Zulu, the Template of an African Warrior
The Zulu belong on this list as an example of how a military society is forged in the fire of great personality and leadership. At the turn of the 19th century, society in southern Africa was infinitely subdivided, and individual loyalty typically went no further than local clan or tribal leaders. The Zulu clan was one such minor clan of many situated on the Indian Ocean coast of what is today South Africa. In 1787, however, an exiled princess gave birth to the illegitimate son of a young Zulu prince, and child that was named Shaka.
Now the name ‘Shaka’ resonates extremely powerfully throughout southern Africa, and the myth of his rise to power is almost a national narrative. He was fixated on his mother, and was reputed to be extremely poorly endowed, but also of such powerful stature and violent disposition that it was a brave man indeed who made fun of him. He entered the military of a powerful chief, and excelled himself. It was not, however, until he seized the chieftaincy of the Zulu that his extraordinary power of leadership and his creativity found complete expression.
Shaka made several revolutionary innovations. The first was to replace the traditional javelin-type spear with a short hilted, long-bladed stabbing spear known as the ‘Iklwa’, an onomatopoeic term imitating the sucking sound as the spear is withdrawn from a human body. Battles were now no longer fought at a distance, but up close and personal. The traditional elliptical shield was modified to serve an offensive purpose, to hook aside the enemy’s shield, exposing his flank to the deadly Iklwa.
Next Shaka developed the ‘Bull and Horns’ tactic, which was simply a double envelopment. The enemy was first engaged by the bull’s ‘head’, after which the two ‘horns’ moved rapidly out in a flanking maneuver.
Then Shaka put into an effect a more rigid and organized system of regiments and battalions, to which he applied harsh and uncompromising discipline, all of which created a professional army.
The first offensive force that Shaka put into the field was small – no more than 600-men – and he chose his campaigns carefully, but so revolutionary was his approach to warfare that he quickly proved himself unstoppable.
The catalyst to it all, however, was Shaka’s own capacity for leadership, and his ability to inspire absolutely fanatical loyalty from his army. He was also, however, just a little unbalanced, and was eventually assassinated by his brother. The Zulu were never quite the same after Shaka, but they remained a formidable fighting force until defeated by the British in 1779. That victory, however, did not come without the signature battle of Isandlwana, during which the Zulu overran and massacred 1500 British troops. Today the Zulu continue to exist as a defined and cohesive group, and they still display great reverence for their martial heritage.