The South Africa Guide

Dingaan (Dingane) was born in 1795, half brother of Shaka. He became King of the Zulu tribe in 1828 after successfully assassinating Shaka who was King at the time.

There was a lot of rivalry within the tribe with many not being happy with the assasination of Shaka. Dingaan claimed he was a man of peace and was not bloodthirsty like his half-brother had been. Unfortunately, Dingaan did not have the same ability to lead that Shaka had and a number of rebels broke away from him. It did not take long for Dingaan to become paranoid and ruthless.

He met regularly with white missionaries and traders. Although very nervous of their weapons, he was captivated by their curios, jewellery and ornaments. The relationship that Dingaan had with the small number of settlers in Port Natal blew hot and cold.

After the Voortrekkers arrived in Natal in 1837, Dingaan and Piet Retief met and Dingaan signed an agreement giving a portion of land to the Voortrekkers. He then executed Piet Retief and his men. He simultaneously sent out his impis who ambushed and killed 500 men, women and children all belonging to Piet Retief’s trek party.

About 10 months later Dingaan ordered his army to attack the Voortrekker encampment under Andries Pretorius. The Battle of Blood River was literally a blood bath when just 460 Voortrekkers managed to not only hold off 10,000 Zulu warriors but managed to defeat them, killing 3000 Impis with no Voortrekkers being killed.

Mpande who was another half-brother of Dingaan realized that the Zulu kingdom was crumbling. He approached Andries Pretorius and asked him for his help to defeat Dingaan. The Voortrekkers agreed to help and with their military aid Pretorius together with 400 of his men helped Mpande overthrow Dingaan. Dingaan was killed by his own people. Mpande then became King of the Zulus.