Zulus (Amazulus), a branch of the great Bantu (q.v.) division of the human family, among whose sections the aggregate of tribes or clans now generally known as the Zulus are conspicuous for their physical and intellectual development. By nature the men are brave and are given to field sports, and, where opportunity offers, to border forays and intertribal strife. A noticeable feature in their nature is that when a fight is definitely over (bitterly and bravely as it usually is fought) no passions appear to remain, nor are feelings of revenge harboured against each other. The Zulu polity is that of a pure democracy, the chiefs being elected, and holding office during the pleasure of the people. This pleasure is given expression to through parents to subheads of districts, through them to the heads of larger districts, and through these in turn to the chief direct. Legislation occurs in the same way, through an expression of feeling from the body of the people to the chief through the heads of districts. A very complete, though unwritten, code of law, civil and criminal, exists and is well known to every adult Zulu. Polygamy is practised throughout the country, and has been from time immemorial; the marriage-tie, however, with the tenth or twentieth wife is as sacred as where monogamy prevails. As a race the Zulus are conspicuous for their morality and freedom from drunkenness and crime. Missionary efforts to
Christianise have been more tolerated and acquired in than successful. The pursuits of the people are pastoral. Trading is little known, and the arts are limited to the primitive needs of simple iron-work, pottery, and ornaments of copper, ivory, horn, or wood.
In the beginning of the 19th century the Zulus proper were a small clan who, responding to the ambition of the warlike chieftain Tshaka, became embroiled with most of the neighbouring tribes, with the result that one hundred or more clans, once considered as strong as the Zulu clan, were attacked in detail and compelled to acknowledge fealty to the Zulu clan proper. Tshaka during the first quarter of the century dominated South Africa practically from the Zambesi to the Cape Colony, and this as conclusively and successfully and by much the same methods as Napoleon dominated Europe for the time. Subsequent to this date the Zulus became restricted in this dominion by the advent of pioneer Europeans in the Cape Colony and the Dutch republics and Natal. Tshaka was succeeded in 1828 by his brother Dingaan, who was assassinated for political reasons. He in turn was succeeded by Umpana, who reigned over a third of a century, dying in 1873. He left as his successor Cetewayo, who reigned from 1874 until 1878 as paramount chief over a Zululand which included not only the Zululand of to-day, but a large portion of what is now within the borders of the Transvaal and Amatongaland. In 1878 Sir Bartle Frere, the then High Commissioner for South Africa, assumed the policy that British interests in the territories bordering on Zululand were threatened by the existence of the independent nation occupying that country. Acting on this policy, he, in opposition to the views held by Sir Henry Bulwer and other officers of the crown in South Africa, sent on the 11th December 1878 an ultimatum to Cetewayo, which was of a nature to create war between the Zulus and the British. War being declared, active steps were taken to invade and subjugate Zululand. General the Hon. F. A. Thesiger (Lord Chelmsford) was detailed to conduct the military operations. Five columns were thrown into the country, but owing to mismanagement they all proved unsuccessful, the main one being almost annihilated by the Zulus at Isandula (q.v.) on January 22, 1879. The gloom of this fearful disaster was slightly relieved by the heroic and historic defence of Rorke's Drift (q.v.). The other columns, after a series of small battles, in which any measure of success was to a large extent attained by the colonial volunteers attached to them, recoiled on their bases, and were either shut up at Etshowe or ordered back to the British side of the Tugela River. Reinforcements were hurried forward from England, and the command of the military operations was handed to General Sir Garnet Wolseley. He arrived in Natal with the latter portion of the reinforcements; but Lord Chelmsford meanwhile had on the 4th July won a decisive battle at Ulundi. The result of the engagement was that the Zulus admitted themselves beaten, gave up the contest, and claimed the position of conquered and the protection of the conquerors. England, however, was opposed at the moment to the policy of annexation, and declined to take over the country despite the wish of the subjugated people. The home authorities appointed thirteen chiefs to reign where only one had previously ruled, with the result that anarchy and internecine strife ensued. In 1884, in which year Cetewayo died, England was again asked to exercise sovereign rights in the country, and so pacify it. This the government declined to do, and a party of Boer adventurers from the Transvaal entered the country and took sides with the combatants, succeeding ultimately in obtaining for the Transvaal the best portion of Zululand. The remainder was annexed to England in 1887 as British Zululand, but in 1898 was made an integral part of Natal, and has now representatives in both the Legislative Council and Assembly. In the Boer war of 1899-1901 several incursions were made into Zululand by the Boers, but the natives remained loyal amidst all attempts to rouse them against Britain.
See Thomas B. Jenkinson, Amazulu (1882); Lady F. Dixie, In the Land of Misfortune (1882); Frances E. Colenso, Ruin of Zululand (2 vols. 1884-85); Rev. Josiah Tyler, Forty Years among the Zulus (1892).