Warrior Bio: Zulu Impi, circa 1824 CE.

Disclaimer:  Again, this article is taken from a general standpoint, not a specific one; so while the Zulu may have had access to firearms at the time period I'm dealing with, they weren't yet widespread enough to matter for my purposes.  So ease off of the Red Bull before commenting, but don't let it stop you from doing so!

Some Zulu boys performing a pre-battle war-dance.  
Image used without permission from http://movnat.com.

-Offensive Categories

~Close Quarters Combat; Ikwla, Ishlangu.  When Shaka Zulu ascended the throne in 1816 CE, he did away entirely with the ways that the Zulu nation had formerly made war upon its enemies.  He replaced the assegai spear with the ikwla, a short weapon about four feet in overall length and featuring a broad blade fourteen to eighteen inches in length.  The ikwla was intended to force Zulu warriors into close-combat rather than distance-fighting with missile weapons; King Shaka decried this as “cowardly behavior”.  The ikwla was very well-suited to this purpose – the Zulu warriors would use it in an underhanded thrust, not the wild overhead slashing method seen in popular films, in order to maximize energy output and trauma on the opponent’s body.  This would also place the blade at the same level as the enemy’s stomach and many of the body’s vital organs, making it a very efficient weapons mechanism.  When paired with the massive ishlangu shield, which will be elaborated on later, it made for a dangerous system, earning a well-deserved five (5) out of five (5) possible points.

Some Zulu reenactors taking a break to chat.  Their gear is very accurate,
aside from the undersized shields... though maybe those are dance shields,
not war shields.  Image used without permission from http://i.telegraph.co.uk.

~Weapons of Reach; Isizenze, Isisila, Isijula, Ishlangu.  When fighting at a medium distance, the Zulu warriors were allowed to carry weapons besides the obligatory ikwla spear; the most common of these killing-tools was the isizenze, the commoner’s ax.  It was thirty inches tall and featured a wide, curved blade on the front and a short penetrating spike on the back.  The rarer cousin to the isizenze was the isisila, the swallow-tailed or “Zulu” ax.  It was built identically to the commoner’s ax but had an angular, sharply-angled blade rather than a curved one and was reserved for officers, veteran warriors, or relations of the King.  The least common weapon of reach used by the Zulu was the isijula, the long spear.  Initially a hunter’s weapon, it found good use among scouts, advance troops and forage parties for the extra reach and versatility it gave the wielder over the other melee weapons in the Zulu arsenal.  The isijula spear was described as being as tall as a man; for a Zulu this would mean at least six feet in height.  Additionally, the iron blade attached to it would be at least six inches long and half as wide, and be useful for slashing or thrusting with its broad blade.  All of these weapons could be used well enough with one or both hands, allowing them to be used in conjunction with the ishlangu.  This quality earns the Zulu a five (5) out of ten (10) possible points in this category.  They are held back by the large blind spot between the user and the “business end” of their weapons – a space that the Romans would all too easily exploit.  Additionally, most of these tools are slashing in nature, not thrusting – so they are less efficient than thrusting techniques in energy economy, tiring the user more quickly.

~Long Distance; Assegai, Isijula, Ishlangu.  Before Shaka’s rise to power, the Zulu tribe had fought a very detached, low-risk type of warfare reliant on missile weapons and individual combat between champions.  Opposing tribes would settle feuds by massing opposite one another on a pre-agreed-upon flat level of land, and then pelt one another with assegai javelins while their leaders fought in melee combat.  The conflict would end immediately once one leader had fallen, or his supporters had broken in rout; this was to accommodate the low birth-rates among South African peoples, and subsequent low populations and not too seriously damage either party.  Shaka changed this immediately upon his ascension to the Kingship.  He all-but outlawed the assegai spear for all warriors save skirmishers and young warriors not yet bloodied in melee combat, replacing them with the ikwla and isijula.  Regardless, the assegai were very dangerous weapons, and remained a mainstay of auxiliary forces throughout the history of the Zulu.  They were effective at distances up to thirty yards, or ninety feet, and were very capable of slipping past shields, between ribs and into vital internal organs with enough force to bleed men out in moments.  The isijula also had a limited ability to be thrown accurately and lethally, though its weight kept it from being a true contender at range and it was more useful in melee combat anyway.  To throw it was often seen as an act of desperation or cowardice, only done when in rout or the direst of straits.  All of this in mind, the long-distance capabilities of the Zulu net a very good eighteen (18) of twenty (20) possible points in this category.  Unfortunately, the javelins of the Zulu were eventually superseded by increasingly efficient firearms as they became more common in South Africa.

