WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.459 You know, usually when we talk about empire builders, 00:00:02.660 --> 00:00:06.120 we're looking at figures like Julius Caesar or 00:00:06.120 --> 00:00:08.820 Genghis Khan. Right. People who operate on these 00:00:08.820 --> 00:00:11.919 massive, sprawling timelines. You know, we look 00:00:11.919 --> 00:00:15.000 at centuries of evolution to get to the peak 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:17.120 of an empire. Yeah, the Roman Republic to the 00:00:17.120 --> 00:00:19.019 empire, that takes hundreds of years. Exactly. 00:00:19.160 --> 00:00:21.719 But today I want to look at something that happened. 00:00:22.570 --> 00:00:24.829 Well, in the blink of an eye, really. It really 00:00:24.829 --> 00:00:27.750 is a speed run of history. Yeah. It it sort of 00:00:27.750 --> 00:00:30.910 defies the usual laws of political gravity. It 00:00:30.910 --> 00:00:33.070 really does. We are talking about a time frame 00:00:33.070 --> 00:00:37.810 of just 12 years. Twelve. In that tiny window, 00:00:38.009 --> 00:00:40.929 one man takes a relatively small, insignificant 00:00:40.929 --> 00:00:43.609 pastoral tribe in southern Africa. People who 00:00:43.609 --> 00:00:45.630 were, I mean, largely mining their own business. 00:00:45.729 --> 00:00:48.130 Raising cattle, growing sorghum. Exactly. And 00:00:48.130 --> 00:00:51.409 he forges them into a military machine that completely, 00:00:51.729 --> 00:00:54.149 and I mean completely, rewrote the map of the 00:00:54.149 --> 00:00:56.390 region. We're talking, of course, about Shaka 00:00:56.390 --> 00:00:59.429 Zulu. The Black Napoleon, as he is often called. 00:00:59.490 --> 00:01:02.229 And look, the mission for this deep dive is... 00:01:02.960 --> 00:01:05.719 It's a bit tricky. It's very tricky. Because 00:01:05.719 --> 00:01:08.760 on one hand, we have the military genius, the 00:01:08.760 --> 00:01:11.700 tactics, the weaponry, the sheer organizational 00:01:11.700 --> 00:01:15.840 brilliance. That stuff is, well, it's undeniable. 00:01:16.040 --> 00:01:18.280 You can't argue with the results. No. But on 00:01:18.280 --> 00:01:20.980 the other hand, we have the monster, the tyrant 00:01:20.980 --> 00:01:23.959 who supposedly killed a million people and depopulated 00:01:23.959 --> 00:01:26.299 a subcontinent. And that is where the detective 00:01:26.299 --> 00:01:29.329 work begins. Because as we dug into these sources, 00:01:29.450 --> 00:01:31.969 and we're talking oral traditions, the diaries 00:01:31.969 --> 00:01:35.469 of British traders, and crucially, modern revisionist 00:01:35.469 --> 00:01:38.370 history from scholars like Dan Wiley and Julian 00:01:38.370 --> 00:01:41.530 Cobbing, a massive question mark started to appear 00:01:41.530 --> 00:01:44.069 over that whole monster narrative. Right. Like 00:01:44.069 --> 00:01:46.349 a huge one. Are we looking at a historical fact 00:01:46.349 --> 00:01:49.189 or are we looking at a 200 -year -old smear campaign? 00:01:49.349 --> 00:01:51.109 That's really the mystery we're trying to solve 00:01:51.109 --> 00:01:53.569 today. It is. But before we get to the controversy, 00:01:53.689 --> 00:01:56.769 to the big debate, we have to understand the 00:01:56.769 --> 00:02:00.790 man. And his story, it doesn't start in a palace. 00:02:00.930 --> 00:02:03.650 Not even close. Var from it. If you are picturing 00:02:03.650 --> 00:02:05.609 a prince, you know, waiting for his turn on the 00:02:05.609 --> 00:02:07.750 throne, you have to wipe that image away completely. 00:02:08.189 --> 00:02:10.550 Shaka's story is a story of exile. And it starts 00:02:10.550 --> 00:02:13.050 from birth, basically. From the moment of conception, 00:02:13.229 --> 00:02:15.729 really. He was born around 1787 in the lunar 00:02:15.729 --> 00:02:19.750 month of Untulikazi, which corresponds to July 00:02:19.750 --> 00:02:22.210 for us. And July in that part of the world is 00:02:22.210 --> 00:02:26.599 winter. It's dry. It's dusty. Not exactly a bountiful 00:02:26.599 --> 00:02:29.020 time. No, it's a harsh time to be born. A time 00:02:29.020 --> 00:02:32.759 of scarcity. And his name, Shaka, tells you everything 00:02:32.759 --> 00:02:34.879 you need to know about his social standing. It's 00:02:34.879 --> 00:02:37.520 not a royal name. It was not a noble name given 00:02:37.520 --> 00:02:41.139 with fanfare, no. It roughly translates to intestinal 00:02:41.139 --> 00:02:44.000 beetle. An intestinal beetle, that is. That's 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:46.259 specific. And not exactly flattering, is it? 00:02:46.360 --> 00:02:49.699 It was a dismissal. His father was the Zulu king, 00:02:49.879 --> 00:02:52.780 Senzangakona, but Shaka was considered illegitimate. 00:02:52.960 --> 00:02:55.300 The elders basically, you know, they dismissed 00:02:55.300 --> 00:02:57.340 his mother's pregnancy as just a stomachache. 00:02:57.460 --> 00:02:59.439 Caused by this beetle. Caused by a Shaka beetle. 00:02:59.539 --> 00:03:01.599 It was a way of saying, this child is a mistake. 