The Washing of the Spears

Morris’s history of the rise and fall of the Zulu kingdom remains a classic. Trained as a journalist, Morris presents a vivid, lively, and compelling narrative, tracing the rise of Shaka’s Zulu kingdom, the outbreak of war in 1879, and the tragic aftermath of civil war and national disintegration. Although more recent scholarship casts doubt on some of Morris’s assertions, his book remains the starting point for understanding the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879.

At first glance, US Navy veteran and CIA officer Donald R Morris might seem an unlikely author of an epic chronicle of the bloody trajectory of the Zulu kingdom in nineteenth-century South Africa. Yet when The Washing of the Spears emerged in 1965 it was immediately recognised as a major work of historical narrative. Morris traces the forging of the Zulu war machine under the ruthless and charismatic Shaka, its subsequent setbacks at the hands of Boer settlers, and its revival under Shaka’s nephew Cetshwayo. Morris’s book reaches a powerful climax in his analysis of the ferocious Zulu clashes with… show more.