South African kingdom subjects of the 1800s

Usage examples of zulus.

Afterwards I was the friend of the Father of the Zulus, he whom they still call Inkoosi Umkulu--the mighty chief--you may have heard tell of him.

Her attractive name--for it was very attractive as the Zulus said it, especially those of them who were in love with her--was Mameena, daughter of Umbezi.

Indeed, in my youth, before the Zulus were a people, they named me Opener of Doors.

Anyhow, after his death the Zulus began to maltreat us Undwandwe and the Quabies and the Tetwas with us--you may remember that they called us the Amatefula, making a mock of us.

So I quarrelled with the Zulus and especially with Chaka, he whom they named 'Uhlanya' [the Mad One].

This I did through the lips of the old Princess Menkabayi, Jama's daughter, Senzangakona's sister, the Oracle before whom all men bowed, causing her to say that 'This land of the Zulus cannot be ruled by a crimson assegai.

Well, I tell the story to you, Macumazahn, who have had so much to do with the tale of the Zulus since the days of Dingaan, because I wish that someone should know it and perhaps write it down when everything is finished.

Did he not say that he heard the feet of a great white people running, of a people who should stamp the Zulus flat?

Or forget them if you will, for I shall remind you of them, Macumazahn, when the feet of your people have avenged the Ndwandes and others whom it pleases the Zulus to treat as dirt.

Well, he will slay Bangu, who now has quarrelled with Panda, and a woman will come into the story, one Mameena, and that woman will bring about war between the sons of Panda, and from this war shall spring the ruin of the Zulus, for he who wins will be an evil king to them and bring down on them the wrath of a mightier race.

And so 'The-thing-that-should-not-have-been-born' and the Ndwandes and the Quabies and Twetwas, whom it has pleased the conquering Zulus to name 'Amatefula,' shall be avenged.

And when Retief and his companions were killed, did not the spilling of their blood mean war to the end between the Zulus and the White Men?

Then I was silent, since among the Zulus, when two strangers of more or less equal rank meet, he who speaks first acknowledges inferiority to the other.

What will Panda, King of the Zulus, say to you, and to me also, who stir up war in his country?

We Zulus trust you, Macumazahn, as we trust few white men, for we have known for years that your lips say what your heart thinks, and that your heart always thinks the thing which is good.