00:03:01.780 --> 00:03:04.180 He doesn't count. So he carries this label, this 00:03:04.180 --> 00:03:07.520 deep insult, right from day one. From day one. 00:03:07.680 --> 00:03:10.819 And it defined his entire childhood. He and his 00:03:10.819 --> 00:03:13.240 mother, Nandi, were outcasts. They were sent 00:03:13.240 --> 00:03:15.560 away to live with her tribe, the Elanjani. But 00:03:15.560 --> 00:03:18.300 even there, Shaka was... bullied relentlessly 00:03:18.300 --> 00:03:22.219 oh for everything for being fatherless for his 00:03:22.219 --> 00:03:24.879 appearance for being the poor relation who had 00:03:24.879 --> 00:03:27.759 to be fed the oral histories are full of stories 00:03:27.759 --> 00:03:30.340 of him being tormented by other boys i think 00:03:30.340 --> 00:03:32.759 this is such a crucial psychological key for 00:03:32.759 --> 00:03:36.060 you the listener shaka spends his entire formative 00:03:36.060 --> 00:03:39.000 years on the outside looking in He isn't part 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:41.360 of the system. He's a victim of it. He's a victim 00:03:41.360 --> 00:03:44.259 of it. And that has to breed a certain kind of 00:03:44.259 --> 00:03:47.379 resentment or at the very least a powerful drive 00:03:47.379 --> 00:03:50.340 to prove everyone wrong. Or a drive to burn the 00:03:50.340 --> 00:03:52.400 entire system down and build a new one in its 00:03:52.400 --> 00:03:55.199 place. And that is what happened. Eventually 00:03:55.199 --> 00:03:57.699 the situation became untenable and they had to 00:03:57.699 --> 00:04:00.860 move again, finally finding refuge with the Efethwa 00:04:00.860 --> 00:04:03.120 clan. Okay, so the Mephethwa. This is where things 00:04:03.120 --> 00:04:04.699 start to change for him. This is the turning 00:04:04.699 --> 00:04:07.020 point. Because with the Efethwa, he gets drafted. 00:04:07.900 --> 00:04:10.259 He's old enough to join an Ibutho. Let's define 00:04:10.259 --> 00:04:11.979 that term because it comes up a lot in the sources. 00:04:12.439 --> 00:04:15.080 Ibutho. It's not just an army unit, is it? No, 00:04:15.099 --> 00:04:16.699 it's more than that. Essentially, it's a regiment, 00:04:16.800 --> 00:04:19.819 yes. But in Zulu society, it is also an age set. 00:04:19.939 --> 00:04:21.560 You grow up with these guys, you work with them, 00:04:21.600 --> 00:04:23.339 you go through initiation with them, you fight 00:04:23.339 --> 00:04:25.579 with them. It's your social cohort for life. 00:04:25.800 --> 00:04:28.379 A band of brothers, literally. A band of brothers. 00:04:28.600 --> 00:04:31.459 And this is where Shaka finds his calling. He's 00:04:31.459 --> 00:04:34.360 no longer the bullied outcast. Here, his aggression, 00:04:34.500 --> 00:04:36.740 his intensity, his physical strength, they're 00:04:36.740 --> 00:04:40.180 assets. And he falls under the wing of the Mithithwa 00:04:40.180 --> 00:04:43.579 chief, a man named Dingiswayo. Dingiswayo is 00:04:43.579 --> 00:04:45.779 the mentor figure here. He's a huge part of the 00:04:45.779 --> 00:04:49.060 story. The Obi -Wan to Shaka's Anakin, maybe. 00:04:49.319 --> 00:04:52.420 In a way, that's a good analogy. Yeah. Dingiswayo 00:04:52.420 --> 00:04:54.819 was a visionary leader in his own right. He saw 00:04:54.819 --> 00:04:56.720 something in this angry, intense young exile. 00:04:57.060 --> 00:05:00.300 He realized Shaka had royal blood. He was the 00:05:00.300 --> 00:05:02.540 son of the Zulu king, after all. Even if that 00:05:02.540 --> 00:05:04.759 king didn't claim him. Right. But more importantly, 00:05:04.839 --> 00:05:07.019 he saw that Shaka was a naturally gifted soldier, 00:05:07.160 --> 00:05:09.879 a brilliant tactician. So Dingiswayo puts him 00:05:09.879 --> 00:05:12.500 in charge of a regiment. And this is the incubator. 00:05:12.600 --> 00:05:14.740 This is where Shaka stops being the victim and 00:05:14.740 --> 00:05:17.240 starts becoming the commander. He hones his skills 00:05:17.240 --> 00:05:20.160 here. And the timeline moves incredibly fast 00:05:20.160 --> 00:05:24.459 from here. In 1816, Shaka's father, the king 00:05:24.459 --> 00:05:27.699 of Azulu, sends Angakona. He dies. He does. Shaka 00:05:27.699 --> 00:05:30.399 is nearly 30 at this point. He is trained. He's 00:05:30.399 --> 00:05:32.660 a respected commander. He's backed by Dinguswayo, 00:05:32.819 --> 00:05:35.060 and he decides it is time to go home. But he's 00:05:35.060 --> 00:05:37.699 not going home for a family reunion. No. He's 00:05:37.699 --> 00:05:40.060 going for the crown. His half -brother, Sigurjana, 00:05:40.180 --> 00:05:42.720 had taken over, but Shaka marches in with his 00:05:42.720 --> 00:05:45.360 Mithual regiment. And it wasn't a war. It was 00:05:45.360 --> 00:05:49.259 a coup. Swift and brutal. Sigurjana is assassinated, 00:05:49.319 --> 00:05:52.379 and Shaka takes the throne of the Zulu. So 1816, 00:05:52.660 --> 00:05:55.259 year zero for what would become the Zulu Empire. 00:05:55.920 --> 00:05:58.459 Paint the picture for us. What exactly did he 00:05:58.459 --> 00:06:00.459 take over? Because when we say Zulu kingdom today, 00:06:00.660 --> 00:06:03.420 we think of this massive, powerful territory. 00:06:03.759 --> 00:06:06.120 At that moment, it was tiny, insignificant, really. 00:06:06.220 --> 00:06:08.560 The Zulus were just one small clan among many, 00:06:08.600 --> 00:06:11.079 maybe a few thousand people. They were pastoralists. 00:06:11.259 --> 00:06:13.759 Their life revolved around cattle, drinking milk, 00:06:13.860 --> 00:06:15.959 eating sordom. They were not a regional superpower. 00:06:16.339 --> 00:06:18.620 Not even close. They were a blip on the map. 00:06:19.259 --> 00:06:21.800 Chukka looks at this small tribe, his inheritance, 00:06:22.100 --> 00:06:24.860 and decides he is not content with just herding 00:06:24.860 --> 00:06:29.240 cows. He wants to build a state, an empire. And 00:06:29.240 --> 00:06:31.699 to do that, he initiates what historians call 00:06:31.699 --> 00:06:34.600 the military revolution. And this is the part 00:06:34.600 --> 00:06:36.759 of the research I found absolutely fascinating. 00:06:37.019 --> 00:06:39.399 It is like he looked at the software and the 00:06:39.399 --> 00:06:42.339 hardware of warfare in southern Africa and decided 00:06:42.339 --> 00:06:44.699 to upgrade absolutely everything. It really was 00:06:44.699 --> 00:06:48.000 a systemic overhaul, a total reboot. And it started 00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:51.300 with the most basic thing, the weapon. The spear. 