Shaka Zulu

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introduced age regiments where young men were called up to serve for a part of every year, men from the same households and villages were put in different regiments, their allegiance primarily to the ruler of the chiefdom, Dingiswayo, and secondarily to their local chiefs.

In his early twenties, Shaka was conscripted into the Mthethwa army, as he was a skilled warrior, he ascended the ranks to command his own regiment. This put him in a position to introduce some ideas that he had. The traditional throwing spear, the assegai, was no good for hand-to-hand combat, and left the warrior defenceless after he threw it, so Shaka introduced the short stabbing spear. His warriors used their shields to deflect the initial rain of assegais, then advanced on a nearly defenceless enemy with their stabbing spears.


In a style fitting his reputation for bravery, Shaka demonstrated his stabbing spear in a battle with the Butelezi. Responding to the challenge of a Butelezi ...

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