Dingane

Dingane or Dingaan (1795?-1840), one of the great Southern African Zulu chiefs (1828-1840) and the half-brother of the Zulu warrior chief Shaka. Together with other members of his family Dingane took part in the assassination of the increasingly despotic Shaka on September 24, 1828. Dingane subsequently murdered his co-conspirators and became king of Zululand.

As king, Dingane tried to end the ten years of continual war, but to keep the kingdom from splintering he was forced to continue Shaka's repressive policies. In 1837 Dingane was asked for a grant of land by Pieter Retief, one of the leaders of the migration of Boers known as the Great Trek (1835-1843). Fearful of the encroaching Boers, Dingane hedged and asked Retief to show good faith by capturing some cattle which had been stolen by a Tlokwa chief. Retief retrieved the cattle and returned them to Dingane in February 1838. By then the Boer pioneers were already coming over the Drakensberg Mountains with their wagons and cattle, and news reached Dingane of the complete defeat of Mzilikazi, another Zulu chief, by separate Boer forces. Dingane took fright and on February 6, 1838, he invited Retief and his party to a feast of celebration in his kraal (circular compound) where his warriors murdered them. His impis (regiments) then attacked the Boers' camp, killing about 500 people.

The death of Retief and his followers was avenged on December 16, 1838, at the Battle of Blood River when Andries Pretorius, another Great Trek leader, killed 3000 Zulus with a force of 500 men. After this defeat, some of Dingane's followers broke away and followed his brother Mpande, who collaborated with the Boers to defeat Dingane's forces in 1839. Dingane was overthrown by Mpande in January 1840; he fled to Swaziland where he was murdered.