Who was Shaka?
Shaka was a Zulu ruler who lived during the Age of Napoleon; he was born around 1727 and died in 1828. Like Napoleon, Shaka was a warrior who helped the Zulu tribe gain control over a large portion of South Africa. Shaka was fierce, having successfully killed over 2 million people during a ten-year period. Shaka is known for bringing the Zulu tribe into a significantly powerful position and for his fierce military maneuvers and prowess. In fact, Shaka was so much like Napoleon he was frequently called the Napoleon of Africa. Shaka created a military that showed the Zulu enemy little mercy: he designed new weapons for use in war; he was tough on his military and boys that were six and older became part of Shaka’s military. For more information on Shaka visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaka The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte While many of the Zulus called Napoleon the Shaka of Europe, Shaka himself was frequently called the Napoleon of Africa. During the Age of Napoleon, a period of time
Shaka was the most influential leader of the Zulu Empire. He is widely credited with uniting the Zulu sub-tribes into the beginnings of a nation that held sway over the large portion of Southern Africa between the Phongolo and Mzimkhulu rivers. His military prowess and destructiveness have been widely credited. He has been called a military genius for his reforms and innovations, though other writers take a more limited view of his achievements. Nevertheless, his statesmanship and vigour in assimilating some neighbours and ruling by proxy marks him as one of the greatest Zulu chieftains. Some revisionists have doubted the military and social innovations customarily attributed to Shaka, denying them outright, or attributing them variously to European influences. Others argue that both explanations fall short, and in fact the Zulu culture which included other tribes and clans, contained a number of practices that Shaka could have drawn on to fulfill his objectives- whether in raiding, co
