Word: zulu
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...very tip of the ravine, the trooper reined his mount in horrified astonishment. Spread out below him were the Zulu impi, or horde: 20,000 warriors crouched silent as death, carpeting the floor of the valley for more than a mile. The South African sun danced on long hide shields, glinted off a few musket barrels and a forest of assegais, the double-edged spears that sliced a man's belly to let his evil spirit...
Five miles to the west, at Isandhlwana, a mixed command of 1,800 Redcoats, Boers and native Kaffirs braced for the oncoming attack. The impi covered the distance at a dead run. Swiftly the classic Zulu charge overwhelmed the garrison. The two "horns" raced out to either flank; their mission was to lock in the enemy flesh. The "loins" encircled the rear. The "chest," or main body, rolled like a tidal wave over the British line. By sunset, it was all over. The victorious impi vanished, leaving more than 2,000 of their own dead. But at Isandhlwana...
...Zulus, the bloodbath at Isandhlwana was their greatest triumph in a war they had not sought and could not win. The British offensive, launched in 1879, inexorably rolled on to destroy the most powerful nation that Black Africa ever produced. Author Morris has burdened the story of the Zulu nation's fitful reign and ultimate decline with unessential detail and endless digression. But the story itself survives his maltreatment...
...Zulu power had begun to consolidate some 60 years before Isandhlwana under a rapacious and cruel tribal chieftain, who was called Shaka after his unseemly birth.* Viewing South Africa's teeming, disputatious tribes, Shaka had a vision of the strength that unity could bring, and he set out in 1817 to unify by conquest. Within a year, his modest impi of 350 warriors had swollen to 2,000. In ten years, an army of 50,000 enforced Shaka's will over a domain the size of Nevada...
...urban African, Nakasa argues, is the person most torn by apartheid. "I am supposed to be a Pondo," wrote Nakasa in one of his last articles before leaving South Africa, "but I don't even know the language of that tribe. I was brought up in a Zulu-speaking home, yet I can no longer think in Zulu because that language cannot cope with the demands of our day. I have never owned an assegai or any of those magnificent Zulu shields. Neither do I propose to wear tribal dress when I go to the U.S. I am just...