ELIZABETH A. ELDREDGE

by getting into the water up to his neck. He was, however, observed by the mat-
bearers, who thereupon attacked and put him to death. Prior to this attack, the
princes had returned to Tshaka at Stanger, their object being to kill him."1
Portuguese sources confirm that the AmaZulu forces also engaged in battle with
Soshangane's regiments, as originally planned, and another of Stuart's informants related
that after an indecisive battle with Soshangane's forces who, forewarned, mounted a pre-
emptive night attack, Shaka's regiments headed home. Many of the AmaZulu soldiers sick-
ened and died of malaria on the return route, and of those who recovered it took two to
three months for the sickest to return home.119
From the combined mortality caused by war and disease, thousands of warriors were
thought to have never returned from the Balule campaign. Fearing the loyalty of the return-
ing troops and their commanders to Shaka, who had indeed been assassinated while they
were away, Dingane enrolled a new regiment of the younger men and older men, named
the uHlomendhlini, before the regiments that had gone on the Balule campaign returned.
Shaka's decision to send an impi against Soshangane proved fateful:
An impi was sent to Balule, to Sotshangana. Tshaka's order was that every soul
should go- 'kukulela ngoqo', i.e. take every one, even ungoqo, a man who never
konzas or attends hunting parties or assists in building king's kraals etc., one who is
never seen at the king's kraal. It was in this expedition that Maruyi's father Sonyanga
was killed. Tshaka was at Dukuza when this impi went, and it was during its absence
that Tshaka was assassinated by Mbopa, acting in concert with Mhlangana, Tshaka's
brother, who really instigated the murder. It seems Tshaka went into the cattle kraal
to see his cattle. Whilst there, Mbopa began driving about and beating the cattle.
Tshaka said, 'Why are you beating the cattle?' and as he turned his back to Mbopa,
Mbopa threw an assegai [spear] at him which struck him. He pulled the assegai out
as he ran out of the kraal, but at the gate of the kraal another man lay in wait. This
man snatched the assegai Tshaka carried and stabbed him dead on the spot. The
impi from Balule returned to find him dead.'21
In addition to Shaka's impis, considerable population dislocations were caused by
chiefs and chiefdoms hailing from the KwaZulu region who were subsequently perceived
by others as AmaZulu when they passed through or entered Natal and the Transkei, or
crossed the Drakensberg into the Caledon River valley and TransOrangia region. The flight
southwards from the area of the Thukela and Umzinyati (Buffalo) rivers of the AmaCunu,
AbaTembu and AmaNgwane chiefdoms after Shaka's installation as AmaZulu chief caused
three periods of population disruptions and associated violence in the region of modern
Natal.'2' The status of the Embo chief Zihlandlo and his brother Sambela as tributary and
putatively subordinate chiefs to Shaka lends ambiguity to their perceived identity in the
1820s when, although sending tribute regularly to Shaka, they persisted in carrying out raid-
ing and the killing of other chiefs with relative independence and impunity under Shaka's
rule, but not at Shaka's command.22 The Embo remained powerful and relatively inde-
pendent, in spite of their proffers of allegiance to Shaka, as long as they retalned their own

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