and European colonizers, there is no evidence to suggest that the colonizers had a specific intention to exterminate the Zulu people as a group. Rather, the conflict between the Zulu Kingdom and European colonizers was driven by a variety of factors, including competition for resources, cultural differences, and political and economic interests.
The Zulu Kingdom did suffer significant losses during the Anglo-Zulu War, and many Zulu people were killed or displaced as a result of the conflict. However, these losses were not the result of a specific campaign of extermination targeting the Zulu people as a group.
It is important to recognize and acknowledge the suffering and losses of the Zulu people during this time period, but it is also important to be accurate and factual in our understanding of the events that took place. The Zulu Kingdom was not the victim of genocide, and it is important to avoid using this term in a way that is misleading or misinformed.
Shaka, the 'Mfecane' and Africa's first recorded genocide
This was too much for his assailants and they leapt upon him, stabbing. Retrieved 25 June 2010. Retrieved 23 June 2020. The Fortunes of Africa: a 5000-year history of wealth, greed, and endeavour. Mpande then seized control of the Zulu kingdom.
Empire, Colony, Genocide: Conquest, Occupation, and Subaltern Resistance in World History. Shaka fought under Dingiswayo, the chief of the Mtetwa Paramountcy, as a warrior. It is this sudden acceleration, this abrupt change from the discourse of 'defensive warfare' and 'merciful civilization' to that of 'offensive warfare' and of genocide, which is perhaps the most distinctive mark of the literature of the Argentine frontier. This was followed by infighting and instability among the Zulus. The Life and Death of Smallpox.
University of Oklahoma Press. New York: Oxford University Press. Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Reference to Casualty and Other Figures. A History of the Modern Middle East 2nd ed. Retrieved 1 July 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2013. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
The native language of the Zulus is isiZulu. The Great Treks: The Transformation of Southern Africa, 1815—1854. The defeat of the African kingdoms within South Africa reduced the black population to unfree, cheap labour, living under laws that benefitted the British and European settlers, and working in an economic system that disproportionately distributed wealth to the British and European settlers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. After a first expedition had been defeated by the superior control and strategies of the Zulu at Gqokoli Hill, Zwide, in April 1818, sent all his army into Zululand. Fearful that even the smallest threat to his authority might herald rebellion.
To fling the charge of genocide at an entire society serves neither the interests of the Indians nor those of history. A Concise History of France. Traditional Zulu praise song, English translation by Other Zulu sources are sometimes critical of Shaka, and numerous negative images abound in Zulu oral history. Cambridge, MA; London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Retrieved 10 August 2010. Each settlement contained a section of royal women headed by a formidable woman, usually one of Shaka's aunts.
It seems much more likely that Shaka, seeking to build the power of a previously insignificant chiefdom, drew on an existing heritage of statecraft known to his immediate neighbors. Dinuzulu was charged in 1906 with being behind the Bambatha Rebellion. Programa de Ciencia y Derechos Humanos, Asociación Americana del Avance de la Ciencia. Mpande died of old age in 1872, and Cetshwayo took over power. Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power. He had seen that the traditional type of spear, a long-handled assegai thrown from a distance, was no good for the regulated fighting in close formation he had in mind. If ever there was a touchy subject, this would have to be it.
Bryant arrived at similar conclusions. Journal of Historical Sociology. There is even a letter in which Isaacs urges Fynn to sensationalize his account in order to attract more readers. Colonial Genocide and Reparations Claims in the 21st Century: The Socio-Legal Context of Claims under International Law by the Herero against Germany for Genocide in Namibia, 1904—1908. Zulu Empire From the 1810s until its destruction by the British in 1879, the Zulu kingdom was the largest in southeastern Africa, occupying most of what is today KwaZulu-Natal province, in Already in the 1820s, when Europeans began expanding into the lands of the Zulus and their immediate neighbors, a territory that the Europeans called Natal, Europeans used Shaka's alleged atrocities to justify their own activities. Ireland: Historical Echoes, Contemporary Politics. Ndwandwe warriors then poured across the river and attacked the bewildered and leaderless Thethwa regiments.
Cetshwayo, possibly poisoned, died peacefully in February 1884. Dublin: Irish Academic Press. New York: Oxford University Press. Louis Botha became the first prime minister when the Union of South Africa was established and he arranged for his old ally, Dinuzulu, to live in exile on a farm in the Transvaal, where Dinuzulu died in 1913. The Vendeans were no more blameless than were the republicans. Modern Genocide: The Definitive Resource and Document Collection.
University of KwaZulu-Natal Press. Everyday Occupations: Experiencing Militarism in South Asia and the Middle East. Not only did Shaka and his armies attack their immediate neighbors, they also chased refugees for hundreds, even thousands, of miles, sending them as far away as the The Origins of Totalitarianism 1951. New York: Cambridge University Press. A more credible account is that the relationship between Nandi and Senzangakhona was illicit, and that Shaka was born in Langeni territory at the Nguga homestead of Nandi's uncle. Instrumentes Legales y Operativos Para el Funcionamiento de la Comisión Para el Esclarecimiento Histórico in Spanish.
Retrieved 12 September 2014. There is an anecdote that Shaka joked with one of his friends, Magaye, that he could not kill Magaye because he would be laughed at. China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia. Cape Town: Longmans, Green and Company. A long shadow of genocidal hatred persisted, provoking the French author to protest in 1882 that in Algeria, "we hear it repeated every day that we must expel the native and if necessary destroy him. Many of these refugees have left with their animals.
