carebear
Member
Part of Shaka's innovation (it's root source is open to debate, he did have exposure to Europeans, I'm willing to grant it to his autochtonic genius) in the assegai wasn't just (as Preacherman alluded to) in its new shape and technique but that Shaka used it to turn what used to be the same old traditional "stand far away and throw stuff at each other til you've made your point", ineffective, Eastern/tribal, honor-based warfare into (comparatively) heavy infantry Western-style shock action. The tribes around the Zulu didn't know what to do as the Zulu ignored their sound and fury displays, ran under their spear casts, surrounded them and went belly to belly using the shield and assegai as a weapons system in annihilation-style battle.
If the Zulu's southern migration hadn't run up against Europeans with firearms at the Fish River before they could expand their territory and population even more using Shaka's innovations the history of Southern Africa might have been very different.
(freely cribbed from "The Washing of the Spears")
If the Zulu's southern migration hadn't run up against Europeans with firearms at the Fish River before they could expand their territory and population even more using Shaka's innovations the history of Southern Africa might have been very different.
(freely cribbed from "The Washing of the Spears")