I was born the son of a chief; however, my mother and father were never formally married. When I was very young, my father kicked my mother and me out of his hut and out of the village. As a young man growing up without a father, I learned that I had to be very taught to survive in the world. So, I decided I would be the toughest that I could be. Our tribe is small to medium in size, not weak, not strong, not rich, not poor, but we are proud to be members. I am even prouder to be the chief's son, even if others ridicule me because we do not live.

For many years, now, we have come in conflict with strange speaking white men. These men are of two groups; on, the English who wish to trade with us, and two, some Dutchmen, who call themselves Boers, who wish settle and farm our land. That would mean that we would have nowhere to raise our cattle and crops. Lately, the Boers, and the English who are allied with them, at times have been defeating and pushing other Zulu tribes off their lands. If something is not done, then soon the same will happen to us. My father and the other old men seem to have few ideas about how to save us.

Yesterday, my father, the chief,, died and my brother Siguyjana (pronounced sec-gew-jana) took over as chief. He is incapable of defending us a s my father was. This tribe desperately needs some leadership, which I will provide. With the help of some other leaders. I have taken over the tribe and removed my brother a s chief. Now I can go about making us a great nation.

First, to meet the needs of defense against outsiders, I must build and organize a great army. Second, I must organize a great order for our society. All people will work for the tribe. The tribe will conquer lesser tribes and welcome their members into ours. The men of these conquered tribes will become warriors in ours. The women will join our women in working to feed the warrior regiments, and the children will be raised in our ways. The old and sick, however, will be killed, since they do not produce and are thus worthless to our society. I will call this new kingdom of our tribe, and the ones that we have conquered , Zulu. We are all Zulu tribes, but we are now unified as one Zulu kingdom.

To get this kingdom and, more importantly, to defend ourselves from the white men, I have re-organized our army. The old army was not well organized. In the conflicts which I have seen, African tribesmen have charged the English and Boer positions in an unorganized mass. The English and the Boers met this unorganized massed charge in organized straight lines or squares defended on all sides

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with their rifles destroying the attacking Africans. Since we do not have many guns, we will have to be better organized to defeat these enemies. I am going to use a new formation, called the cow's horns, which, like the mighty bull will defeat all of our enemies. It works like this:
 
 

Encircling Regiment Enemy Forces Encircling Regiments

On the Flanks
 
 

Main Bulk

Of the Regiment
 
 

When the enemy is busy fighting our middle formation, we will encircle him and destroy him from the sides (flanks) and behind.
 

A Zulu long handled spear for throwing or fighting.

Approximately five feet long.

Called an Assagai
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Zulu Shield made of two pieces of cowhide
stitched together on a wood frame.
Approximately four to four and ½ feet tall
 
 
 
 
 
 

Shaka's short stabbing spear for close quarters
fighting. Approximately three feet long.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I have also organized my regiments according to age groups and whether or not the men are married. I find that the best fighters are the unmarried men who are not permitted contact with females. This tends to make them very aggressive, since they have nothing to do but fight.

We have defeated or held back all of our enemies and I am very proud of our kingdom. People have complained of the harsh rules, and the separation of men and women, but we have the best-trained army and strongest kingdom in al Africa.

I see my brothers Mhlangana and Dingane are coming to visit . I wonder what they want. We had been talking for a while, when suddenly they drew their knives and began stabbing me. I am bleeding and my vision grows bleary. "Oh children of my father, what have I done to You?"

After Shaka'a death, his brother Dingane, took over as king. Dingane, however, loved to dance and eat and did not pay close attention to running the kingdom. Gradually, the efficiency of the regiments decreased. More British troops and Boers arrived; the Zulu were eventually beaten and their land taken from them.