Shaka ILembe, a South African historical epic series set in the 18th century, is based on the origin and making of the legendary Zulu king Shaka kaSenzangakhona, also known as Shaka the Zulu. Shaka reigned over the Zulu kingdom from 1816 to 1828, during which the kingdom experienced warfare and territorial expansion. References to the famed leader and warrior endure in film and literature, with all agreeing that he wielded unprecedented influence in the entire Southern Africa region, similar to how Nelson Mandela is respected by modern South Africans.
One of the most famous literary references to Shaka is Thomas Mofolo’s 1925 novel Chaka, a fictional account of the rise and fall of the warrior-king which ties his ruthless military success to a divination. Half a century later, Wole Soyinka would write his cryptic poem of political significance, Ogun Abibiman, in which he contrives a military alliance between Ogun (the Yoruba god of war) and Shaka to fight for freedom and human rights in Southern Africa. In a frenzied moment, Soyinka captures the inspirational leadership style of Shaka who as “king and general/ Fought battles, invented rare techniques…”. This military inventiveness is realized much later in the MultiChoice series when the youthful Shaka, leading the Mthethwa army, successfully executes an unusual military tactic at the battlefront and becomes a source of inspiration across the land even before he assumes rulership of Zulu.
Produced for MultiChoice by the award-winning Bomb Productions, with its story created by Angus Gibson, Mpumelelo Paul Grootboom and Desireé Markgraaff, this TV drama presents a flattering but rounded version of the Zulu king, most of whose personal history derives from oral sources. The series captures events surrounding his birth and early years, including the first meeting between his father Senzangakhona and mother Nandi, as well as his interactions with the nations existing at the time, including the Zulu, Mthethwa, ELangeni, Qwabe, Ndwandwe, and Hlubi.
With a cast comprising Nomzamo Mbatha (Nandi), Ntando Zondi (Young Shaka), Senzo Radebe (Senzangakhona), and Lemogang Tsipa (Shaka), this 12-episode series explores wars, struggles, spirituality, betrayal, love, royalty, and destiny. The narrator is identified as Mkabayi the daughter of Jama, a Zulu princess and sister to Senzangakhona. Following up the voice-over narrator is the prologue-like visual moment of a teenage Shaka who sends a bee hive in the direction of some bullies. Then, the film settles on the beautiful, marriageable Princess Nandi of ELangeni. Nandi and the Zulu prince Senzangakhona meet for the first time and fall in love with each other while her family are planning to marry her to a man she has no interest in.
In this series, spirituality is a crucial part of the South African worldview. One interesting example is the Queen of Ndwandwe who, through the practice of witchcraft, causes drought in the kingdom, backs her power-drunk and opportunistic son Zwide, and manipulates the umhlahlo to her advantage when accused of killing her husband. In traditional Southern African societies, umhlahlo is a local ceremony and practice during which evil-doers are exposed and punished. When the Ndwandwe Queen visits the Mthethwa to save her captured son, she bewitches one of the king’s sons, Mawewe, and puts the King Jobe of Mthethwa at loggerheads with his other sons. The use of divination and ancestral worship, as dynamics of spirituality, also helps the plot. On the verge of dying, King Jama of Zulu connects with his ancestors who reveal to him a great lion that will emerge from his bloodline. A Sanusi further explains that the lion (which remains a hidden symbol to most of the characters until it is much later revealed via the story as Shaka, the dying King’s unborn grandson at the time) will conquer nations to create a unified Zulu kingdom. To bring this prophecy to fruition, the Zulu heir Senzangakhona is exempted from participating in the war against the Ndwandwe.
The series foregrounds a power tussle, as the nations are constantly embroiled in both diplomatic and battlefield warfare. The confrontation between Zwide and Senzangakhona over some ELangeni maidens marks the beginning of this power tussle. Zwide perceives the Zulu as a weaker side and declares war against them. But the liaison between the Zulu and Mthethwa forces turns out to be an astute political and military decision as they overcome the Ndwandwe army and capture Zwide. Then, there’s Mawewe baying for the blood of his brother Godongwana to secure his claim to the Mthethwa throne.
Central to the perception of power is how the royal households across these kingdoms are strategic about the marital decisions of their offspring. Senzangakhona has to marry King Nzuza’s daughter ahead of Nandi, which is against his wish, so as to fulfill the obligation of his father who desires to strengthen his alliance with King Nzuza. Same as Nandi whose people want her married to Prince Ndabezimbi of the Mzimela whose kingdom is believed to possess more economic power than even the Zulu.
From their first meeting until their marital estrangement, the relationship between Nandi and Senzangakhona is tumultuous. Nandi becomes pregnant with Shaka, out of wedlock, and faces shame from her people as Senzangakhona initially refuses the pregnancy. The Zulu prince’s communal obligation overrides his emotional commitment in a way that should hypothetically establish him as a man of the people. Yet this makes him a man whose assertiveness and personal sense of authority quivers in the face of societal pressure. Nandi eventually becomes one of Senzangakhona’s wives, but her stay in the royal household is threatened when the king marries a new wife, BhiBhi, who contributes to poisoning the heart of the king towards Nandi and Shaka. Nandi is also partly to blame for her husband’s animosity towards her and their son: she isn’t discreet with the Sanusi’s prophecy about Shaka as a future Zulu revolutionary king.
Queen Nandi and her children are sent away from Senzangakhona’s palace. In their quest for a new home, Nanadi spends some time with her people in ELangeni after which she remarries to one of her previous suitors, Gendeyana, in Qwabe. Under the tutelage of Gendeyana, Shaka receives his first military training and mentorship until the death of his stepfather in battle. The search for yet another home leads Nandi and her children to the Mthethwa where Shaka gains favor in the sight of the King, joins the army and rises to the position of a commander. While leading the Mthethwa army,the warlord adopts an unprecedented close-combat technique to defeat the larger, combined forces of the ELangeni and Ndwandwe.
Shaka ILembe has minor plots, which often shifts the focus from Shaka and his family, with the most rousing subplot being the ordeal of Godongwana and his romantic partner Baleka. We are constantly kept in fear of what will happen to the Godongwana as he goes on the run, having to hide with the Qwabe and the Hlubi at different times. When Ngomane , the head of the Mthethwa army, finds Godongwana, they fight until they are captured by Portuguese slave traders. Here, the film references the existence of slave trade in parts of Africa in the 1700s. But the combined force which Ngomane and Godongwana present against the slave traders suggests how a united African front could have easily resisted any form of imperial domination.
Symbols are used to keep us in touch with the protagonist’s destiny. One such is the moment that a young Shaka stands before an elephant until the animal retreats in surrender. In another scene, while sleeping and reminiscing about his father’s rejection, a python crawls over the body of Shaka without hurting him even as he is roused.
While an accurate account of the life of Shaka is impossible to achieve on screen due to the varying sources and sparse information on his life, MultiChoice’s version is, in the manner of a bildungsroman, procedural and sensibly chaotic. In the tightly woven plot marking the genesis of the Zulu enigma, what seems like an intentional and prolonged humanization of Shaka—paternal rejection, stigmatization, victimhood—is more palpable than how often legend deifies him. Following the death of Senzangakhona in the film, Shaka fights, killing his half-brother Sigujana and a royal ally Mkabayi, to take his place as the fated successor to the Zulu throne. Season 1 ends with the youthful warrior and king triumphantly returning to the Zulu palace accompanied by the Mthethwa army, marking a new era.