Shaka Zulu! I'm guessing you've heard the name. Also guessing you know very little about his story. Most don't seem too. Which is a shame because it's such a great story! Shaka took the small Zulu tribe from less than 2,000 members to around 250,000 in just a dozen years. He took them from being one of many militarily inconsequential bands of Africans living in what is now South Africa to the powerful Zulu Nation - one of the mightiest African military powers on the entire continent. He was a brilliant military tactician who changed the way his people - and many other people - would fight, not only during his reign, but for long after his death. He also seems to have been a sadistic madman who did crazy things like kill thousands of people for not grieving the death of his mother hard enough. And have others killed just for getting pregnant while he grieved. His tale is a wild one. And we use it as an excuse to not just learn a lot about him, but also about the history of South Africa. So much info today - and hopefully also a lot of fun, on another historical edition of Timesuck.

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