It was meant to be a mutual sexual interaction between youths of various villages and Kraals. Instituted by the Nguni Tribe, “uku-hlobonga” was crafted to put into ease,any form of sexual tension among the young Nguni members without resulting into pregnancy. “iShaka”, a known intestinal parasite which is a major cause of menstrual irregularities among-st the female specie,led to the greatest doing of a petty chief known as Senzangakhona. Rejected by all,a young lady from the eLangeni Tribe known as Nandy,bared the brunt placed in her womb by this parasite for several months,until sometime around 1789,she eventually gave birth to an illegitimate being who, not only redefined and transformed a mere obscure tribe of barely 1,500 inhabitants into one of the most powerful Nations on the continent of Africa but, also presumably the greatest blood-thirsty Military ruler ever known within of Africa.

At the beginning of the 18th century, the Bantu speaking people were overcrowded and overpopulated in their abode,hereby resulting into severe wars aimed at land acquisition.In the ensuring uprising,three great figures emerged namely,Zobhuza chief of the Ngwana, Zwide chief of the Ndwande and, Dingiswayo chief of the Mthethwa.These three exceptional leaders had started building their separate tribal empires and in doing so,series of imminent clashes between these leaders was inevitable,and in the end, the chief of the Ndwande emerged victorious.

Zwide,who was an expansionist fellow had series of tricks up his sleeves. He soundly defeated the great Chief Zobhuza and ejected his people the Ngwana tribe out of the country.He declared war on Dingiswayo by killing the husband to his sister.This act infuriated the great Chief Dingiswayo,that he personally led his forces to the doorsteps of the Ndwande nation and ordered his most trusted military commander to do same with his own forces.Unfortunately for Dingiswayo,the military expedition proved to be his greatest undoing and his last act on Earth. He met his Waterloo when he was tricked into captivity at the enemy’s Kraal.He was eventually relieved off his head by Zwide,hereby leaving his Army in disarray and at the mercy of the late chief’s most trusted commander.

With this great victory,Zwide was able to form additional alliances and he also destroyed those who failed to cooperate.This new found confidence was cemented in the fact that he was on course for a total domination.Eventually,he turned his eyes on the emerging Zulu nation hoping to put an end to its imminent growth.This he did by placing his son Nomahlanjana in command of warriors numbering 10,000.Unfortunately for Zwide,his triumphant military campaigns was eventually cut short by the emergence of the greatest warrior of them all;Shaka the Zulu ,bastard son of Senzangakhona.

Shaka the Zulu,no doubt was one of Africa’s greatest personalities of the 19th century.Among other things,he was a military genius,an acclaimed warrior and, a seasoned strategist cum tactician,who had at his behest a league very intelligent,talented and,ferocious fighters who fought not only to conquer,but to exterminate.He used the resources available to him to mold Zulu into one of the greatest military outfits Africa has ever produced.Born to Senzangakhona,Shaka became a shepherd at an early age of six along with other kids in the clan.Both he and his Mother Nandy were later on chased away from the Kraal by Senzangakhona after she defended her little Shaka after been accused of willingly letting a dog kill one of the flock.Several a time,they wondered around different Kraals where they were met with rejection and faced various forms of humiliations until the finally settled in a Kraal which was close to the dominant power group in the region,the Mthethwa.

Due to his intelligence and continuous zeal for excellence,16yrs old Shaka was made the senior herd boy.It was said that during one of his shepherding duties,he alone without help,killed a Leopard which was about to prey on his herd.This single act of courage earned him praises and a cow from the Chief. After the emergence of a new chief Dingiswayo,who quickly built up a federation made up of 50 tribes.Furthermore,the new chief instituted a plan whereby,youths based on their age groups were organized into various military divisions known as “amabutho”.

At age 21 ,Shaka who was already 6feet,3 inches tall accompanied with a body which seemed to have been made up of bone and muscle, had distinguished himself as a force to reckon with among his own military age group known as the “izi-cwe”(Bushmen). At this age,Shaka had developed a new type of tactic and strategy towards warfare due to the fact that most of what they were been thought then regarding affairs of military were obsolete and a mere waste of precious time on the battlefield.Over the next few years of his successful military career,Shaka eventually was made the commander-in-chief by Dingiswayo.

