Several groups of ethnically related people in southern Africa. In the 1820s, the Zulu in the Natal area, under their king Shaka, developed a superior military force, made up of regiments (or impis), which attacked neighbouring peoples in the Difagane Wars. Refugees from Shaka, copying the military discipline and strategy of their Zulu conquerors, established themselves in the Ndebele state in Zimbabwe, the Gaza state in Mozambique, the Swazi state in Swaziland, and a group of Nguni states in Tanzania, Zambia, and Malawi. Nguni people came into conflict with European settlers: the British in the Cape Colony moved into the lands of the Xhosa, precipitating the Xhosa Wars; Boer, and later British, settlers in Natal clashed with the Zulus. Urbanization during the 20th century was accompanied by the policy of apartheid. The Bantu homelands created in South Africa had little connection with original Nguni culture.
Subjects: World History — African Studies.