Skip to main content

Home/ University of Johannesburg History 2A 2023/ Group items tagged Asmaa

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
xsmaa246

picture of a muskets in south africa in 1800s - Google Search - 3 views

www.google.com/search

Asmaa Al-Helou 221178198 History 2A

shared by xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23 - No Cached
  • xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
     
    this is one of the types of guns that south Africans used for hunting, trading and war
xsmaa246

untitled.pdf - 3 views

Asmaa Al-Helou 221178198

shared by xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23 - No Cached
  • ‘Fighting Stick of Thunder’: Firearms and the Zulu Kingdom: The Cultural Ambiguities of Transferring Weapons Technology
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      this article also speaks on firearms in southern Africa specifically south africa, however, this time unlike the other source it focuses on firearms in accordance with the Zulu kingdom and how they are used as the previous article from Taylor and Francis generally talked about it in south africa and how they used it for trade and hunting.
  • This paper investigates the reluctance of the nineteenth-century Zulu people of southern Africa fully to embrace fi rearms in their war-making, and posits that this was an expression of their military culture
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      basically saying that the paper will talk about why south africans did not embrace using guns in their wars.
  • ecause fi rearms were prestigious weapons, monopolized by the elite, or professional hunters, Zulu commoners had little opportunity to master them and continued to rely instead on their traditional weapons, particularly the stabbing-spear
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      because firearms were only owned and used by the elite or professional hunters it was hard for Zulu commoners to get their hands on them and so used their traditional weaponry.
  • ...27 more annotations...
  • n so, cultural rather than practical reasons were behind the rank and fi le’s reluctance to upgrade fi rearms to their prime weapon.
  • to unpack the Zulus’ own perception of their heroic military culture, it is argued that, because of the engrained Zulu cultural consensus that only hand-to-hand combat was appropriate conduct for a true fi ghting-man, killing at a distance with a fi rearm was of inferior signifi cance, and did not even entail the ritual pollution that followed homicide and the shedding of human blood. Only close combat was worthy of praise and commemoration.
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      in the zulu culture, it is of inferior significance that zulu fight with firearms as they believe that they should fight through hand to hand
  • In his recent, richly nuanced study, Guns, Race, and Power in Colonial South Africa, William Kelleher Storey argues that, in the context of growing colonial cultural and economic infl uence, as well as of expanding political control in South Africa, ‘guns were useful commodities that people linked to new ways of thinking and behaving’. 2
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      this here helps link my Taylor and Francis article which is the one that is highlighted. in this line taken from the article is says that the way in which guns were used by the South Africans affects how they behave for instance in this passage they used guns to kill in wars or fights whereas, in the other article, it talked about the usage of guns for trade and hunting.
  • By contrast, in South Africa, the spread of guns was far slower because of the sheer, vast extent of the sub-continent’s interior and its lack of ports
  • The Zulu required some time to become accustomed to the white’s fearsome muskets.
  • So, if we are to attempt to grasp what Zulu military culture entailed, and the tentative part fi rearms played in it, we must approach the matter as best we can from the Zulu perspective
  • As we have already learned from Singcofela, killing at a distance with a gun was of quite a different order from killing with an ‘assegai’, the short-hafted, long-bladed iklwa or stabbing-spear. The iklwa was used only at close quarters, when an underarm stab — normally aimed at the abdomen — was followed, without withdrawing, by a rip. In 1929, Kumbeka Gwabe, a veteran of the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, remembered how at the battle of Isandlwana he killed a British soldier who fi red at him with his revolver and missed: ‘I came beside him and stuck my assegai under his right arm, pushing it through his body until it came out between his ribs on the left side. As soon as he fell I pulled the assegai out and slit his stomach so I knew he should not shoot any more of my peop
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      this tells us that in the zulu perspective, the guns did not work the same as the Assegai that allowed the veteran to strike the enemy with it .
  • This was the weapon of the hero, of a man who cultivated military honour or udumo (thunder), and who proved his personal prowess in single combat
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      it was more honorable for the veteran to use traditional weapons than a gun to kill and that is why south Africans had reluctance to use firearms.
