Urban myth or fact

Posts : 60 Join date : 2010-08-17 Location : Southampton

One of my earliest recollections of my father telling me about the Zulu was that Shaka forced his warriors to run through thorny bushes, hesitation meant death!

Just reading Bartlett's 'ZULU Queen Victoria's Most Famous Little War' and it mentions that Mpande introduced the concept of toughening up the warriors feet by removing their sandals and getting them to dance on ground strewn with thorns.

Which is it to be? Does this suggest that Zulus wore sandals before Mpande?

And also, before Khambula the ground was strewn with broken bottles and sharp refuse - would this have made any difference? - were their any eye-witness accounts that the Zulu were slowed down by the use of this?

Posts : 2308 Join date : 2010-07-02 Age : 44

"Shaka also gave attention to the training of the individual. A warrior had to be strong and agile; dancing, Zulu fashion, was thus part of the military syllabus. He had to be capable of enduring any amount of hardship. The cow-hide sandals, in normal use on account of the many thorns and stony terrain, were regarded by Shaka as an encumbrance which impeded the speed and sure-footedness of his soldiers. His armies had to learn to march barefoot and, to test whether the soles of their feet were sufficiently hardened, they had to dance at times on ground covered with thorns"

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Zulu Warriors Being Forced by Shaka to Dance on Thorny Ground.

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