Shaka Transforms War

1817

The young Zulu king Shaka abandoned traditional throwing spears and long-range posturing in favor of a short stabbing assegai and the "buffalo horns" enveloping formation. His impis trained barefoot to run fifty miles a day. Within a decade he had subjugated most of what is now KwaZulu-Natal and set off the mfecane - the scattering of peoples across southern Africa.