This is a very short video exhibiting a spar between two practicioners of
stick-fighting.  While it has been slightly sped up for whatever reason,
the techniques and fluidity with which the men fight is easily observable.
This video was not uploaded by me, and is used without permission for this blog.

~Specialized; War Clubs, Ishlangu.  The signature weapons of the South African tribes would have to be their clubs.  They used a wide variety of them, and often carried at least half a dozen per warrior when on campaign.  Each club had a different purpose – the knobkerrie was only to be used on unarmed opponents, or in honor duels.  The izinduku, fighting-sticks, were the focal point of Zulu stick-fighting, one of multiple South African martial arts.  A Zulu boy would be taken by his father when he turned sixteen years old to cut and shape them, and from that day onward he would train intensely in the art of stick-fighting.  The induku (offensive) stick would be held in the right hand be used to strike the enemy.  The ubhoko (defensive) stick would be held in the left along with the umsila (short) to parry and disarm the enemy.  Additional clubs would be taken as spares, good-luck charms, or gifts from family and tribal members.  While the ishlangu would not normally be used in a duel along with the clubs, in a combat situation the opportunistic Zulu would not hesitate to use it to their advantage.  All of these clubs would be between three and six feet in length depending on the type.  However, they were not very lethal weapons in their own right, and the difficulty in using them well with the shield gets them a mediocre two (2) out of five (5) possible points.

A rare assembly of Zulu warriors for a photograph.  Note the large ishlangu shields,
elaborate headresses and representative of the King in the forefront of the image.
Image used without permission from http://www.saveyourheritage.com.

-Defensive Categories

~Head; None.  The Zulu did not wear helmets or much head protection; they believed that the most important part of the body was the liver, not the brain or heart like other cultures did, and so did not protect either region of the body.  Of course, not encumbering the head offers a flip-side; it allows the senses based there to function more efficiently.  The senses of sight, hearing, and smell would all be very important to Zulu warriors in combat or on campaign, and played a large role in their ability to scout and fight effectively.  However, the lack of any protection besides decorative headdresses places this score dead-center at ten (10) out of twenty (20) possible points.

~Torso; Umutsha.  The Zulu wore very little in the way of body armor, but what they did have were thick leather aprons (known as umutsha) made from cleaned cowhide and decorated with goat fur, ostrich feathers, and other trinkets.  These aprons were stern enough toprotect the vulnerable loins and all-important liver, as well as the other lower internal organs, from most missile weapons and glancing melee attacks.  The apron was often held up by a waistband made from strips of fur and decorated with ostrich-shell beading.  Like the patterns on their shields, the bead-patterns on these belts were unique to the regiment and impi of the warrior wearing them.  So while the Zulu warriors wore little body armor on their torsos, they were unencumbered by the added weight gotten from such gear, allowing them to preserve their stamina and continue fighting longer than armored opponents.  They get a basic score of five (5) out of ten (10) points in this category.

~Limbs; None.  Again, the Zulu did not wear much substantial armor on their persons besides their large ishlangu shield.  Anything worn on the limbs would have been leather bands blessed by the “witch-doctors”, or izinyanga.  These small pieces of leather would not have been enough to turn a blow or save a limb, but they could protect against misaimed, glancing strikes or near-hits from missile weapons, and for that get a paltry one (1) point out of a possible five (5).

~Mobile; Ishlangu.  Finally, a defensive category that the Zulu will do well in.  For their mobile defense mechanism the Zulu carried the ishlangu shield – a tool six feet high and three feet broad, it was built from a frame of dense African wood and layered with cowhide.  The final layer of cowhide would be colored and patterned to match the regiment that it belonged to, as well as the status of the warrior intended to use it.  Young or inexperienced warriors would have shields predominately black in color; married or middle-aged men had mostly red shields, and veterans, officers, honored individuals and relatives of the King had white shields.  This color-coding allowed the commander to see how his forces were distributed at a glance, as well as how well each age-class was performing in battle.  The Zulu shields were state-owned, and only issued at war-time; this was to prevent an uprising or civil war, as only forces loyal to the King would have access to them, crippling their opponents before battle even commenced.  The giving of the shields, and their blessing by the izinyanga, was a major ceremony that was the final step before the Zulu declared war on an enemy.  One Zulu commander referred to the shield as the “love charm of the nation”.  The ishlangu was very dense, but lightweight; it was held by a long handgrip that crossed the entirety of the shield from top to bottom, and was sharpened at both ends to make for an alternative weapon in an emergency.  Its oval shape allowed it to be very economical in protecting the warrior holding it, and with all of these qualities together it nets all five (5) possible points.

Here, some Zulu youths practice stick-fighting along with their practice
shields.  Image used without permission from http://pixdaus.com.

