Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo
King of the Zulus
Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo (c. 1868 – 18 October 1913, commonly misspelled Dinizulu) was the king of the Zulu nation from 20 May 1884 until his death in 1913. He succeeded his father Cetshwayo, who was the last king of the Zulus to be officially recognised as such by the British. Zululand had been broken up into thirteen smaller territories by the British government after the Anglo-Zulu War, and Cetshwayo, and subsequently Dinuzulu, administered one of them. The British later realised the futility of breaking up Zululand into the territories and restored Cetshwayo as paramount leader of the territories. However, they left one of Cetshwayo's relatives, Usibepu (Zibhebhu), alone with his lands intact. On 22 July 1883, Usibepu attacked Cetshwayo's new kraal in Ulundi, wounding the king and causing him to flee. To contest the succession, Dinuzulu first appealed to the British, but received no response. He then offered rewards of land to Boer farmers of the Vryheid and Utrecht districts, to come and fight on his side and restore the Zulu Kingdom. In 1884 a group of Boer farmers from the districts of Utrecht and Vryheid undertook to help restore order, in return for land for the formation of an independent republic with access to the sea. Led by General Louis Botha, they formed Dinuzulu's Volunteers and after several clashes with Zibhebhu, defeated him at the Battle of Ghost Mountain (also known as the Battle of Tshaneni) on 5 June 1884.
The Nieuwe Republiek, established in northern Natal on land awarded to Boers by Dinuzulu, was recognized by Germany and Portugal. It was later incorporated on its request by the ZAR because of financial problems, after the British annexed the coastal plains from the Thukela river (Tugela) northwards in order to prevent the Boers from building a harbor. After considerable dispute in a Natal arbitration court, Britain eventually recognized the New Republic, but reduced it in size after annexing the coastal plains to the Cape Colony, along with the republic's claims to St Lucia for a harbor. The Niewe Republiek was incorporated on its own request with the Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek in 1888. No major conflict would occur in the region until the outbreak of the Second Boer War in 1899. In 1890 Dinuzulu was captured by the British and exiled to the island of Saint Helena for seven years, for leading a Zulu army against the British due to annexation of the coastal plains of Zululand. When Zululand was formally incorporated into Natal in 1897, Dinuzulu was released. The following year he was installed as the British government's InDuna. In 1906 the so-called Bambatha rebellion broke out. After the rebellion had been put down, Dinuzulu was accused of giving orders to Bambatha to start the rebellion and was put on trial for treason. Although he steadfastly protested his innocence, he was found guilty and sentenced to four years imprisonment in March, 1908. Two years later an old friend of his, General Louis Botha, became Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa. Botha ordered that Dinuzulu be released and transported to the farm Uitkyk in the Transvaal, where he died on 18 October 1913 at the age of 44 or 45.
The Zulu are a significant case in African military innovation and change. Their system of war transformed large portions of the continent and their methods spanned both the pre-gunpowder and gunpowder eras. Several innovations appeared as part of the existing indigenous cultural mix, and their adaptation by burgeoning kingdoms and chieftains to shifting opportunities and changes as the 19th century dawned. The best known leader to emerge from this flux was the ruthless chieftain Shaka, who adapted a number of indigenous practices that transformed the Zulu from a small, obscure tribe to a major regional power in Southern Africa. Some scholars caution against giving Shaka unlimited or sole credit for the military developments that appeared among the tribes of the region, or blaming the Zulu for all warfare and devastation in the region first half of the 19th century, when there were other players and influences in place: from expanding indigenous states like the Thembu, Ngwane, Mthethwa or Ndwamdwe, to European slave traders from Delgoa Bay, Mozambique seeking new captives. The Zulu nation's growth and strength were based on its military organization and skills during Shaka's reign and those of his successors. The military was organized around the ukubuthwa ("to be enrolled") system, which did away with initiation ceremonies for the most part. Each age set, or group of young men of the same age, was assigned to
the same regiment (ibutho, singular; amabutho, plural), according to the system. Girls were also subject to ukubuthwa, but they were usually assigned to an age group rather than to a regiment. The amabutho were housed in military barracks (singular, ikhanda; plural, amakhanda) located throughout the kingdom and under the command of a close relative to (or someone else appointed by) the king. The barracks were designed and laid out similarly to an umuzi, but on a much larger scale. Aside from military duties, the izinsizwa ("young men") were also responsible for the repair and maintenance of their barracks. Dinuzulu's Volunteers (1884) were a militant group of farmers that fought for Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo, the king of the Zulu nation, led by Louis Botha. After the Anglo-Zulu War, Britain divided Zululand up into 13 'chiefdoms', governed over by compliant chiefs. This did not last for long, however, and eventually the rightful heir Dinuzulu, son of the former king Cetshwayo kaMpande was reinstated. However, one chief, Zibhebhu kaMaphitha (also known as Usibepu), was left alone and allowed to keep his land. Dinuzulu appealed to the British against this decision, but received no response, which led to the Boers from Utrecht and Vryheid being called into Dinuzulu's Volunteers in return for land. They fought several battles against the Zulu chief Zibhebhu until their eventual victory on 5 June 1884, at the Battle of Ghost Mountain. Zibhebhu, however, escaped, by climbing up the mountain with a white trader.
