STATE FORMATION IN KWA-ZULU NATAL AND THE SUBSEQUENT RISE OF THE ZULU KINGDOM IN THE 1820s (original) (raw)

State formation in what has been known as Kwa-Zulu Natal since 1994, has always been linked to the rise of the Zulu Kingdom (known as Natal before 1994). This ignores the role of other powerful kingdoms in the region, such as those of Mthethwa and Ndwandwe. The rise of the Zulu Kingdom in the 1820s and during the Mfecane as the only reason of state formation, ignores the dynamics that were taking place in the region. This article endeavours to focus on the role of powerful chiefdoms such as the Mthwethwa and the Ndwandwe in giving birth to the Zulu Kingdom which historians sometimes oversimplify. Colonialism also played a crucial role in promoting ethnic identities in the 1920s which purported the Zulu Kingdom to be the most powerful that shaped the state formation in the later KwaZulu-Natal. The nineteenth century in South Africa is noted for the revolutionary processes that formed new states such as the Zulu Kingdom. State formation in the nineteenth century had tremendous consequences on how different people defi ned themselves (identity formation). The processes of state formation refer to the political and military struggles that resulted in the rise of new states and the downfall of others in the period between 1800 and 1870.