II.

Pre-19th-Century History

Zululand was first settled by Iron Age people from East Africa who migrated into the region by the 3rd century ad. By about 1500, the inhabitants were physically, linguistically, and culturally similar to the African population in Zululand today. Each family lived in a circle of thatched, beehive-shaped huts surrounding a central cattle enclosure, and supported itself with the produce of its small fields and livestock. A family’s wealth was measured by how many heads of cattle it owned. Chiefs ruled over constantly shifting territories, as rivals competed for cattle, land, and followers.

Chiefdoms in the region were small until the late 18th century, when some began to expand. Why they did so is unclear. Sharpening competition for resources in a time of prolonged drought and an increasing need to defend against European slave and ivory traders may well have forced the small chiefdoms to undertake major changes to survive. The most significant of these changes was the development of the amabutho system, in which all of a chiefdom’s young men were grouped by age into military regiments (amabutho). The chiefs used the amabutho to control their own subjects and to protect them against outside enemies. Keeping the amabutho fed and properly rewarded required constant raids against neighboring chiefdoms, and this added to a growing cycle of regional violence.