-X-Factor Categories

~Tactics; the primary tactic of the Zulu was the “charging bull” formation, which was arranged as follows:  there would be a main body of veteran warriors, referred to as the head.  On either flank of the head would be the horns, which were young, inexperienced recruits whose purpose would be to outflank and encircle the enemy, as well as pick off any enemies that attempted to flee.  The final part of the “charging bull” would be the loins; picked men from each regiment selected by age, veterancy, decoration for honor in combat, and blood relation to the King and his family.  They would be massed in an impi of their own, often faced away from the battle so that they would not get unduly excited before entering combat.  The loins would be used to plug holes in the battle-line, relieve exhausted elements, or if need be take over an entire section.  They were also used as bodyguards of the King and his person, and a motivational tool for the rest of the army to look up to.  When entering combat, the Zulu would open up with a barrage of accurately-thrown assegai; they would carry less than three of them, as per the King’s orders, so each one was made to count.  Then they would enter melee combat as quickly as possible, fighting with their weapons of reach and close-quarters killing-tools.  However, beyond minor defensive rings and marching lines, the Zulu did not have much tactical expertise, so they only get four (4) out of five (5) points for this category.

~Morale/Motivation; besides their loyalty to their King and to the memory of Shaka after his death, the Zulu had great belief in the supernatural powers of their izinyanga and their charms, blessings, and medicines.  They believed that their shields would have the power to repel assegai – or even bullets.  This crazy motivation caused them to overrun enemies with superior technologies time and again, regardless at the cost to their own lives.  While the line of Kings that started with Shaka saw through the falsities of the izinyanga, they recognized that this was a great motivational tool for their warriors, and used it heighten morale among the Zulu.  For the average Zulu warrior, dishonesty, disloyalty to the King, the breaking of or lack of following of orders, and all in-between were not even possible to imagine.  For this border-line insane devotion, the Zulu get a score of all five (5) points.

~Training; formal military training did not happen before Shaka ascended to power.  After he became King of the Zulu, Shaka instigated an intense training regime on all Zulu warriors – they were trained to run without feet protection, as he theorized that the loss of a sandal would hurt the mobility of a warrior used to using them.  To that end Shaka forced his warriors and himself to do their traditional war-dances over beds of thorns and hot coals to strengthen the soles of their feet.  Additionally, the Zulu were conditioned to make military formations even under fire from enemies by rigorous drilling, and regular equipment inspections kept them in top shape for combat.  Furthermore, the Zulu practiced their stick-fighting martial art in order to keep the wits, senses, and most importantly, the body, ready for war at a moment’s notice.  Unlike most cultures, the Zulu saw peace as a necessary evil in which to recuperate and reorder themselves in preparation for war, and that intensity is what gets them another five (5) points.

~Innovation; this is where the Zulu’s hot streak in this assessment tapers off.  Like the Romans, Norse, Greeks, Inca, Koreans, and countless other cultures, they fought predictably in one major aspect:  with a sword and shield.  While this isn’t normally a bad thing, it does make for an opponent that is easy to plan for, and that is a great thing in the most negative connotation of the word.  Like the Roman legionnaires, the Zulu get a meager two (2) of five (5) points in this category.

Here is a video from a reenactment of the Battle of Isandlwana, in which the
British suffered the second greatest losses proportional to forces involved
at ninety-five percent, second only to the Battle of the Somme in the Great War.
The video was not uploaded by me, and is used without permission from the owner.

Works Cited

-Dugdale-Pointon, T. "Zulu Warrior." Military History Encyclopedia on the Web. HistoryOfWar.org, 6 Mar.  2001. Web. 07 May 2011. <http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_zulu.html>.

-Grant, R. G. Battle: a Visual Journey through 5,000 Years of Combat. New York: DK Pub., 2005. Print.

-Grant, R. G. Warrior: a Visual History of the Fighting Man. London: DK, 2007. Print.

-Holmes, Richard, Roger Ford, Reg G. Grant, Adrian Gilbert, and Philip Parker. Weapon: a Visual History of Arms and Armor. New York: DK Pub., 2006. Print.

-Knight, Ian, and Angus McBride. Zulu 1816-1906. Oxford, UK: Osprey, 1995. Print.

-Kuseru. "Zulu Stick Fighting." N&S GMs Netbook. Web. 07 May 2011. <http://kuseru.com/PMAN/Styles/Zulu_Stick_Fighting.htm>.

-Wills, Charles. The Illustrated History of Weaponry: from Flint Axes to Automatic Weapons. New York, NY: Fall River, 2006. Print.

-Zulu. Dir. Cy Endfield. Perf. Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, and Michael Caine. Diamond Films, Ltd., 1964. Televised/Syndicated.