Still the definitive account of the rise of the Zulu nation.

E.A. Ritter’s Shaka Zulu, the great biography of a Zulu king whose achievements rivalled those of his contemporary, Napoleon, in Europe, has established itself as a classic of African history. Shaka was born in 1787, the illegitimate son of a minor chieftain.  Branded with this shame, he strove even harder to execute the rigorous duties required of Zulu youths.  Excelling in everything he undertook, he soon proved himself a born leader.  Gathering about him, in an area no larger than Rutland, a nucleus of some 500 untrained tribesmen, he built up an immense army of skilled and highly disciplined warriors, conquering and pacifying a territory larger than Europe – all in the space of twelve years. Although Shaka was capable of cruelties, the author shows that the legends of his atrocities have been grossly exaggerated; paradoxically, Shaka considered many of the white men’s punishments inhuman. At the peak of his career, when he was about to give his empire the benefits of western civilization, Shaka was assassinated by his jealous brothers, and within fifty years his work was undone. But assassination, usurpation and his own excesses cannot dim the savage greatness of the man and the king, which emanates so strongly from the pages of this book