Shaka Zulu Only known drawing of Shaka standing with the long throwing assegai and the heavy shield in 1824 Jaja of Opobo Shaka (sometimes spelled Tshaka, Tchaka or Chaka; c. 1787 – c. 22 September 1828) was a Zulu leader.[2][3] He is widely credited with transforming the Zulu tribe from a small clan into the beginnings of a nation that held sway over the large portion of Southern Africa that stretches between the Phongolo and Mzimkhulu rivers. His military prowess and destructiveness have been widely studied by modern scholarship. One Encyclopædia Britannica article (Macropaedia Article Shaka 1974 ed) asserts that he was something of a military genius for his reforms and innovations. Other writers take a more limited view of his achievements. Nevertheless, his statesmanship and vigour in assimilating some neighbours and ruling by proxy marks him as one of the greatest of the Zulu chieftains.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 03:35:38 +0000