  • These too were integral to the ethos of Zulu masculinity, but overt courage and insatiable ferocity were the hallmarks of the great warrior.
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      using guns basically affected a man's masculinity and status.
  • As such, the traders owed him military service, and it quickly came to Shaka’s attention that they possessed muskets.
  • Consequently, whereas at one extreme the Sotho thoroughly embraced fi rearms, considerably modifi ed their traditional methods of warfare, and successfully took on Boers and Britons alike, at the other extreme the Zulu only gingerly made use of fi rearms and did not permit them to affect their way of warfare to any marked degree.
  • ‘This stick which they carry, what is it for?’ (This was said by the earliest Zulus of the gun that was carried, for they did not know that it was a weapon.) Tshaka then wanted the carrier (a European) to aim at a vulture hovering above with this stick of theirs. The European did so, and fi red, bang! The sound caused all round about to fall on hands and knees. The bird was brought down. Wonderful!
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      description of what South Africans knew about a gun
  • Shaka, as Makuza indicated, was very much taken up with muskets and their military potential. Jantshi ka Nongila, who was born in 1848 and whose father had served as a spy under Shaka, described how Shaka was remembered as testing the power of muskets by having the white traders aim at cattle at different distances.
  • 16 In 1826, he used the limited but alarming fi repower of the Port Natal traders and their trained African retainers against his great rivals, the Ndwandwe people, in the decisive battle of the izinDolowane hills; and in 1827, he again used their fi repower in subduing the Khumalo people.
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      this is an indicator that Shaka used guns on his enemies.
  • In part, the Zulu reluctance to take up fi rearms lay in the initial diffi culty in obtaining them
  • had bartered fi fty stands of arms and a quantity of gunpowder. He warned that, hitherto, the Zulu ‘had used them only in their little wars but the king stated to me that should he fi nd himself unable to overcome his enemies by the weapons most familiar to his people he would then have recourse to them’. 19
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      it seems that king Dingane has gotten arms and stated that he would use them on his enemies if he is unable to defeat them. this is a note that guns were used in wars by south africans.
  • In his praises Dingane was celebrated as ‘Jonono who is like a fi ghting-stick of thunder [a gun]!’
  • Dingane appreciated the power of fi rearms.
  • During the 1830s, guns began to be traded into Zululand in greater numbers, much to the despair of the missionary Captain Allen Gardiner. He saw in this incipient trade a Zulu threat to all their neighbours, and was much disheartened, in 1835, when the Zulu elite evinced no interest in the word of God, but only in his instruction in the best use of the onomatopoeic ‘issibum’, or musket. 21
  • Thus, when the Voortrekkers came over the Drakensberg passes in late 1837 and encamped in Zululand, Dingane knew that they and their guns posed a deadly threat to his kingdom. Dingane’s treacherous attempt, early in 1838, to take the Voortrekkers unawares and destroy them, was only partially successful.
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      they were unable to fight back because the Voortrekkers had more gun advantage and were able to kill Zulus under shelter. this is another indictor of the usage of guns in south africa
  • The Zulus’ disastrous defeats at Voortrekker hands only confi rmed the chilling effi cacy of fi rearms and the need to possess the new weapons.
  • Yet the new weapons technology could not be ignored. From the late 1860s, fi rearms began to spread rapidly throughout South Africa, thanks in large part to the mineral revolution, and the need for African labour
  • young Pedi men (in what became a recognized rite of manhood) regularly made their way to the labour markets of Natal and the Cape and bought fi rearms from guntraders with their earning
  • White hunters sold these items on the world markets and recruited and trained Africans in the use of fi rearms to assist them in obtaining them. 48 Ivory, in particular, was equally a source of wealth for the Zulu king, who was no longer content with his men killing elephants (as described by the hunter, Adulphe Delagorgue) by stabbing them with spears and letting them bleed to death, or driving them into pits fi lled with stakes. 49 The king required fi rearms for the task.
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      this also shows that they used firearms for hunting
  • As we have seen, the Zulu adoption of fi rearms was partial and imperfect, hedged about by all sorts of hindrances, both practical and essentially cultural. Only a handful of men who had close contact with white hunters and traders were eas
  • with fi rearms, and knew how to use them
  • Otherwise, as we have seen, the bulk of amabutho continued to treat their guns like throwing spears, to be discarded before the real hand-to-hand fi ghting began.
xsmaa246

