Shaka the Great Read Free

their fathers. They are distinguishable by being white, but they are black in all other respects.
    From
The Black People and Whence They Came
by Magema Fuze (translated by H. C. Lugg)
    Strange to relate there was no Scotsman in the party.
    From
The Diary of Henry Francis Fynn
(eds. James Stewartand D. McK. Malcolm)
    They came from the sea.
    In the beginning it was colonization by shipwreck, although even that’s stretching a point. The Great Scramble would only begin much, much later, and these bedraggled Long Noses were more intent on survival than acquiring territory for their tribes across the waters. You could almost say that the missionary position in those days was to be on your knees gibbering for mercy. And they were helped to their feet and led to the village, where giggling children followed behind them and young maidens peeked at them from behind their fingers. Fed and rested, they were sent on their way, often with the benefit of a guide.
    These aliens were too afraid to be fearsome and, if you include the Phoenicians—the Ma-iti of the Nguni chronicles—and the Arabs who reached the Mkuze River on the south-east coast of Africa toward the end of the thirteenth century, they had been washing up forever. Their comings and goings were a part of the folklore shared by the Zulus, Mthetwas, Xhosas and other Nguni nations who had settled on the coast of what would later become South Africa.
    Then in 1415, at about the time the Chinese emperor was taking delivery of a giraffe from Malindi, Portuguese forces captured Ceuta on the North African coast. The port had been used as a base by Barbary pirates, when they had raided the Portuguese coast, destroying villages, taking the inhabitants captive and selling them in African slave markets. The Infante Henrique, Duke of Viseu and third son of King João I, took part in that expedition. He was twenty-one at the time, and the experience changed his world view. He got to thinking, considering the angles, as the alidade of his inner astrolabe swung rapidly between exploration, conquest and wealth. He certainly wasn’t the first to see how reconnaissance could be disguised as noble and courageous exploration, while paving the way to conquest that
would bring in the riches. But the Ceuta campaign enabled him to add an entire new vane to his astrolabe called Africa. Everyone knew about the Mediterranean coast and Egypt, of course, but he was now looking the other way, and saw another coast that could be followed downward and, possibly, even around.
    One of the key discoveries of the Age of Discovery being more of a Homeric
Doh!
Moment, the prince got to work and, as Henry the Navigator, he initiated the European wave of exploration that would ultimately bring the White Man to Shaka’s court.
    About the first thing he did was ensure Portugal equipped herself with the right kind of ship for the job. This turned out to be the 35-meter-long three-masted caravel. With Arab-style lateen sails and a shallow draft, it was ideal for hugging the coast, exploring shallow waters, navigating reefs and sailing up rivers. By the time of Henry’s death in 1460, Portugal’s influence stretched as far as the Cape Verde Islands, six hundred kilometers west of Senegal.
    In 1482, Diogo Cão reached the coast of Angola, where he erected a
padrão,
one of the two-meter-high stone crosses he’d brought along in order to mark the expedition’s most important landfalls.
    In the wake of the mariners came the traders, settling wherever a victualling station was needed on the coast. They brought in copper ware, cloth, tools, wine, horses and, later, arms and ammunition. In exchange, they received gold, pepper, ivory and slaves.
    But India was still the prize. With Venice controlling the older land and sea routes across the Persian Gulf, the only way Portugal was going to get there was by sailing south, then turning left and left again, as it were, all the while using