00:06:51.560 --> 00:06:53.899 The spear. Traditionally, warfare in this region 00:06:53.899 --> 00:06:58.180 was almost... Ritualized. Yeah. Men carried the 00:06:58.180 --> 00:07:00.519 long throwing assegai. A javelin, basically. 00:07:00.680 --> 00:07:02.459 Right. And you'd have two opposing lines of men 00:07:02.459 --> 00:07:04.899 standing maybe 40, 50 yards apart. They would 00:07:04.899 --> 00:07:07.339 shout insults at each other, posture a bit, and 00:07:07.339 --> 00:07:08.980 then they'd throw these spears. And maybe someone 00:07:08.980 --> 00:07:12.220 gets hit, maybe not. Exactly. It was low casualty, 00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:14.699 distance fighting. And once you've thrown your 00:07:14.699 --> 00:07:17.399 spear, you're unarmed. You might run away or 00:07:17.399 --> 00:07:20.259 pick up a rock. Shaka thought this was ridiculous. 00:07:20.660 --> 00:07:24.170 Absolutely insane. He famously said. A warrior 00:07:24.170 --> 00:07:27.350 who throws his spear is a warrior who has lost 00:07:27.350 --> 00:07:29.430 his weapon. That's a great line. So what's his 00:07:29.430 --> 00:07:32.949 solution? His solution is the ikwa. The ikwa. 00:07:33.050 --> 00:07:37.029 It's a heavy, broad -bladed stabbing spear. The 00:07:37.029 --> 00:07:39.550 handle is short, maybe two feet long. You can't 00:07:39.550 --> 00:07:42.529 throw it. It is useless at range. Its only purpose 00:07:42.529 --> 00:07:44.670 is for close quarters killing. The name itself 00:07:44.670 --> 00:07:46.990 is onomatopoic, isn't it? I read that somewhere. 00:07:47.290 --> 00:07:49.370 It is. The oral tradition says it's meant to 00:07:49.370 --> 00:07:51.290 mimic the sucking sound the blade makes when 00:07:51.290 --> 00:07:55.120 you pull it out of a human body. Wow. That is 00:07:55.120 --> 00:07:57.579 visceral. But think about the psychological shift 00:07:57.579 --> 00:07:59.579 that requires. You are telling these men, you 00:07:59.579 --> 00:08:01.199 don't stand back anymore. You don't throw things. 00:08:01.319 --> 00:08:02.939 You have to run right up to the guy who wants 00:08:02.939 --> 00:08:04.959 to kill you, look him in the eye, and stab him. 00:08:05.199 --> 00:08:08.180 It changed warfare from a skirmish into a slaughter. 00:08:08.579 --> 00:08:10.920 And he paired this new weapon with a new shield. 00:08:11.139 --> 00:08:14.199 He made the cowhide shields much larger and heavier. 00:08:14.399 --> 00:08:17.350 So better defense. Better defense, yes. But he 00:08:17.350 --> 00:08:19.829 also weaponized it. And here's the technical 00:08:19.829 --> 00:08:23.790 brilliance. He taught a specific move. A drill. 00:08:24.589 --> 00:08:27.329 You use the left side of your shield to hook 00:08:27.329 --> 00:08:29.509 the enemy's shield. Okay, so I am a warrior. 00:08:29.550 --> 00:08:31.850 I'm facing my enemy. I hook the guy's shield 00:08:31.850 --> 00:08:34.269 and pull it across his body. Exactly. You hook 00:08:34.269 --> 00:08:36.690 his shield and pull it hard to your right. What 00:08:36.690 --> 00:08:39.309 does that do? It exposes his entire left side. 00:08:39.409 --> 00:08:42.490 His ribs, his heart, under his arm. And that's 00:08:42.490 --> 00:08:44.509 the opening. That is where you thrust with the 00:08:44.509 --> 00:08:47.629 Ikwa. It was a mechanized, drilled method of 00:08:47.629 --> 00:08:52.009 killing. Hook, pull, stab, over and over. He 00:08:52.009 --> 00:08:53.929 drilled his regiments until it was muscle memory. 00:08:54.230 --> 00:08:56.549 But having a better sword doesn't win a war if 00:08:56.549 --> 00:08:58.269 you don't have a strategy. And this is where 00:08:58.269 --> 00:09:00.169 we get the bullhorns. I feel like this is the 00:09:00.169 --> 00:09:02.330 trademark Shaka move that everyone references. 00:09:02.490 --> 00:09:05.230 It is. The Isumpando Zancoma. The horns of the 00:09:05.230 --> 00:09:07.929 beast. And it's just a brilliant formation that 00:09:07.929 --> 00:09:10.070 maximizes encirclement. Can you break it down 00:09:10.070 --> 00:09:12.669 for us? Of course. So imagine the shape of a 00:09:12.669 --> 00:09:14.899 bull's head looking down at a map. You have three 00:09:14.899 --> 00:09:18.200 main parts. First, the chest. The chest. These 00:09:18.200 --> 00:09:20.700 are your battle -hardened veterans, your strongest, 00:09:20.779 --> 00:09:23.879 most experienced warriors. Their job is to charge 00:09:23.879 --> 00:09:26.419 the enemy center, hit them hard, and pin them 00:09:26.419 --> 00:09:29.379 down. They are the anvil. They absorb the main 00:09:29.379 --> 00:09:31.539 shock of the battle. So the enemy is totally 00:09:31.539 --> 00:09:33.480 focused on fighting the chest. They can't move. 00:09:33.539 --> 00:09:35.299 They can't maneuver. Right. They're locked in 00:09:35.299 --> 00:09:38.399 place. Then while that's happening, you unleash 00:09:38.399 --> 00:09:41.139 the horns. The horns. These are the junior regiments. 00:09:41.159 --> 00:09:44.840 Young, fast, full of adrenaline. While the chest 00:09:44.840 --> 00:09:47.279 is engaging, the horns sprint out wide to the 00:09:47.279 --> 00:09:50.259 left and right. They flank the enemy and close 00:09:50.259 --> 00:09:52.799 in behind them, cutting off any escape. Complete 00:09:52.799 --> 00:09:54.980 of the circle. It's a classic double envelopment. 00:09:55.080 --> 00:09:57.820 A perfect double envelopment. But Shaka added 00:09:57.820 --> 00:10:00.580 a third element that often gets overlooked, and 00:10:00.580 --> 00:10:02.539 this shows his genius for command and control. 00:10:03.139 --> 00:10:06.159 The loins. The loins. This is the reserve force. 