Why a Zulu Warrior's Shield Belonged to the King

At Isandlwana in January 1879, the shield on a Zulu warrior's arm was not his. War-shields belonged to the king, cut two to a hide from the royal herds and kept in stores on stilts until the army mustered. Black shields marked the young regiments, white the married ones. Only his spears were his own: two or three throwing spears behind the shield, and a stabbing spear with a swollen end to its haft. 📖 Source: Ian Knight, Zulu 1816–1906 (Osprey Warrior 14) and British Infantryman vs Zulu Warrior, Anglo-Zulu War 1879 (Osprey Combat). Knight quotes the missionary Allen Gardiner, who watched warriors test new shields by thumping them with sticks. By 1879 the colours had blurred, and some regiments had no fixed colour. The black head ring of a married man was the king's permission too, often not given until his late thirties. Most fought almost bare, with charms at the neck and medicine on the forehead to turn British bullets. Killers in the regiment the king judged most distinguished could wear iziqu, necklaces of willow-wood blocks, and after Isandlwana that honour went to the uMbonambi. Wearing beads you had not earned could get you killed. First, a killer had to be cleansed, and until then he wore something taken from the man he had killed. After Isandlwana, many walked home in red British jackets. This channel is made on musayko.com, a platform I built for creating and managing content, and if you make videos, it's open to you too. Which warrior should we reconstruct next?