The Zulu are an African tribe now subsumed within the State of South Africa, which traces its roots to the kingdom founded by King Shaka in the early decades of the nineteenth century (Laband ix). That kingdom lasted only a little over six decades before being overthrown in war, broken into pieces, and dispersed. In that brief period, however, the Zulu exerted enormous influence over events in the region and wielded great military power. This analysis will discuss various aspects of Zulu government, society, and culture.
Society was organized around pastoral pursuits with the Zulu maintaining strong ties to the land. Cohen (10) maintains that the Zulu were initially a small branch (numbering no more than 1,500 at the end of the eighteenth century) of the "Nguni-speaking" segment of the Bantu. Zulu "kraals" or compounds were scattered in a small area in what is now part of South Africa, and the Zulu (whose name came from a king and translates as "People of the Heavens") were completely in the shadow of their more powerful neighbors, particularly the "Mtetwa" (Cohen 11). One of the most important rituals among the Zulu was the caring for the cattle of the clan, the path young Zulu males took to adulthood.
Under the leadership of King Shaka, the Zulu would also develop a cult of physicality, and the Zulu warrior was a fierce and universally feared fighter. Laband (58) has described the social organization of the Zulu as one which strived for the maintenance of centralization; Shaka, "more than his forbearers and more effectively than his successors," recognized that the power and might of the Zulu could only be achieved by centralizing power in the hands of the king. Thus a monarchy, the king of the Zulu was also an ideological figure that related Zulu identity to "inkatha," the physical and spiritual persona of the royal leader (Cope 432).
Laband (9) states that the "umuzi," or the home...