00:10:06.440 --> 00:10:08.460 Yes, and this is where the discipline comes in. 00:10:08.669 --> 00:10:11.470 The loins were positioned behind the chest, and 00:10:11.470 --> 00:10:13.330 they were ordered to sit down with their backs 00:10:13.330 --> 00:10:15.309 to the battle. Wait, their backs to the fighting? 00:10:15.429 --> 00:10:18.669 Why would you do that? To keep them calm. In 00:10:18.669 --> 00:10:20.889 the heat of battle, with the noise and the dust 00:10:20.889 --> 00:10:23.470 and the blood, it is easy to get sucked in, to 00:10:23.470 --> 00:10:26.549 panic. Shaka wanted them fresh and cool -headed. 00:10:26.549 --> 00:10:28.769 They couldn't see the chaos. So you're just waiting 00:10:28.769 --> 00:10:31.110 for the call? Just waiting. They sat there until 00:10:31.110 --> 00:10:33.509 the commander saw a gap in the line, or a point 00:10:33.509 --> 00:10:35.730 where the enemy was about to break, or if one 00:10:35.730 --> 00:10:38.779 of the horns was in trouble. and then boom, they 00:10:38.779 --> 00:10:41.120 were sent in as a fresh wave to finish the job 00:10:41.120 --> 00:10:44.179 or plug a gap. It is comparable to the Roman 00:10:44.179 --> 00:10:47.899 usage of the triari. It is that level of professional 00:10:47.899 --> 00:10:50.559 command and tactical depth. You keep mentioning 00:10:50.559 --> 00:10:52.919 discipline, and there is a famous story, and 00:10:52.919 --> 00:10:54.659 I want to know if you think this is fact or myth, 00:10:54.860 --> 00:10:58.240 that Shaka made his warriors discard their sandals. 00:10:58.500 --> 00:11:01.559 Ah, the sandal myth. He supposedly made them 00:11:01.559 --> 00:11:04.000 march barefoot over thorns to toughen their feet. 00:11:04.320 --> 00:11:06.740 Is that real? It is one of the most debated points 00:11:06.740 --> 00:11:09.980 in the historiography. The story goes that Shaka 00:11:09.980 --> 00:11:12.840 believed sandals made warriors slow and clumsy. 00:11:12.940 --> 00:11:15.259 They couldn't feel the ground. So he banned them. 00:11:15.559 --> 00:11:17.919 And if you complained or if you kept your sandals. 00:11:17.980 --> 00:11:20.240 You were executed. You were executed. It fits 00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:22.399 the ruthless genius narrative perfectly, doesn't 00:11:22.399 --> 00:11:25.759 it? It does. Toughen up or die. Right. But we 00:11:25.759 --> 00:11:28.240 have to be really careful here. Some of the more 00:11:28.240 --> 00:11:32.299 critical historians, like John LeBand, are very 00:11:32.299 --> 00:11:34.659 skeptical about the exaggerated claims surrounding 00:11:34.659 --> 00:11:37.120 this. You will hear these incredible stories 00:11:37.120 --> 00:11:40.620 that the Zulu army marched 50 miles a day, fought 00:11:40.620 --> 00:11:44.320 a battle, and marched 50 miles back. LeBand calls 00:11:44.320 --> 00:11:46.840 that ridiculous. Yeah, 50 miles is basically 00:11:46.840 --> 00:11:49.519 two marathons. With weapons and a shield, that's 00:11:49.519 --> 00:11:52.320 superhuman. It is. A more realistic estimate 00:11:52.320 --> 00:11:55.840 is maybe 12 to 15 miles a day, maybe 20 on a 00:11:55.840 --> 00:11:58.360 forced march, which, by the way, is still incredibly 00:11:58.360 --> 00:12:01.159 fast for an army moving on foot in rough terrain. 00:12:01.340 --> 00:12:03.840 So very impressive. Immensely impressive. And 00:12:03.840 --> 00:12:05.860 whether they were barefoot or not, they were 00:12:05.860 --> 00:12:08.700 undeniably more mobile than their enemies. And 00:12:08.700 --> 00:12:10.519 a big part of that speed came from the logistics. 00:12:10.700 --> 00:12:13.779 He created the Udibi. The logistics core. Yeah. 00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:16.590 The support stack. Yes. Exactly. Shaka realized 00:12:16.590 --> 00:12:18.669 that if a warrior is carrying his own sleeping 00:12:18.669 --> 00:12:21.009 mat, his cooking pot, and three days of beef 00:12:21.009 --> 00:12:24.330 jerky, he is going to be slow and tired. So he 00:12:24.330 --> 00:12:26.629 drafted boys, sometimes as young as six or seven, 00:12:26.750 --> 00:12:29.990 to be carriers. The Udibi. So the warriors carried 00:12:29.990 --> 00:12:32.049 nothing but their weapons. Nothing but their 00:12:32.049 --> 00:12:34.429 weapons and shield. They traveled light. The 00:12:34.429 --> 00:12:36.549 Udibi carried all the baggage in the rear. It 00:12:36.549 --> 00:12:39.110 meant the Zulu army could strike before the enemy 00:12:39.110 --> 00:12:41.480 even knew they were in the region. Total surprise. 00:12:41.759 --> 00:12:44.299 So he has the weapon, the formation, the speed, 00:12:44.299 --> 00:12:46.980 and the logistics. He has built a Ferrari in 00:12:46.980 --> 00:12:49.200 a world of horse carts. Now he needs a track 00:12:49.200 --> 00:12:52.539 to race on. And this brings us to the expansion. 00:12:52.899 --> 00:12:55.259 It does. And every great story needs a great 00:12:55.259 --> 00:12:58.139 villain. For Shaka, that villain was a man named 00:12:58.139 --> 00:13:01.159 Zwide. Zwide, king of the Nwanwe. He was the 00:13:01.159 --> 00:13:03.259 heavy hitter in the region when Shaka took over 00:13:03.259 --> 00:13:06.259 the Zulu. He was the established power, and he 00:13:06.259 --> 00:13:08.779 made a fatal error. What did he do? He killed 00:13:08.779 --> 00:13:11.720 Dinguswayo. Shaka's mentor. The man who saved 00:13:11.720 --> 00:13:13.659 him from exile and gave him his first command. 00:13:13.899 --> 00:13:16.620 The very same. He captured and executed him. 00:13:16.740 --> 00:13:19.240 And for Shaka, this wasn't just politics anymore. 00:13:19.320 --> 00:13:21.480 It was a blood feud. It was personal. And the 00:13:21.480 --> 00:13:23.799 way Shaka handled this war shows both his tactical 00:13:23.799 --> 00:13:27.480 brilliance and his capacity for extreme cruelty. 