abstract colorful African King Shaka Zulu (1)

In January 1879, the British army in South Africa invaded the independent and previously friendly Zulu kingdom, which had been founded by the fearsome warrior Nguni Shaka Zulu in 1818. Shaka had been the first true king of South Africa, in that he had succeeded in uniting nearly 800 eastern Nguni-Bantu clans under his rule, displacing the rest. He was also the first to establish a proper army, which he divided into regiments called impis armed with assegais and iklwas - the former a traditional long-pole spear for use at a distance, the latter a remodelled short-pole version that was deadly in hand-to-hand combat.