The Zulu: An A-Z of Culture and Traditions

In a single decade, between 1818 and 1828, Shaka transformed a modest chieftaincy into one of the most powerful kingdoms in southern Africa. His empire, whose heartland lay to the north of the Thukela River in present-day KwaZulu-Natal, was renowned for its military might and expansionist drive. But the sovereignty of the Zulu was short-lived, their realm crushed in the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, at the battles of Rorke’s Drift and Ulundi, despite trouncing the British at Isandlwana.

Although t...