00:13:27.980 --> 00:13:29.679 Let's talk about the cruelty part first because 00:13:29.679 --> 00:13:33.320 it's extreme. I'm looking at the notes on what 00:13:33.320 --> 00:13:36.279 he did to Zweid's mother, a woman named Lampambazi. 00:13:36.620 --> 00:13:40.159 She was a sangoma, a spiritual healer, and apparently 00:13:40.159 --> 00:13:44.080 quite powerful. Yes. The sources, and again, 00:13:44.120 --> 00:13:45.480 we have to remember these are oral traditions 00:13:45.480 --> 00:13:48.200 written down much later by Europeans, say he 00:13:48.200 --> 00:13:50.980 captured her. He didn't just execute her. He 00:13:50.980 --> 00:13:53.200 locked her in a house filled with starving jackals 00:13:53.200 --> 00:13:56.860 or hyenas. Alive. Alive. to be devoured. And 00:13:56.860 --> 00:13:58.779 then after they were done, he had the entire 00:13:58.779 --> 00:14:01.100 house burned to the ground. It was a message. 00:14:01.259 --> 00:14:03.080 What was the message? I am not just defeating 00:14:03.080 --> 00:14:05.840 you. I am erasing you. I am destroying you, body 00:14:05.840 --> 00:14:08.299 and soul. Chilling. But on the battlefield, he 00:14:08.299 --> 00:14:10.440 was just as decisive. The Battle of Gwakli Hill 00:14:10.440 --> 00:14:12.559 seems to be the masterclass. It is. It's his 00:14:12.559 --> 00:14:15.919 defensive masterpiece. Shaka was massively outnumbered 00:14:15.919 --> 00:14:19.610 by Zwide's army. But he chose the terrain. He 00:14:19.610 --> 00:14:21.610 positioned his smaller force on the top of a 00:14:21.610 --> 00:14:24.129 hill, which limited how many Inwandri could attack 00:14:24.129 --> 00:14:26.590 him at once. He created a bottleneck. He created 00:14:26.590 --> 00:14:30.190 a bottleneck. And he used the bullhorns defensively 00:14:30.190 --> 00:14:32.730 to absorb the Inwandri attacks, wear them down, 00:14:32.889 --> 00:14:36.250 and inflict huge casualties. He bled them dry 00:14:36.250 --> 00:14:38.230 on that hill. And that wasn't even the final 00:14:38.230 --> 00:14:40.549 battle. No, the final blow was the Battle of 00:14:40.549 --> 00:14:43.419 the Miletus River. He caught the Andwandwe army 00:14:43.419 --> 00:14:45.720 in a terrible position, split in half as they 00:14:45.720 --> 00:14:47.860 were crossing the river. He just annihilated 00:14:47.860 --> 00:14:50.539 them. Zweid himself escaped, but his capital 00:14:50.539 --> 00:14:52.440 was sacked and his power was completely broken. 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:55.279 Now, usually this is where the history books 00:14:55.279 --> 00:14:57.080 just say, and then Shaka conquered everyone. 00:14:57.580 --> 00:15:00.100 But there's a real nuance here about how he built 00:15:00.100 --> 00:15:02.399 the nation. He didn't just kill everyone he conquered, 00:15:02.539 --> 00:15:05.820 right? That wouldn't be sustainable. No, and 00:15:05.820 --> 00:15:08.399 that is the genius of a statecraft. He practiced 00:15:08.399 --> 00:15:11.700 assimilation on a massive scale. When he conquered 00:15:11.700 --> 00:15:14.340 a neighboring tribe, like the Kwabe, he brought 00:15:14.340 --> 00:15:16.919 them into the Zulu fold. The men were incorporated 00:15:16.919 --> 00:15:19.700 into the Zulu -Abutho. The women were married 00:15:19.700 --> 00:15:22.360 to Zulu men. But he did something really clever 00:15:22.360 --> 00:15:25.340 with the culture. He reinvented their genealogies. 00:15:25.419 --> 00:15:27.820 He rewrote their family trees. How do you do 00:15:27.820 --> 00:15:30.620 that? Essentially, yes. The history was oral. 00:15:30.970 --> 00:15:32.649 Right. So he manipulated the oral traditions. 00:15:32.750 --> 00:15:35.429 He had his praise singers and storytellers craft 00:15:35.429 --> 00:15:37.570 new histories that made it seem like the Zulu 00:15:37.570 --> 00:15:40.610 and a Quab were actually long lost brothers descended 00:15:40.610 --> 00:15:43.549 from a common ancestor generations ago. So it 00:15:43.549 --> 00:15:46.379 wasn't a conquest. It was a reunification. Yeah. 00:15:46.519 --> 00:15:48.379 He convinced them that they weren't being conquered. 00:15:48.440 --> 00:15:50.639 They were being reunited with their true family. 00:15:50.860 --> 00:15:53.639 It was brilliant propaganda to build national 00:15:53.639 --> 00:15:56.200 unity out of all these disparate conquered groups. 00:15:56.460 --> 00:15:58.759 That is fascinating. We have always been one 00:15:58.759 --> 00:16:02.379 people. You just forgot a very powerful message. 00:16:02.779 --> 00:16:05.139 Extremely. But now, now we have to pivot. We 00:16:05.139 --> 00:16:07.200 have built the empire. Now we have to look at 00:16:07.200 --> 00:16:10.000 the destruction. And this brings us to the most 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:12.799 controversial, most debated topic in all of Southern 00:16:12.799 --> 00:16:16.200 African history. The emphacane. The emphacane, 00:16:16.240 --> 00:16:18.659 or you hear it called the defacane as well. Translate 00:16:18.659 --> 00:16:20.899 that for us first. It means the crushing or the 00:16:20.899 --> 00:16:23.259 scattering. And the standard story, the one that 00:16:23.259 --> 00:16:24.860 was taught in South African schools for decades, 00:16:24.940 --> 00:16:27.740 the one in all the old textbooks, is that Shaka's 00:16:27.740 --> 00:16:31.000 expansion was so violent, so genocidal, that 00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:33.720 it set off a cataclysmic domino effect. Okay, 00:16:33.799 --> 00:16:36.120 so what does that domino effect look like? The 00:16:36.120 --> 00:16:38.960 narrative is that entire tribes fled from Shaka 00:16:38.960 --> 00:16:42.320 in terror. As they fled, they bumped into other 00:16:42.320 --> 00:16:44.879 tribes, fought them for their land and cattle, 00:16:44.960 --> 00:16:47.700 which caused them to flee, and so on. This wave 00:16:47.700 --> 00:16:50.840 of chaos and violence supposedly depopulated 00:16:50.840 --> 00:16:53.179 the entire interior of South Africa. And the 00:16:53.179 --> 00:16:55.980 numbers usually cited are just massive. We see 00:16:55.980 --> 00:16:58.860 claims of one to two million dead. A million 00:16:58.860 --> 00:17:02.139 dead. Two million dead. A continent -shifting 00:17:02.139 --> 00:17:05.200 event. Leaders like Mzilikazi of the Ndebele 00:17:05.200 --> 00:17:08.160 and Soshangani of the Gaza people fled from Shaka 00:17:08.160 --> 00:17:10.559 and carved out their own violent path all the 00:17:10.559 --> 00:17:12.480 way up in modern -day Zimbabwe and Mozambique. 