By looking at the lives and military campaigns of four great warriors, this book paints a picture of Southern Africa before the Europeans arrived. It features: Shaka of the Zulu, Africa's legendary hero, and the instigator of Zulu greatness and nationhood; Maqomo of the Xhosa - a master of guerilla warfare and the most daring and talented military leader of his age; Mzilikazi of the Matabele - he fought the Zulus, the Sotho and the Boers, and finally settled in Zimbabwe; Moeshoeshoe of the BaSotho - in the 1830s, the most powerful leader west of the Drakensberg Mountains.

The first book in a two-part series that examines the unique Canadian experience and outlook in regard to generalship and the art of the admiral.

This scholarly account traces the emergence of the Zulu Kingdom in South Africa in the early nineteenth century, under the rule of the ambitious and iconic King Shaka. In contrast to recent literary analyses of myths of Shaka, this book uses the richness of Zulu oral traditions and a comprehensive body of written sources to provide a compelling narrative and analysis of the events and people of the era of Shaka's rule. The oral traditions portray Shaka as rewarding courage and loyalty and punishing failure; as ordering the targeted killing of his own subjects, both warriors and civilians, to ensure compliance to his rule; and as arrogant and shrewd, but kind to the poor and mentally disabled. The rich and diverse oral traditions, transmitted from generation to generation, reveal the important roles and fates of men and women, royal and subject, from the perspectives of those who experienced Shaka's rule and the dramatic emergence of the Zulu Kingdom.

A charismatic young warrior prince emerges from exile to usurp the old order and forge a new, mighty Zulu kingdom.

In Eight Zulu Kings, well-respected and widely published historian John Laband examines the reigns of the eight Zulu kings from 1816 to the present. Starting with King Shaka, the renowned founder of the Zulu kingdom, he charts the lives of the kings Dingane, Mpande, Cetshwayo, Dinuzulu, Solomon and Cyprian, to today's King Goodwill Zwelithini whose role is little more than ceremonial. In the course of this investigation Laband places the Zulu monarchy in the context of African kingship and tracks and analyses the trajectory of the Zulu kings from independent and powerful pre-colonial African rulers to largely powerless traditionalist figures in post-apartheid South Africa.

Shaka struggles to retain power as challenges at home and from across an ocean threaten his new rule.