Zulu people

The Zulu (amaZulu), heaven people of the Nguni, are South Africa's largest nation, rooted in KwaZulu-Natal from Nguni communities of the Bantu migrations. As the clans integrated, Shaka's revolution forged them into a kingdom: the short stabbing spear, the buffalo-horns encirclement, age regiments housed in military kraals, and a discipline that remade southern Africa in the Mfecane scattering. Isandlwana in 1879 humbled the British Empire; Ulundi in 1879 ended the kingdom. Predominantly Christian today in syncretic union with ancestor veneration, the Zulu keep the Umhlanga Reed Dance, beadwork as language, praise poetry and Shembe churches. The Zulu king still opens parliament's memory at Nongoma; Durban townships, Joburg hostels and the valley of a thousand hills keep the heaven nation's thunder. KwaZulu-Natal towns still elect Zulu mayors in every district. Umhlanga Reed Dance still gathers thousands of maidens yearly. Zulu beadwork colours still signal courtship and mourning. Nguni ancestors wandered south over millennia to found the nation.