Editing Zulu people (section)

== History of the people of Zulu==

=== Origins ===
The Zulu were originally a minor clan in what is today Northern [[KwaZulu-Natal]], founded {{circa|1574}} by [[Zulu kaMalandela]]. In the [[Nguni languages]], ''iZulu'' means ''heaven'' or weather''.'' At that time, the area was occupied by many large [[Nguni people|Nguni]] communities and clans (also called the ''isizwe'' people or nation, or called ''isibongo'', referring to their clan or family name). Nguni communities had migrated down Africa's east coast over millennia, as part of the [[Bantu expansion|Bantu migrations]]. As the nation began to develop, the rulership of Shaka (about 250 years after it was founded) brought the clans together to build a cohesive identity for the Zulu.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

=== Strength of the Zulu nation ===
[[File:Utimuni.png|thumb|[[Utimuni]], nephew of King [[Shaka]], strikes a warrior's pose]]
The Zulu nation's growth and strength were based on its military organization and skills during Shaka's reign and those of his successors. The military was organized around the ''ukubuthwa'' ("to be enrolled") system, which did away with initiation ceremonies for the most part. Each age set, or group of young men of the same age, was assigned to the same regiment (''ibutho'', singular; ''amabutho'', plural), according to the system. Girls were also subject to ''ukubuthwa'', but they were usually assigned to an age group rather than to a regiment. The ''amabutho'' were housed in military barracks (singular, ''ikhanda''; plural, ''amakhanda'') located throughout the kingdom and under the command of a close relative to (or someone else appointed by) the king.{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}

The barracks were designed and laid out similarly to an ''umuzi'', but on a much larger scale. Aside from military duties, the ''izinsizwa'' ("young men") were also responsible for the repair and maintenance of their barracks.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

=== Kingdom ===
{{Main|Zulu Kingdom}}
[[File:KingShaka.jpg|thumb|King Shaka]]
The Zulu formed a powerful state in 1816<ref>{{cite book|last=Bulliet|title=The Earth and Its Peoples|year=2008|publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Company]]|location=US|isbn=978-0-618-77148-6|page=708}}</ref> under the leader [[Shaka]]. Shaka, as the Zulu commander of the [[Mthethwa Empire]] and successor to [[Dingiswayo]], united what was once a confederation of lordships into an imposing empire under Zulu [[hegemony]]. Shaka built a militarized system known as [[Impi]] featuring conscription, a standing army, new weaponry, regimentation, and encirclement battle tactics. Zulu expansion was a major factor of the [[Mfecane]] ("Crushing") that depopulated large areas of southern Africa.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/537814/Shaka/537814rellinks/Related-Links |title=Shaka (Zulu chief) |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=30 October 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=W. D. Rubinstein|title=Genocide: A History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nMMAk4VwLLwC&pg=PA22|access-date=26 June 2013|year=2004|publisher=Pearson Longman|isbn=978-0-582-50601-5|page=22}}</ref> It was during this period when Shaka deployed an army regiment for raiding nations in the North. The regiment which was under Mzilikazi disobeyed Shaka and crafted a plan to continue raiding up-North forming another dialect of Zulu language referred to as [[Northern Ndebele language|Northern Ndebele]] (now in Zimbabwe). Another group under [[Zwangendaba]] who was Shakas relative from the Gumbi Clan from [[Pongola, KwaZulu-Natal|Pongola]] and military commander trekked northwards crossing the Zambezi River at Chirundu in 1835 into Zambia setting up the [[Ngoni people|Ngoni]] nation that extended to Malawi, Mozambique and Southern Tanzania.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Zulu |first=Edwin |date=2012-08-14 |title=Interpreting the Exodus Among the Ngoni People |journal=Scriptura |volume=108 |issue=1 |doi=10.7833/108-1-9 |issn=2305-445X|doi-access=free }}</ref>

==== Conflict with the British ====
{{Main|Anglo-Zulu War}}
In mid-December 1878, envoys of the British crown delivered an ultimatum to 11 chiefs representing the then-current king of the Zulu empire, [[Cetshwayo]]. Under the British terms delivered to the Zulu, Cetshwayo would have been required to disband his army and accept British sovereignty. Cetshwayo refused, and war between the Zulus and African contingents of the British crown began on January 12, 1879. Despite an early victory for the Zulus at the [[Battle of Isandlwana]] on 22 January, the British fought back and won the [[Battle at Rorke's Drift]], and decisively defeated the Zulu army by July at the [[Battle of Ulundi]].{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}

==== Absorption into Natal ====
[[File:ZuluWarriors adj.jpg|thumb|right|Zulu [[warrior]]s in the late nineteenth century, with Europeans in the background]]
After Cetshwayo's capture a month following his defeat, the British divided the Zulu Empire into 13 "kinglets". The sub-kingdoms fought amongst each other until 1883 when Cetshwayo was reinstated as [[King of the Zulu Nation|king]] over [[Zulu Kingdom|Zululand]].{{citation needed|date=November 2023}} This still did not stop the fighting and the Zulu monarch was forced to flee his realm by [[Usibepu|Zibhebhu]], one of the 13 kinglets, supported by Boer mercenaries. Cetshwayo died of a heart attack in February 1884, leaving his son, the 15-year-old [[Dinuzulu]], to inherit the throne. In-fighting between the Zulu continued for years until in 1897 Zululand was absorbed fully into the British [[colony of Natal]].{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}

=== Apartheid years ===

==== KwaZulu homeland ====
{{Main|KwaZulu}}
[[File:Zuludänzer.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Zulu man performing traditional warrior dance]]
Under [[apartheid]], the [[Bantustan|homeland]] of [[KwaZulu]] (''Kwa'' meaning ''place of'') was created for the Zulu people. In 1970, the Bantu Homeland Citizenship Act provided that all Zulus would become citizens of KwaZulu, losing their South African citizenship. KwaZulu consisted of many disconnected pieces of land, in what is now [[KwaZulu-Natal]]. Hundreds of thousands of Zulu people living on privately owned "black spots" outside of KwaZulu were dispossessed and forcibly moved to [[bantustan]]s – worse land previously reserved for whites contiguous to existing areas of KwaZulu. By 1993, approximately 5.2 million Zulu people lived in KwaZulu, and approximately 2 million lived in the rest of South Africa. The [[Chief Ministers of KwaZulu|Chief Minister]] of KwaZulu, from its creation in 1970 (as Zululand) was Chief [[Mangosuthu Buthelezi]]. In 1994, KwaZulu was joined with the province of Natal, to form the modern KwaZulu-Natal.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=The Peace Deal: The Formation of the Ingonyama Trust and the IFP Decision to Join South Africa's 1994 Elections|last=Lynd |first=Hilary |journal=South African Historical Journal |date=2021-04-03 |volume=73 |issue=2 |pages=318–360 |doi=10.1080/02582473.2021.1909116|doi-access=free }}</ref>

==== ''Inkatha YeSizwe'' ====
{{Main|Inkatha Freedom Party}}
<!-- Image with inadequate rationale removed: [[File:Inkatha.jpg|thumb|right|The logo of the Inkatha Freedom Party]] -->
''Inkatha YeSizwe'' means "the crown of the nation". In 1975, Buthelezi revived the Inkatha YaKwaZulu, the predecessor of the [[Inkatha Freedom Party]]. This organisation was nominally a protest movement against Apartheid but held more conservative views than the [[African National Congress|ANC]]. For example, Inkatha was opposed to the armed struggle, and sanctions against South Africa. Inkatha was initially on good terms with the ANC, but the two organisations came into increasing conflict beginning in 1976 in the aftermath of the [[Soweto Uprising]].{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}