00:17:12.859 --> 00:17:15.819 The narrative is Shaka was the pebble that started 00:17:15.819 --> 00:17:18.539 the avalanche. Okay. So that is the story, Shaka 00:17:18.539 --> 00:17:20.640 the monster, the man who killed a million people. 00:17:20.920 --> 00:17:23.059 But earlier you mentioned a detective story. 00:17:23.140 --> 00:17:25.180 You said that we might be looking at a lie. Yes. 00:17:25.579 --> 00:17:27.819 This is where we need to introduce two very important 00:17:27.819 --> 00:17:30.299 men, Nathaniel Isaacs and Henry Francis Finn. 00:17:30.400 --> 00:17:32.220 And who were they? They were British traders, 00:17:32.400 --> 00:17:35.000 adventurers maybe. They operated in the region 00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:37.779 during Shaka's reign. And they are our primary 00:17:37.779 --> 00:17:41.140 written sources for this period. Almost everything 00:17:41.140 --> 00:17:43.779 we know about Shaka's day -to -day brutality 00:17:43.779 --> 00:17:46.480 comes from their diaries and memoirs. Okay, so 00:17:46.480 --> 00:17:48.799 they're the eyewitnesses. Are they reliable witnesses? 00:17:49.259 --> 00:17:51.880 Well, let's look at the evidence. We found a 00:17:51.880 --> 00:17:55.019 letter, a literal smoking gun, written by Nathaniel 00:17:55.019 --> 00:17:58.039 Isaacs to Henry Francis Finn while Finn was writing 00:17:58.039 --> 00:18:01.539 his memoirs. He gives Finn some friendly advice 00:18:01.539 --> 00:18:03.619 on how to write about Shaka. He says, and I'm 00:18:03.619 --> 00:18:06.819 quoting here, Make Shaka out to be as bloodthirsty 00:18:06.819 --> 00:18:09.259 as you can. It helps rel out the work and make 00:18:09.259 --> 00:18:11.259 it interesting. Wait, wait, he put that in writing. 00:18:11.319 --> 00:18:13.460 Make him a monster because it sells books. It 00:18:13.460 --> 00:18:16.160 sells books, yes. Absolutely. Sensationalism 00:18:16.160 --> 00:18:19.000 sells. But there was a much darker, much more 00:18:19.000 --> 00:18:21.119 significant motive than just book sales. Which 00:18:21.119 --> 00:18:23.599 was? Land. Follow the money, of course. Finn 00:18:23.599 --> 00:18:25.700 wanted a massive land grant for the British colonial 00:18:25.700 --> 00:18:28.359 government in the Cape. A huge tract of what 00:18:28.359 --> 00:18:30.759 is now KwaZulu -Natal. But the British weren't 00:18:30.759 --> 00:18:32.099 just going to let him seize land that belonged 00:18:32.099 --> 00:18:35.220 to the Zulu people. There were laws, optics. 00:18:35.599 --> 00:18:39.200 However, if the land was empty. If Finn could 00:18:39.200 --> 00:18:41.599 prove that the land was empty. that it had been 00:18:41.599 --> 00:18:44.740 depopulated by a savage tyrant before the British 00:18:44.740 --> 00:18:47.960 got there, then the land was terra nullius, no 00:18:47.960 --> 00:18:50.859 man's land, and it was up for grabs. Oh, my God. 00:18:50.920 --> 00:18:53.220 So the narrative of the Imphican, the idea that 00:18:53.220 --> 00:18:55.460 Shaka killed everyone and left the land empty, 00:18:55.519 --> 00:18:57.779 was a convenient legal fiction for a land grab. 00:18:57.960 --> 00:19:00.730 That is the core argument. of revisionist historians 00:19:00.730 --> 00:19:04.269 like Julian Cobbing. He calls it the alibi. If 00:19:04.269 --> 00:19:06.730 Shaka is a monster who emptied the land, then 00:19:06.730 --> 00:19:08.849 white settlers aren't conquerors. They're heroes 00:19:08.849 --> 00:19:11.990 bringing civilization to a wasteland. It justifies 00:19:11.990 --> 00:19:14.210 colonization. It justifies everything that came 00:19:14.210 --> 00:19:16.549 later. That is, that's mind -blowing. It completely 00:19:16.549 --> 00:19:18.549 inverts the entire history we've been taught. 00:19:18.650 --> 00:19:21.210 It does. And Cobbing and others like Dan Wiley, 00:19:21.309 --> 00:19:23.450 they go further. They argue that the violence 00:19:23.450 --> 00:19:25.750 and scattering did happen, but it wasn't primarily 00:19:25.750 --> 00:19:28.410 caused by Shaka. They point to other factors. 00:19:28.839 --> 00:19:31.059 Like the Portuguese slave trade operating out 00:19:31.059 --> 00:19:33.839 of Delagoa Bay in modern -day Mozambique. They 00:19:33.839 --> 00:19:36.380 argue that slave raiding by Portuguese proxies 00:19:36.380 --> 00:19:39.359 was destabilizing the entire region, causing 00:19:39.359 --> 00:19:42.660 tribes to flee and fight long before Xhaka consolidated 00:19:42.660 --> 00:19:45.619 power. They also point to droughts and competition 00:19:45.619 --> 00:19:48.740 for resources. So in this version, Xhaka wasn't 00:19:48.740 --> 00:19:51.140 the cause of the chaos. He was a reaction to 00:19:51.140 --> 00:19:53.720 it. He was building a militarized state as a 00:19:53.720 --> 00:19:55.799 defense against slave raiders and environmental 00:19:55.799 --> 00:19:58.410 pressures. That is the theory. Instead of the 00:19:58.410 --> 00:20:00.730 black Napoleon destroying his neighbors for sport, 00:20:00.950 --> 00:20:03.890 maybe he was the shield, building a strong, centralized 00:20:03.890 --> 00:20:06.490 state to hold back the colonial tide and the 00:20:06.490 --> 00:20:09.049 slave