Incwadi Yami; or, twenty years' personal experience in South Africa

by J. W. Matthews

34. The present system of government is destroying the country. All the young men, all the able-bodied men of the country, are taken as soldiers. They are taken from their homes at an age when they are becoming useful to their parents, and are kept for several years in the compulsory service of the king. They are not allowed to marry, as the other men around them, as in Natal, as among the Amaswagi, as among the Amapondo. They cannot marry when they desire to do so, but they must await the permission of the king, and they are often kept for seven years without the permission to do so. They are not allowed to labor for themselves, or to plant, or to reap, or to live in quiet and in peace with their families and relatives. They are constantly summoned up to the king’s kraals, as if for war, although there is no enemy to fight with, and thus they come to fight among themselves, and blood is shed, and there is distress and moaning in the land; or they are sent out in parties to surround the kraals of those who have given offence to the king, or who are accused by private enemies, and who then, without trial and without a word, are killed, their kraals laid desolate, and their families, and all they have, carried off and destroyed.

35. Thus the army is made an instrument, not for the defence of the country but for the oppression of the people. All the best interests of the Zulu country and the happiness of the Zulu people are sacrificed in order that the king may keep up this large army. For what purpose is this army kept up? Is there an enemy? Where is the enemy? Cetywayo knows very well that there is no enemy, and that there is no occasion for this large army. In the days of Chaka or Dingaan it might be different, but now on all sides of the Zulu country is the territory of the British government, or of its allies and friendly neighbors. The king knows very well that the British government is a peaceful and friendly power, and that it wishes well to the Zulu people, and that it wishes them to live in peace and comfort. The king knows this well, for did not his father live to become an old man under the shelter of the British government, and has not Cetywayo himself grown up to manhood under the eye of the English?

36. With regard to the native neighboring tribes, the Basuto, Amapondo, the Amaswagi, and others, they are either the subjects or the allies or neighbors of the British government, and the Zulu king knows he has nothing to fear from them. They are, besides, peaceful people and not given to war and aggression.

37. For what purpose then does the Zulu king keep up this large army, which brings so much hardship and so much misery upon the Zulu people themselves? It can serve no good purpose. It can be made of no use, except it be used for the oppression of the Zulu people or for aggression upon British subjects or the allies and neighbors of the British government.

38. There is, therefore, no real need for the army. The present system is working the destruction of the Zulu people. The army was used against the very people of the country to which it belongs. It is the strength of the nation destroying the nation itself.

39. Let the natives say if this is not so? Besides, while the king keeps up this army, while he is continually calling it together, it is impossible for his neighbors to feel secure. They never know what may happen, and the British government is obliged to keep large numbers of the Queen’s troops in Natal and the Transvaal in order to protect British subjects against the dangers of a possible aggression by the Zulu king.

40. This state of things cannot last. It is dangerous to the peace of all the countries adjoining Zululand, and it is hurtful to the Zulu people themselves. The British government cannot allow it to continue. It has become absolutely necessary that some change should be made.

41. It is necessary that the military system which is at present kept up by the king should be done away with as a bad and hurtful one, and that he should instead adopt such military regulations as may be decided on after consultation with the great council of the Zulus, and with the representatives of the British government.

42. It is necessary that the Zulu army, as it is now, shall be disbanded, and that the men shall return to their homes.

43. Let the obligation on every able-bodied man to come out for the defence of his country, when it is needed, remain, but until then let it be that every man shall live, if he please, quietly at his own home.