His major breakthroughs came firstly when his Father died.Before his death Senzangakhona had been reconciled back on terms with his estranged son and had promised to make Shaka his heir,unfortunately before his death,his eighth wive persuaded him into making her own child heir. Enraged by this,Shaka through the permission of Dingiswayo and by brute force of Arms,embarked on a campaign against the imposter and usurped him and succeeded his late Father.His second breakthrough was probably the greatest of all.After the death of the great chief Dingiswayo,the shattered Mthethwa Army rallied around Shaka as they saw in him their only hope.His first success came when his force of just 4,000 soldiers soundly defeated the 10,000 Ndwande warriors,which led to the death of their commander Nomahlanjana along with 4 of his siblings.They were the Sons of Zwide.

Zwide,licking his wounds and counting cost at this point in time,vowed to revenge his five lost sons,and by this act,he assembled together another force of 18,000 warriors under the command of a seasoned military veteran called Soshangane.The year was 1819 and another military expedition was on course to destroy the new Zulu nation along with its revered leader.

Having won the first war against the Ndwande nation,Shaka won over the confidence of the Mthethwa and other smaller nations which now rallied to Shaka hereby enlarging his forces and domain.He now had an army in the range of 10,000.A force which was still outnumbered by his enemies.Nevertheless,the military tactics and strategies of Shaka along with his fiercely loyal and disciplined Army totally routed and dismantled the enemy who eventually fled .His battle formation had proved very potent and fatal against the imagination of the enemy commander Soshangane.He chased the fleeing warriors to their doorsteps where he completely devastated the whole of the Mthethwa nation and rendered them desolate.He routed Zwide and his forces and incorporated his kingdom and all the areas Zwide had conquered into his ever expanding vast empire which ultimately consolidated his position as the undisputed ruler of his new dreaded Zulu Kingdom.

From that time onward,Shaka’s Army marched on the surrounding lands and due to his military modus operandi,his Army left in their wake ,rotting corpse,burnt huts,and lands filled with a terrible form of devastation second to non in Africa .His rule was viscous and he eliminated any form of cowardice from his Army by putting to death anybody found to posses traits of weakness.He was the African version of the Mongolian Nomadic emperor Genghis Khan who both shared traits of savagery. Both are responsible for waging total warfare on their enemies and in some sense depopulated the Earth with millions dying during their respective terrifying reign.

Unfortunately,the death of his mother marked the beginning of his drift into insanity.Shaka had always been paranoid which was one of the reasons why he never took a legitimate wife or had a heir of his own.His fear was that his Sons might one day revolt against and eliminate him.Even his Concubines were not speared from this conspiracy theory of his hence,on suspicion of pregnancy from any of them attracts the penalty of instant death.On the death of his Mother,Shaka massacred thousands of his people so their families could mourn along with him. Clearly a Mad King now,Shaka was later assassinated by his half-brother Dingawe on fear of the safety of the continuity of his own life.He also assassinated all the loyalist of Shaka who he thought might oppose him before becoming the new Ruler of the Zulu Nation.Shaka was responsible for the death of over 2 million people only from war campaigns excluding other forms of death melted out to people.His reign was a catalog of Carnage and wanton savagery.

To sum it all up,the great King Shaka’s successes are attributed to his military cum political innovations.He was a military genius,whose tactics were reminiscence of that of the great ancient General Hannibal of Carthage who took the battle to the doorsteps of Rome and through ingenuity, won series of successive bloody battles even when greatly outnumbered by the legions of the Republic of Rome..His achievements were very significant in the sense that he single-handedly transformed the young men in the regions in the Army into a standing Army.He also rejected the throwing of spears on the battlefield instead,he armed his soldiers with a short-handled assegai,and forbade them on point of death not to leave them on the battlefield.This was a man who introduced the concept of total War on his enemies.He also excelled in the area of politics as well as social life during his sane days as he was known to have distributed lands to those who had been yearning for lands.

Shaka might have been an unpredictable bloodthirsty sycophant during his terrifying 10year reign of total terror,but he brought a minority tribe of mainly herdsmen out of obscurity into a limelight of continental stardom deserving of a worthy super power which remained unmatched and unrivaled up till the British intervention during the scramble for and partition of Africa.He is indeed,a true African legend.


http://www.nubiarepublic.com/2019/04/african-legendsshaka.html