trade. Wow. Now, to be clear, this is a 00:20:09.049 --> 00:20:11.410 very heated debate. Most historians today would 00:20:11.410 --> 00:20:13.390 say the truth is somewhere in the middle. Shaka 00:20:13.390 --> 00:20:16.289 was undeniably a violent, ruthless warlord. But 00:20:16.289 --> 00:20:18.829 was he a genocidal maniac who single -handedly 00:20:18.829 --> 00:20:21.369 killed a million people? That figure is almost 00:20:21.369 --> 00:20:23.410 certainly a fabrication, a thumbsuck, as Dan 00:20:23.410 --> 00:20:25.950 Wiley calls it. invented by men with a clear 00:20:25.950 --> 00:20:29.490 motive to lie. It really forces you, as the listener, 00:20:29.690 --> 00:20:32.329 to question every historical text you have ever 00:20:32.329 --> 00:20:36.029 read about this era. But okay, even if we strip 00:20:36.029 --> 00:20:38.569 away the coronial propaganda, Shaka's end was 00:20:38.569 --> 00:20:42.109 still tragic. And it was violent. Let's talk 00:20:42.109 --> 00:20:44.029 about the downfall. The beginning of the end 00:20:44.029 --> 00:20:47.809 was deeply personal. In October of 1827, Shaka's 00:20:47.809 --> 00:20:50.089 mother, Nandi, died. The woman who raised him 00:20:50.089 --> 00:20:52.890 in exile, his only true ally. From everything 00:20:52.890 --> 00:20:55.150 we've read. Yes, the one constant in his life. 00:20:55.269 --> 00:20:57.549 And when she died, Shaka didn't just grieve. 00:20:57.609 --> 00:21:01.210 He unraveled. The sources describe a grief that 00:21:01.210 --> 00:21:03.710 became a national terror. He demanded that the 00:21:03.710 --> 00:21:06.349 entire Zulu nation suffer as he suffered. What 00:21:06.349 --> 00:21:08.369 did that look like in practice? He issued a series 00:21:08.369 --> 00:21:10.750 of edicts that were functionally suicidal for 00:21:10.750 --> 00:21:12.809 the state. He ordered that no crops could be 00:21:12.809 --> 00:21:15.109 planted for a year. He ordered that no milk could 00:21:15.109 --> 00:21:17.450 be consumed. And you have to remember. Milk was 00:21:17.450 --> 00:21:19.569 their staple protein. He was basically starving 00:21:19.569 --> 00:21:22.450 his own people to make a point. Exactly. And 00:21:22.450 --> 00:21:25.170 it got darker. He ordered that any woman found 00:21:25.170 --> 00:21:26.930 pregnant during the year of mourning should be 00:21:26.930 --> 00:21:29.609 executed, along with her husband. Because how 00:21:29.609 --> 00:21:31.650 could you dare to bring new life into the world 00:21:31.650 --> 00:21:33.849 when Nandi, the mother of the nation, was dead? 00:21:34.069 --> 00:21:36.549 That is absolute madness. A state can't survive 00:21:36.549 --> 00:21:39.349 that. No. And there is one detail from the oral 00:21:39.349 --> 00:21:42.150 history that is just haunting. He ordered thousands 00:21:42.150 --> 00:21:44.750 of cows to be slaughtered, but their calves were 00:21:44.750 --> 00:21:47.309 to be left alive, penned up next to their dead 00:21:47.309 --> 00:21:50.509 mothers. Why? What was the purpose of that? so 00:21:50.509 --> 00:21:52.329 that the calves would know what it felt like 00:21:52.329 --> 00:21:55.210 to lose a mother. He wanted their cries of hunger 00:21:55.210 --> 00:21:59.630 and grief to echo his own. Wow. That is Shakespearean. 00:21:59.670 --> 00:22:02.670 It's poetic, but it's utterly horrific. It terrified 00:22:02.670 --> 00:22:05.130 the nation. The sources say people were being 00:22:05.130 --> 00:22:07.869 executed simply for not looking sad enough. We 00:22:07.869 --> 00:22:10.490 are talking about maybe 7 ,000 executions in 00:22:10.490 --> 00:22:12.809 this period of forced mourning. The structure 00:22:12.809 --> 00:22:14.609 of the state was collapsing under the weight 00:22:14.609 --> 00:22:16.690 of his personal grief. Did anyone try to stop 00:22:16.690 --> 00:22:19.190 him? Did anyone stand up to him? One man did. 00:22:19.599 --> 00:22:22.220 A guy named Gala. And honestly, Gala deserves 00:22:22.220 --> 00:22:25.000 his own movie. In the middle of this madness, 00:22:25.259 --> 00:22:28.180 he stood up to the Shaka, shouted at him essentially, 00:22:28.420 --> 00:22:31.220 and told him to stop. He said something like, 00:22:31.599 --> 00:22:34.079 Nandi is not the first person to die in Zululand. 00:22:34.099 --> 00:22:36.539 You are destroying your father's house. That 00:22:36.539 --> 00:22:38.799 is a good way to get an Ikwa in the chest. I 00:22:38.799 --> 00:22:40.299 mean, the courage that would take. You would 00:22:40.299 --> 00:22:44.559 think so. But Shaka listened. The outburst actually 00:22:44.559 --> 00:22:47.359 seemed to snap him out of it. He called off the 00:22:47.359 --> 00:22:50.200 edicts, and he rewarded Gala with a gift of cattle 00:22:50.200 --> 00:22:52.740 for his bravery. That's incredible. It shows 00:22:52.740 --> 00:22:55.119 that Shaka wasn't just a mindless beast. He was 00:22:55.119 --> 00:22:58.599 a human being in deep, deep pain. But politically, 00:22:58.819 --> 00:23:01.420 the damage was done. He had shown weakness. He 00:23:01.420 --> 00:23:03.680 had terrorized his own people. The sharks were 00:23:03.680 --> 00:23:05.680 circling. Sharks being his own family, of course. 00:23:05.900 --> 00:23:09.480 Of course. His half -brothers, Dingani and Wonigana. 00:23:09.789 --> 00:23:12.150 They saw that Shaka had lost the support of the 00:23:12.150 --> 00:23:14.710 people and many of the key chiefs. So in September 00:23:14.710 --> 00:23:17.450 of 1828, they made their move. And Shaka made 00:23:17.450 --> 00:23:19.569 it easy for them, didn't he? He did. He sent 00:23:19.569 --> 00:23:21.990 the main army, the bulk of his loyal regiments, 00:23:22.109 --> 00:23:25.630 away on a long campaign to the north. A campaign 00:23:25.630 --> 00:23:28.150 Shaka didn't even go on himself. It left him 00:23:28.150 --> 00:23:30.670 exposed at the Royal Craw. The classic palace 00:23:30.670 --> 00:23:33.289 coup. The classic palace coup. Along with an 00:23:33.289 --> 00:23:36.349 Induna, a headman named Mbopa, they cornered 00:23:36.349 --> 00:23:38.069 Shaka while he was meeting some petitioners. 