Zulu War, 1879; Zululand (South Africa) -- History -- To 1879
Two different races met in Southern Africa about the middle of
the seventeenth century. One had migrated from the centre of
the continent; the other sent out settlers from one of the most
civilized and prosperous countries of Europe. These races were
the Kafirs and the Dutch. The former arrived at the banks of the
Great Fish River about the same time that Surgeon Van Riebeek
landed on the shores of Table Bay for the purpose of establishing
"a place of refreshment for the outward and homeward bound
fleets of the chartered Dutch East India Company." The progress
of the new colony was so gradual and slow that it was not until
the nineteenth century that Kafir irruptions were effectually
checked, and then the British Government had assumed sovereignty
over the Cape of Good Hope. Different causes, to which it is not
necessary to refer, made the descendants of the Dutch settlers
so dissatisfied with our rule that a portion of them, in the
year 1837, passed into that easterly portion of Southern Africa
styled Natal. There they came in contact with the bravest and
best-organized portion of the great Kafir race. The Ama-Zulus
were originally a small and despised tribe. They were "tobacco
sellers," or pedlars, and carried on this occupation at the
beginning of the present century in the country between the Black
and White Umvolosi rivers. In contradistinction to the nature of
their employment, and as an emblem of the ambition of the people,
the name they gave themselves was one of the proudest they could
have chosen, as "the Zulus" in the Kafir tongue signifies "the
Celestials." At an early period in this century a great leader
arose among them, who became the Genghis Khan of Southern Africa.
This chief was fitly named "Utskaka"—"Chaka," or "Break of Day;"
and it was in consequence of his efforts and of his success that a
new era commenced for his countrymen.
[Sidenote: _Chaka and his army._]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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