Guns, Race, and Skill in Nineteenth-Century Southern Africa.pdf - 4 views

Asmaa Al-Helou 221178198

shared by xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23 - No Cached
  • Guns, Race, and Skill in Nineteenth-Century Southern Afric
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      in this article, I will focus on firearms (guns ) in Southern Africa specifically in South Africa.
  • it seems. South Africa's "gun society" originated in the seventeenth century, when the Dutch East India Company encouraged the European settlers of the Cape of Good Hope to procure firearms and to serve in th
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      this tells us when guns were introduced in South Africa, it also tells us that it was introduced because the Dutch East India Company wanted the European settlers to obtain the firearms so that they serve as civilian soldiers ( this is what militia means, its civilians being trained as soldiers)
  • itia. The European farmers (called Boers) who crossed the colonial boundaries into the African interior distributed guns to Africans, in spite of company regulations fo
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • through the encouragement of traders and missionaries, more Africans took up firearms. They did so for many reasons, most prominently to gain se
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      the reason why africans took firearms was for security and to hunt.
  • s. Settler perceptions of the threat posed by armed Africans persuaded British conservatives to portray Africans as skilled with firearms, even as they otherwise characterized Africans as racially infe
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      seems that even though the british thought lowly of africans they started to see them as skilled and armed because of their possession of firearms.
  • pean settlers introduced guns to New England, pointing out that Native Americans adapted them most adroitly to the local environment. The Native Americans learned to shoot well and combined that capability with their skills in forest warfare to gain a temporary military adva
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      even though this does not relate to firearms in south africa , this is highlighted because it tells us that when guns are introduced to natives it seems that natives adapt fast to using firearms and use them on nature first, just like earlier when it was said guns were used to catch game then it was used as a means for security.
  • There is only one place to find a scholarly discussion of shooting skills in southern Africa: a special issue of the Journal of African History, published in 1971, on the social history of firearms. The contributors greatly advanced our knowledge of firearms in southern Africa, but they arrived at some unexamined and contradictory conclusions about skill. Relying on colonial descriptions of African peoples of the region, they characterized the Khoisan and Griqua as skilled with weapons, a facility that enabled them to resist colonialism for a w
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      although this speaks about findings that were published in 1971 does not mean that the information collected was not before 1890 this simply is talking about how skillful could the south african natives be with firearms.
  • redcoat deserter
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      British soldiers who deserted their posts.
  • both good and bad marksmen, while the Mfengu were skilled and dangerous. The Sotho were "indifferently armed and were poor shots" before the 1870s, when they became "crack marksmen." The Zulu never integrated firearms completely into their military tactics, but by the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 some Zulu shot well because, according to a British government source, they had received instruction fr
  • To load a muzzle-loading flintlock, the gunner measured out a quantity of coarse black powder (or opened a premeasured charge) and poured it down the barrel. Next he placed the ball on a patch (typically made of something like linen) and pushed it down the barrel with the ramrod to rest on top of the powder. He then primed the lock by placing a pinch of powder in the pan, cocked the hammer, aimed, and pulled the trigger. It was a slow (thirty seconds even for a reasonably skilled gunner) and awkward procedure, which left soldiers exposed to enemy fire. Flintlock muskets were vulnerable to wet weather as well. To further complicate matters, fouling of the barrel caused by the black powder, which does not burn cleanly, made the weapon progressively more difficult to load during a battle or other prolonged use. To compensate, soldiers often loaded with balls that were smaller than the caliber (diameter of the barrel) nominally used by the weapon. See Malone (n. 3 above), 31-35, for rich descriptions and illustrations of matchlock and flintlock muskets.
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      this is a description of the guns that were used in south africa at the time. the flintlock muskets
  • ents. Percussion locks came into wide service by the 1840s.11 At around the same time, improvements in ammunition persuaded most soldiers and civilians to replace their smoothbores with more accurate rifles.12 And, finally, by the 1860s design improvements in breech-loading firearms made it possible for most soldiers and civilians to switch from muzzle loaders to breechloaders.13
  • 1. In a percussion lock, a percussion cap containing fulminate is placed over a nipple on top of the touchhole; the hammer strikes the cap, which explodes and ignites the charge in the barrel. This is a much more reliable ignition system, especially in damp weather, and it allows a weapon to be more quickly loaded, takes less skill, and entails fewer risks than the flintlock. By the 1850s most armies had switched to the percussion loc
  • areas killed wildlife for food. At the same time, hunting was an important economic activity, as ivory, hides, and ostrich feathers commanded high prices on world markets. Hunting could even provide a better income than cattle farming. The naturalist William Burchell, who traveled in the interior in 1812, observed how Africans became involved in a cash economy as European trade networks reached into the interior.14 Many African hunters worked for European traders, who employed them as trackers and supplied them with guns and ammunition.
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      this is an excellent take on firearms by south Africans as they used these guns to hunt and find food and in turn, this helped them trade what they hunted for other things. so this tells us that is how Southerners used the guns. also this passage tells us that many Africans worked for European traders who gave them guns.
  • 5. While Burchell was living among the Tlhaping, a man offered eight oxen in exchange for one gun, which seemed a high price until one considered the gun's usefulness for hunting. Guns remained relatively rare in this part of southern Africa until the 1850s. By the 1870s they were widespread, thanks in part to the availability of wage labor at the nearby Kimberley diamond mines. There, an old (but still powerful) rifled percussion musket could be bought for four pounds sterling, the equivalent of three months' wages, while a modern breechloader might cost twenty-five pound
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      this shows how guns were traded.
  • The relationship of hunting skills and marksmanship to the political, economic, and ecological transformation of southern Africa can only be understood fully when we consider the ways in which guns were adapted to the local environme
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      this is saying that the use of guns changed in different environments.
  • hybrids. The sheer size of African game animals, especially the much-sought-after elephant, fostered a preference for large-caliber weapons. By the eighteenth century a distinct local pattern of firearms design had begun to emerge, which can be understood as a technological response to the region's ecology and economy. Local settlers mainly used military-style flintlocks, similar to the British Brown Bess, or another and even larger type of
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      they used bigger guns or military type guns to hunt for bigger game
  • . It also concerned British and Boer officials, who incorporated disarmament into their plans to despoil Africans of their land. While developing plans to disarm, dispossess, and disenfranchise Africans, British settlerpoliticians argued that whites should take care to maintain their skills with arms - not to denude the environment of animals but to defend against attacks by dangerous Africans.
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      the british and the boers think that they should disarm africans of their guns as they want to be the only ones in control of guns. as they think africans are dangerous.
xsmaa246