00:23:38.170 --> 00:23:41.450 They stabbed him. Repeatedly. And just like that, 00:23:41.529 --> 00:23:44.210 after 12 years of remaking the world, the empire 00:23:44.210 --> 00:23:47.309 builder is gone. Gone. His body was dumped into 00:23:47.309 --> 00:23:49.730 an empty grain pit. They filled it with stones 00:23:49.730 --> 00:23:53.130 and mud. No royal burial, no tomb, no marker. 00:23:53.529 --> 00:23:56.329 To this day, the exact location is unknown. Just 00:23:56.329 --> 00:23:58.470 a hole in the ground. It is such a stark, brutal 00:23:58.470 --> 00:24:01.299 end, but... Clearly, they couldn't bury the legacy 00:24:01.299 --> 00:24:03.940 because here we are almost exactly 200 years 00:24:03.940 --> 00:24:07.059 later and Shaka is still a global icon. He is. 00:24:07.119 --> 00:24:09.380 He's this larger than life figure. And it's complicated. 00:24:09.779 --> 00:24:12.019 Physically, the sources say he was tall, dark, 00:24:12.200 --> 00:24:15.039 muscular, your classic warrior king image. But 00:24:15.039 --> 00:24:17.220 there's a surprising detail. He might have had 00:24:17.220 --> 00:24:19.680 a speech impediment. Really? Shaka Zulu? Yeah. 00:24:19.759 --> 00:24:21.799 Some of the European accounts say his tongue 00:24:21.799 --> 00:24:24.279 was too big for his mouth, creating a lisp or 00:24:24.279 --> 00:24:27.059 a stutter. And that he joked about being ugly. 00:24:27.470 --> 00:24:30.049 Because he had a protruding forehead. It humanizes 00:24:30.049 --> 00:24:32.630 him, right? The great terrifying warrior who 00:24:32.630 --> 00:24:34.410 was maybe a little self -conscious about his 00:24:34.410 --> 00:24:36.490 looks and how he spoke. It really does. But culturally, 00:24:36.690 --> 00:24:39.269 he's just monumental. Oh, absolutely. The Zulu 00:24:39.269 --> 00:24:41.829 praise songs, the Izabongo, they're incredible. 00:24:42.150 --> 00:24:44.609 They refer to him as the thunderer while sitting, 00:24:44.750 --> 00:24:48.529 meaning his power was immense even at rest. And 00:24:48.529 --> 00:24:51.369 my favorite. The bird that preys on other birds. 00:24:51.529 --> 00:24:54.470 The bird that preys on other birds. That is such 00:24:54.470 --> 00:24:56.529 a power move of a nickname. Isn't it? And today 00:24:56.529 --> 00:24:58.910 you land at King Shaka International Airport 00:24:58.910 --> 00:25:01.809 in Durban. You can play as him in the Civilization 00:25:01.809 --> 00:25:04.650 video games. There are constantly new TV series 00:25:04.650 --> 00:25:07.410 about him. like Shaka Elembe. He's become the 00:25:07.410 --> 00:25:09.730 enduring symbol of African martial power and 00:25:09.730 --> 00:25:12.650 nation building. But the ambiguity remains. You 00:25:12.650 --> 00:25:15.049 go to KwaZulu -Natal today and some people revere 00:25:15.049 --> 00:25:17.549 him as the father of the nation. Others revile 00:25:17.549 --> 00:25:19.730 him as a tyrant who killed his own people. Both 00:25:19.730 --> 00:25:22.109 narratives are alive and well. I think that tension 00:25:22.109 --> 00:25:24.150 is what makes him so endlessly fascinating. You 00:25:24.150 --> 00:25:25.910 can't put him in a neat box. He's not just a 00:25:25.910 --> 00:25:29.829 hero or just a villain. No, you can't. But I 00:25:29.829 --> 00:25:32.529 think the biggest takeaway from this whole deep 00:25:32.529 --> 00:25:35.720 dive, for me at least, isn't just about Shaka's 00:25:35.720 --> 00:25:38.980 tactics or his statecraft. It's a warning about 00:25:38.980 --> 00:25:41.859 history itself. How so? What do you mean? Because 00:25:41.859 --> 00:25:44.680 for 200 years, the dominant global narrative 00:25:44.680 --> 00:25:47.299 of this man was written by people who openly 00:25:47.299 --> 00:25:50.019 admitted to lying. It was written by men who 00:25:50.019 --> 00:25:52.880 wanted to steal Zululand. We accepted the monster 00:25:52.880 --> 00:25:54.960 myth because it was convenient for the colonial 00:25:54.960 --> 00:25:57.400 project. So we have to constantly ask, are we 00:25:57.400 --> 00:26:00.480 seeing the real Shaka? Or are we seeing the Shaka 00:26:00.480 --> 00:26:02.819 that Henry Francis Finn constructed so he could 00:26:02.819 --> 00:26:05.569 get a real estate deal? Precisely. It forces 00:26:05.569 --> 00:26:08.109 us to look to the silences in the archives, to 00:26:08.109 --> 00:26:10.769 always, always question the motive of the storyteller. 00:26:10.950 --> 00:26:13.809 Who is writing this history and why? That is 00:26:13.809 --> 00:26:15.990 a heavy thought to end on, but a crucial one. 00:26:16.450 --> 00:26:19.089 Here is a final provocation for you listening. 00:26:19.970 --> 00:26:22.910 We focus so much on the violence of Shaka, on 00:26:22.910 --> 00:26:26.069 the crushing. But if we strip away the colonial 00:26:26.069 --> 00:26:29.609 lies, do we see a monster or do we see a desperate 00:26:29.609 --> 00:26:32.329 survival strategist? In a world where Portuguese 00:26:32.329 --> 00:26:34.329 slave ships were anchoring off the coast and 00:26:34.329 --> 00:26:36.150 British colonial armies were marching up from 00:26:36.150 --> 00:26:38.390 the Cape, with Xhaka's brutal militarization 00:26:38.390 --> 00:26:40.170 the only reason the Zulu people survived the 00:26:40.170 --> 00:26:42.509 19th century is a coherent nation at all. Maybe 00:26:42.509 --> 00:26:44.650 the monster was actually the shield. Something 00:26:44.650 --> 00:26:47.130 to think about. Thanks for listening to this 00:26:47.130 --> 00:26:48.690 deep dive. We will see you next time.