His birth was marked by scandalous undertones - Senzangakona would never have intentionally married Nandi because his mother came from the Elangeni and Shaka was the product of an illicit sexual liaison between the two.
iShaka
In fact, iShaka was an intestinal bug upon which menstrual irregularities were blamed, and when the messenger arrived from the Elangeni proclaiming Nandi’s pregnancy, the Zulu elders declared it a case of iShaka and sent him packing. When Shaka was born, his name was an ironic joke on the circumstances surrounding his birth.
Senzangakona accepted Nandi as his wife but the relationship was an uneasy one. Nandi was not popular with the Zulu. Senzangakona eventually evicted Nandi and her children when Shaka lost a goat.
Nandi returned to the Elangeni, where she was even more unwelcome, and Shaka spent his early teenage years being bullied and tormented by his fellow herd boys. In 1802, a famine struck the area and Nandi and her children were evicted from the Elangeni. Nandi went to a man named Gendeyana, of a minor sub clan, and he took her in.
Shaka was by now showing signs of the outstanding warrior he would become. Upon attaining adulthood, Shaka stood six feet three inches tall and was proportionately muscled. He spent his final teenage years with the Mtetwa clan, where he and Nandi were finally accepted. But the years of hardship and bullying had scarred his mind.
Shaka was to spend many years fighting for Dingiswayo, Chieftain of the Mtetwa. He initialized military reforms that revolutionised Nguni warfare. Many clans were conquered and absorbed into the Mtetwa. His father, Senzangakona, died in 1816, and Dingiswayo sent Shaka to claim overlordship of the Zulus.
King of the Zulus
Shaka built a new kraal - village - and named it kwabulawayo, ‘At the Place of He Who kills’ - and immediately commenced a programme of conquering or annihilating all who had made the life of he and his mother miserable whilst he was growing up. The Elangeni kraals were destroyed - those who had bullied him were impaled.
Shaka then extended his attitude of conquest to other Nguni clans, and by 1824 the Zulu nation was vast from all the tribes it had absorbed. Shaka’s wars also triggered a movement known as the’Mfecane’ - ‘annihilation’ - thousands of small tribes fled before the Zulu onslaught and in turn attacked other tribes, starting a domino effect of displacement that extended hundreds of miles into the interior. It is unknown how many people died in these upheavals, but the result was misery and starvation on a colossal scale. Some tribes became cannibals.
In 1824, Shaka was visited by European traders, led by Henry Francis Fynn. This and subsequent further contact with Europeans led to the founding of Port Natal - later to become Durban - and firmly planted the Zulu Nation in the history books.
Shaka was by now showing increasing signs of mental deterioration. He was accompanied by a squad of executioners who crushed skulls, broke necks and impaled all who displeased the King. Hundreds of people might be slaughtered in a single day. When Nandi died, Shaka ordered that no crops be planted, milk from cattle was to be discarded, and all women found pregnant over the following year were to be executed together with their husbands.
Hysteria and madness gripped the nation for three months until one exceptionally brave man named Gala publicly upbraided Shaka for the damage he was doing to his people. Remarkably, Shaka cut short the conditions of mourning and sent Gala away with a gift of cattle.
The death of Shaka
Shaka was eventually assassinated by his half-brothers Dingane, Mhlangana and Mbopa on September 22, 1828. The three men were weary of the incessant terror that characterised Shaka's rule and worried about his friendliness with Europeans. Dingane and Mhlangana stabbed him with spears and he is alleged to have died screaming and begging for mercy. His body was thrown into a grain pit and covered with rocks.
The Washing of the Spears The Rise and Fall of the Zulu Nation
Donald R. Morris
Pimlico Edition, 1994
Shaka - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