January 19, 1876 - Document - Nineteenth Century Collections Online - 12 views

go.gale.com/...retrieve.do

Asmaa Al-Helou 221178198 History 2A

shared by xsmaa246 on 24 Apr 23 - No Cached
  • Document Scan
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      annotating here instead of the pdf because it does not allow me. since it is a scan. this also does not allow me to have the full document scan so i will annotate what i have.
  • I had the honour to draw your Lordship's attention to the wholesale manner in which guns and munitions of war are being bought by the Zulus
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      this a report showing that guns are being bought by zulus
  • My previous report as to the extent of the gun trade was not exaggerated. The main trade of Lourenço Marques consists in guns, powder, lead, and spirituous liquors, sold to the natives in the most reckless manner. Not
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • a day passed during my visit without a string of natives arriving in the town, and leaving with guns and ammunition; whilst even the merchants engaged in the trade could not do otherwise than admit its utter recklessness and increased proportions when in private conversation amongst themselves.
  • Large exportations of guns come as reshipments from the Cape and Natal, still larger exportations direct from Europe, almost all of which pass into the Zulu country south,
  • This is, of course, the direct fruit of the policy of the Government in stopping the importation of guns." But by this loss to a British Colony, Lourenço Marques benefits, for the Zulus, through their vassals the Amatonga, have opened a direct and wholesale trade in arms with Delagoa Bay, where, untrammelled by any local Portuguese restrictions, those guns are purchased by them which by Natal law it is illegal either to sell to natives or to convey across the Tugela Eiver, the boundary between that Colony and Zulu-land
  • I have not as yet succeeded in procuring an exact return of the number of guns imported during the current year at Lourenço Marques, but am well within the truth when I affirm that over 15,000 have passed into the hands of the native tribes bordering Natal and the Transvaal Republic since the 1 st of January last.
  • I cannot, my Lord, and I think Sir Garnet Wolseley would agree with me here, animadvert too strongly on the suicidal policy of the merchants, who, for the sake of immediate profit, shut their eyes obstinately to the future results of the introduction of firearms amongst the natives of South East Africa, and ignore the possible and conse¬ quent results. In the districts where a few years ago I found but few guns, and those solely valued for the purposes of chase, there are at the present time entire tribes armed with guns that are prized, not as before solely for the chase, but solely for aggressive or defensive purposes against their neighbour
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      this report is saying how natives are in possessions of guns
xsmaa246

'Followers of the Zulu king, Cetshwayo, including his brother, Dabulamanzi', 1879 | Onl... - 3 views

collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php

Asmaa Al-Helou 221178198 History 2A

shared by xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23 - No Cached
  • Followers of the Zulu king, Cetshwayo, including his brother, Dabulamanzi', 1879
    • xsmaa246
      xsmaa246 on 25 Apr 23
       
      this is similar to my article from before just adding for more clarification. as a link to a web
1 - 11 of 11
Showing 20▼ items per page