Shaka

Born in 1787, Shaka was just a boy when he and his mother were banished from their tiny Zulu clan, one among many clans that dotted the hillsides of southern Africa. By sheer will and military genius Shaka rose to lead a mighty nation, but he never forgot his outcast childhood.In this companion to Diane Stanley's lauded Peter the Great, the authors have researched African history to evoke the dramatic events of Shaka!s time. Shaka dreamed of becoming a warrior, and he proved himself again and again--against a springing leopard, in one-on-one combat with a fearsome opponent, and as a general in battle.Most amazingly, Shaka took a handful of Zulu fighters and turned them into an army of the finest warriors in Africa, awesome in its power, endurance, and discipline. By the time Europeans came to Zululand in 1824, they were told that this land they hoped to colonize belonged to a great king named Shaka, whose power was beyond measure.Today Shaka lives on, in the stories of the six million Zulus of South Africa who remember him with pride, and in books written by the Europeans who knew and respected him. Shaka, King of the Zulus is a thoughtful, clearly written, and brilliantly illustrated biography of an extraordinary nineteenth-century ruler.


Genre: Children's Fiction