DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49271#0305
230
W. S. Ferguson
let any of them trade with the whites;166 these should deal with himself alone. Yet, for
all his absolutism, he had to take account of the desires of his people.167 As a reward for
their celibacy and their long periods of forced continence, he used to promise his soldiers,
says Isaacs,168 “that when they had made themselves masters of the earth on this side of
the water, they should ‘booser’ [enjoy themselves] with their women and marry as many
wives as they might think proper”. There are indications, indeed, that even Chaka lived
in fear of his indunas, if not of his soldiers. The pathetic eagerness with which he sought
from the whites a medicine, of which Farewell had spoken, that would keep black hairs
from turning white,169 testifies to the strength of Zulu public opinion that a king with gray
hair and wrinkles was a doomed king. He must give way to his successor. Hence both
Chaka and Dingaan had no sons. “I am but a boy, I am too young to marry”,170 said
Dingaan at forty. Chaka controlled his warriors and loved the wars on which he loosed
them. Dingaan, on the other hand, would gladly have had peace. “But”, writes
Isaacs,171 “one of the great checks to the advancement of the Zoolu monarch in cultivating
the sweets of peace and in encouraging commerce, are his warriors; a powerful body of
savages trained up to war from their youth, and to indulge in all'the rapacity to which
their various predatory excursions naturally tend. These, under the command of chiefs,
whose ferocity is almost unrestrainable, keep the monarch always in awe of their power,
and goad him to the commission of deeds, which I feel persuaded he would not have exe-
cuted but to keep them tranquil. As I have stated before, they consist of about 15,000
men, destined solely for war. They were not permitted to marry until Dingan, after
the death of Chaka, abolished this law;172 they live entirely on plunder, and, such being
the case, it is not a matter of astonishment that they are always elated with the thoughts of
war. The king having changed the constitution of this force, gives them certainly an
opportunity of acquiring subsistence without plunder, by the labour of their wives in
cultivating their kraals; but they have been so habituated to plunder, that it has become
a gratification rather than a toil; and what they gather by it gives them more satisfaction
than that which they obtain by peaceful or honest means. Their insatiable thirst for the
blood of their enemies is inherent, and as they are destined from their boyhood to wield
166 Isaacs, ap. Bird, op. cit., p. 182; Smith, ap. Ibid., p. 262.
167 Fynn, ap. Ibid., p. 122.
168 Isaacs, vol. 1, p. 343; Arbousset, op. cit., p. 280.
169 Isaacs, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 232; cf. Shooter, op. cit., p. 280 sq.
170 Gardiner, op. cit., p. 99.
171 Isaacs, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 278.
172 See also Gardiner, op. cit., p. 143. This was the point at which, not unnaturally, the system of Dingiswayo
and Chaka broke down first. Vide supra, p. 203.
W. S. Ferguson
let any of them trade with the whites;166 these should deal with himself alone. Yet, for
all his absolutism, he had to take account of the desires of his people.167 As a reward for
their celibacy and their long periods of forced continence, he used to promise his soldiers,
says Isaacs,168 “that when they had made themselves masters of the earth on this side of
the water, they should ‘booser’ [enjoy themselves] with their women and marry as many
wives as they might think proper”. There are indications, indeed, that even Chaka lived
in fear of his indunas, if not of his soldiers. The pathetic eagerness with which he sought
from the whites a medicine, of which Farewell had spoken, that would keep black hairs
from turning white,169 testifies to the strength of Zulu public opinion that a king with gray
hair and wrinkles was a doomed king. He must give way to his successor. Hence both
Chaka and Dingaan had no sons. “I am but a boy, I am too young to marry”,170 said
Dingaan at forty. Chaka controlled his warriors and loved the wars on which he loosed
them. Dingaan, on the other hand, would gladly have had peace. “But”, writes
Isaacs,171 “one of the great checks to the advancement of the Zoolu monarch in cultivating
the sweets of peace and in encouraging commerce, are his warriors; a powerful body of
savages trained up to war from their youth, and to indulge in all'the rapacity to which
their various predatory excursions naturally tend. These, under the command of chiefs,
whose ferocity is almost unrestrainable, keep the monarch always in awe of their power,
and goad him to the commission of deeds, which I feel persuaded he would not have exe-
cuted but to keep them tranquil. As I have stated before, they consist of about 15,000
men, destined solely for war. They were not permitted to marry until Dingan, after
the death of Chaka, abolished this law;172 they live entirely on plunder, and, such being
the case, it is not a matter of astonishment that they are always elated with the thoughts of
war. The king having changed the constitution of this force, gives them certainly an
opportunity of acquiring subsistence without plunder, by the labour of their wives in
cultivating their kraals; but they have been so habituated to plunder, that it has become
a gratification rather than a toil; and what they gather by it gives them more satisfaction
than that which they obtain by peaceful or honest means. Their insatiable thirst for the
blood of their enemies is inherent, and as they are destined from their boyhood to wield
166 Isaacs, ap. Bird, op. cit., p. 182; Smith, ap. Ibid., p. 262.
167 Fynn, ap. Ibid., p. 122.
168 Isaacs, vol. 1, p. 343; Arbousset, op. cit., p. 280.
169 Isaacs, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 232; cf. Shooter, op. cit., p. 280 sq.
170 Gardiner, op. cit., p. 99.
171 Isaacs, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 278.
172 See also Gardiner, op. cit., p. 143. This was the point at which, not unnaturally, the system of Dingiswayo
and Chaka broke down first. Vide supra, p. 203.