DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49271#0304
The Zulus and the Spartans
229
the sound of the quivering assagais a tremendous shouting of “ Whir-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-h, whir-
r-r-r-r-h!”161 Then each man takes the place assigned to him in a great circle thrown
round miles of country, and advancing towards the center, drives the wild animals before
him till finally they perish, impaled on the points of his and his companions’ assegais.
The hunt, if successful, ends in the orgy of stabbing mimicked in the anticipatory demon-
stration. Put enemies instead of animals, and this description of a Zulu hunt, which
we owe to an eye witness,162 becomes at once a description of a Zulu war.
In summary, we may say that the Zulu impis owed their irresistibility among the
surrounding natives, and their successes over the whites, to the following characteristics:
1. The merciless discipline maintained by Chaka.
2. The high training of the men in physical endurance and in effecting mass move-
ments.
3. The use of the stabbing assegai and hand to hand fighting.
4. The tactics of surrounding the enemy and thus destroying him utterly.
5. The well organized system of espionage.
6. Their reputation for invincibility and the terror which their pitiless massacres
of the entire population of the enemy inspired.
* * *
Chaka seemingly held his subjects in the hollow of his hand. The whites, he told
them, they were ‘not to consider their equals’, but they should look on them and pay
them “ the respect due to kings.” 163 And so respectful were the Zulus for authority that
as long as the missionaries and the traders enjoyed the king’s favor they came and went
among the ekandas and villages as they pleased. “Steal? No!” said a Zulu to Champion,
“if any man steals in the king’s country he eats no more corn.” 164 The forefathers of
the Europeans, explained Chaka on one occasion,165 ‘ had bestowed on them many gifts
by giving them all the knowledge of arts and manufactures, yet they had kept from
them the greatest of gifts, a good black skin; for this did not necessitate the wearing of
clothes to hide the white skin, which was not pleasant to the eye’. To his own subjects'
the king was a despot revelling in the wantonness of his power. Their lives were as noth-
ing to him, and he killed them like flies. Their services were at all times entirely at his
disposal, and they could do nothing for anybody except at his orders. Chaka refused to
161 Cf. Junod, op. cit., p. 423 sqq.
162 Kidd, op. cit., p. 315 sqq.
163 Fynn, ap. Bird, op. cit., p. 79; cf. Mackenzie, op. cit., p. 312; 320.
164 Champion, Mission. Herald, 1838, p. 210.
166 Fynn, ap. Bird, op. cit., p. 80.
229
the sound of the quivering assagais a tremendous shouting of “ Whir-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-h, whir-
r-r-r-r-h!”161 Then each man takes the place assigned to him in a great circle thrown
round miles of country, and advancing towards the center, drives the wild animals before
him till finally they perish, impaled on the points of his and his companions’ assegais.
The hunt, if successful, ends in the orgy of stabbing mimicked in the anticipatory demon-
stration. Put enemies instead of animals, and this description of a Zulu hunt, which
we owe to an eye witness,162 becomes at once a description of a Zulu war.
In summary, we may say that the Zulu impis owed their irresistibility among the
surrounding natives, and their successes over the whites, to the following characteristics:
1. The merciless discipline maintained by Chaka.
2. The high training of the men in physical endurance and in effecting mass move-
ments.
3. The use of the stabbing assegai and hand to hand fighting.
4. The tactics of surrounding the enemy and thus destroying him utterly.
5. The well organized system of espionage.
6. Their reputation for invincibility and the terror which their pitiless massacres
of the entire population of the enemy inspired.
* * *
Chaka seemingly held his subjects in the hollow of his hand. The whites, he told
them, they were ‘not to consider their equals’, but they should look on them and pay
them “ the respect due to kings.” 163 And so respectful were the Zulus for authority that
as long as the missionaries and the traders enjoyed the king’s favor they came and went
among the ekandas and villages as they pleased. “Steal? No!” said a Zulu to Champion,
“if any man steals in the king’s country he eats no more corn.” 164 The forefathers of
the Europeans, explained Chaka on one occasion,165 ‘ had bestowed on them many gifts
by giving them all the knowledge of arts and manufactures, yet they had kept from
them the greatest of gifts, a good black skin; for this did not necessitate the wearing of
clothes to hide the white skin, which was not pleasant to the eye’. To his own subjects'
the king was a despot revelling in the wantonness of his power. Their lives were as noth-
ing to him, and he killed them like flies. Their services were at all times entirely at his
disposal, and they could do nothing for anybody except at his orders. Chaka refused to
161 Cf. Junod, op. cit., p. 423 sqq.
162 Kidd, op. cit., p. 315 sqq.
163 Fynn, ap. Bird, op. cit., p. 79; cf. Mackenzie, op. cit., p. 312; 320.
164 Champion, Mission. Herald, 1838, p. 210.
166 Fynn, ap. Bird, op. cit., p. 80.