The Zulu Kingdom (Zulu: KwaZulu), sometimes referred to as the Zulu Empire, was a monarchy in Southern Africa. During the 1810s, Shaka established a standing army that consolidated rival clans and built a large following which ruled a wide expanse of Southern Africa that extended along the coast of the Indian Ocean from the Tugela River in the south to the Pongola River in the north. A bitter civil war in the mid-19th century erupted which culminated in the 1856 Battle of Ndondakusuka between the brothers Cetshwayo and Mbuyazi. In 1879, a British force invaded Zululand, beginning the Anglo-Zulu War. After an initial Zulu victory at the Battle of Isandlwana in January, the British regrouped and defeated the Zulus in July during the Battle of Ulundi, ending the war. The area was absorbed into the Colony of Natal and later became part of the Union of South Africa. The Zulu formed a powerful state in 1816 under the leader Shaka. Shaka, as the Zulu commander of the Mthethwa Empire and successor to Dingiswayo, united what was once a confederation of lordships into an imposing empire under Zulu hegemony. Shaka built a militarized system known as Impi featuring conscription, a standing
army, new weaponry, regimentation, and encirclement battle tactics. Zulu expansion was a major factor of the Mfecane ("Crushing") that depopulated large areas of southern Africa. It was during this period when Shaka deployed an army regiment for raiding nations in the North. The regiment which was under Mzilikazi disobeyed Shaka and crafted a plan to continue raiding up-North forming another dialect of Zulu language referred to as Northern Ndebele (now in Zimbabwe). Another group under Zwangendaba who was Shakas relative from the Gumbi Clan from Pongola and military commander trekked northwards crossing the Zambezi River at Chirundu in 1835 into Zambia setting up the Ngoni nation that extended to Malawi, Mozambique and Southern Tanzania. In mid-December 1878, envoys of the British crown delivered an ultimatum to 11 chiefs representing the then-current king of the Zulu empire, Cetshwayo. Under the British terms delivered to the Zulu, Cetshwayo would have been required to disband his army and accept British sovereignty. Cetshwayo refused, and war between the Zulus and African contingents of the British crown began on January 12, 1879. Despite an early victory for the Zulus at the Battle of Isandlwana on 22 January, the British fought back and won the Battle at Rorke's Drift, and decisively defeated the Zulu army by July at the Battle of Ulundi. After Cetshwayo's capture a month following his defeat, the British divided the Zulu Empire into 13 "kinglets". The sub-kingdoms fought amongst each other until 1883 when Cetshwayo was reinstated as king over Zululand. This still did not stop the fighting and the Zulu monarch was forced to flee his realm by Zibhebhu, one of the 13 kinglets, supported by Boer mercenaries. Cetshwayo died of a heart attack in February 1884, leaving his son, the 15-year-old Dinuzulu, to inherit the throne. In-fighting between the Zulu continued for years until in 1897 Zululand was absorbed fully into the British colony of Natal.
Awards: Sash of the KwaZulu.
