Shaka

Born near Melmoth in the hills of Zululand in approximately 1788, Shaka was the son of Senzangakhona, the chief of their small tribe; the two main tribes of the time being the Ndwandwe (under Zwide) and Mthethwa (Dingiswayo) tribes.

As his parents were not married according to 'Bantu' custom, Shaka's upbringing was fraught with mockery, humiliation and bitterness which was to last until he fled with his mother, Nandi, to the kraal of Dingiswayo.

Here they were well received and Shaka was to thank him by becoming one of Dingiswayo's finest warriors, moving rapidly through the ranks and earning the name 'Nodumehlezi' which, roughly translated means 'the one who, when seated, causes the earth to rumble'.

It was during this time that Shaka developed the tactic of using the short stabbing spear or assegai and fighting barefoot - thus dispensing with the previous tactic of each warrior being shed with sandals and carrying three long throwing spears which slowed them up considerably and reduced their effectiveness. Shaka and his lieutenants, Nqoboka and Mgobozi, soon became the most respected warrior trio in the area.

Dingiswayo, having obtained knowledge of military organisation from the White people at Delagoa Bay, definitely also influenced Shaka and this knowledge was to be used later to great effect.

When Dingiswayo was murdered by Zwide in 1818 Shaka immediately assumed leadership at the Battle of Qokli Hill which followed. The Ndwandwe army were defeated by a smaller force and Shaka was subsequently declared chief at the relatively young age of approximately 31.

Shaka's armies soon grew. Tactics devised by him were drilled into the warriors by the irrepressible Mgobozi. Training was harsh and discipline was ruthlessly applied for, once they had passed through Mgobozi's training, field training followed under Shaka himself and his generalissimo Mdlaka. This invariably took the form of 50 - 60 mile daily route marches - usually at a jog-trot - followed by battle manoeuvres. Those who fell by the wayside without sufficient reason were put to death by their own assegais.

Apart from his tactical acumen, Shaka was also ahead of his time with respect to (military) intelligence; he always ensured he had accurate, timely information about his enemies.

Within two and a half years Shaka, now known as "The Great Elephant", controlled the area between the White Umfolozi river in the north and the Tugela river in the south; from the sea to the Drakensberg mountains in the west. Thirty chiefs and their clans had been consolidated into a single political and military unit. His effective communications network ensured that he was kept fully informed of all happenings both within and outside of his 'kingdom'.

All forms of communication were important to Shaka; during the first Umkosi, or harvest festival, he held a huge army review in which free communication was encouraged. Any warrior could cross-examine the king with impunity and was entitled to a reply. Explanations or answers given by the king could be publicly denounced, discussed and his reasoning brought into question. He also brought into his army the trappings of heraldry. The shields of the youngest warriors were wholly black and, as they gained experience, there was more white brought into the shield. The most experienced warriors had mainly white shields with, at the most, a small patch of black. Red never featured in the shield colouring of the Zulus during Shaka's reign.

In each of his encounters with rival clans, Shaka showed astuteness and tactical brilliance and even, though possibly unknowingly, adopted tactics employed by Julius Ceasar (to whom he has often been compared) and his armies. An exam- pie of this was the testudo - or tortoise manoeuvre whereby shields were held overhead while attacking an enemy situated higher than themselves (such as the encounter at Opisweni mountain where a seemingly impregnable mountain fortress was overrun).

By 1821 Shaka was in control of over 11 500 square miles of territory. He had unified and consolidated the Zulu homeland from the Pongola River in the north to the Tugela in the south; from the sea to the Buffalo River in the west.

By 1826 his power and influence had extended far beyond these borders. Those whom he had defeated had moved inland and northward wreaking untold havoc and destruction among the tribes they encountered - thus disrupting the historical heritage of these areas. Many fleeing this carnage actually fled into Zululand where they too were incorporated into Shaka's armies which, by this time, numbered some 20 000 strong.

This influence was soon to be felt even further northward beyond the Limpopo River when his most trusted general, Mzlikazi, turned rebel and proceeded to conquer every tribe between the Vaal and the Zambezi Rivers where he settled and established the Matabele tribe in what became Rhodesia and subsequently Zimbabwe. Like Shaka, Mzlikazi was also to name his kraal Bulawayo, the name still exists today in that country's second largest city.

By the end of his reign, Shaka had progressed from petty chieftain whose authority covered a mere 100 square miles, to king of all the Zulus with a territory which stretched over 200 000 square miles. From a small rabble of 500 men initially, his army numbered in excess of 50 000, rated superior to even that of Ceasar himself. His influence, however, covered an area of millions of square miles.

Shaka's reign came to an abrupt end on 22 September 1828 when his half-brothers Dingane and Mhlangana, aided by his bodyservant, Mbopa, attacked and killed him in his kraal at Dukuza (today known as Stanger).

Shaka now lies buried close to where he fell; his grave a grain storage pit. A large memorial stands to this day in the centre of Stanger, the small town which was once the seat of power of all of Zululand.

It is therefore fitting that the name Shaka lives on in the SA Navy - although the "spears" of the modern day Shaka are con- siderably more potent than those if its illustrious namesake.