"Unmarried Zulu Warriors" Topic

"The Zulu Kingdom was established around 1816 by the energetic and innovative leader Shaka Zulu, who initiated many reforms, including in the Army, and built up an empire that by 1825 covered 30,000 square kilometres, although at the cost of many thousands of lives. Shaka's military reforms included new tactics and weapons, and made the Zulu warrior a formidable opponent for all the tribes of the region, including the white European settlers. Over the course of its history the empire saw much fighting, both internally and with outsiders, particularly with the Boers at battles such as Blood River in 1838. However it was the invasions by British forces in 1879, still well-known to the western public, that would effectively signal the end of the empire, although the tradition of the Zulu warrior would live on and indeed still does today.

The hobby can already boast several sets of Zulu warriors, including one from HaT themselves. What makes this one different is that it specifically depicts unmarried warriors, whereas the others have largely focused on married ones. In Zulu society a man was a youth, or insizwa, until he married, regardless of his age. As such he was part of his father's household and had limited rights and responsibilities, and served in the king's army in his allotted regiment. The king had to grant permission to marry, which he did to whole regiments at a time, at which point the man could leave the army and set up his own household (although he could still serve in the army if called). Thus to retain more of his forces a king might delay permission for a regiment to marry for many years, much to their frustration, but there is no truth to the myth that warriors had to prove themselves in battle before permission could be given, although that did help. Once permission was given, a warrior would marry and become an indoda, or simply a man, and he would wear the head-ring (isoCoco), a ring made of fibres interwoven with the hair and set with gum, which is what we see in the other sets. The warriors in this set do not have this ring, naturally, apart from the last figure, who is a married leader of the regiment anyway, as we shall see…."

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