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As such, the traders owed him military service, and it quickly came to Shaka’s attention that they possessed muskets.

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’.

more stringent gun control. Most witnesses opposed the arming of Africans.36 Witnesses and commissioners linked gun ownership to broader policy debates about citizenship that had been going on for some time in the Cape Colony, and that were intensifying dur

ractically with them if the danger becomes real, are not inclined to agree."37 One regular officer of the British army, Lieutenant Colonel Crossman of the Royal Engineers, agreed with Froude. In a confidential report to Carnarvon on diamond miners in Kimberley, he argued that only long-serving Africans ought to be permitted to purchase guns. "For my own part," he continued, "I would not allow guns to be sold to the natives at all. They do not purchase them for hunting but for purposes of war. They are not satisfied with the common exported article, but endeavour to obtain the best rifles they can purchase, saying 'that as the red [British] soldier uses good rifles they also must have th

In 1876, as fear of a Xhosa attack mounted, some settlers and soldiers fretted about whether the Europeans living in the Eastern Cape were well-enough trained in the use of firearms. E. B. Chalmers of the Frontier Armed and Mounted Police testified that few Eastern Cape settlers even owned gun

Several other settlers also called attention to the state of affairs. According to two witnesses, fewer than half the settlers owned guns, although more knew how to use them, and more of the young men were learning.45 According to another witness, "farmers and their sons" not only lacked arms, they had also lost the skill of riding while carrying a gun.46 It took a great deal of time to manage a farm or wor

while carrying a gun.46 It took a great deal of time to manage a farm or work at a craft, and settlers frequently lacked the leisure to hunt or take tar

p. In the 1878 session of the Cape Parliament, Sprigg succeeded in steering through a set of bills that created an all-white militia. He also secured passage of the Peace Preservation Act, which provided for disarming parts of the population; the governor was empowered to proclaim certain districts subject to the act, and could then instruct magistrates to determine who should

urn in their arms and who might keep them. The act was not in itself discriminatory, but it was understood that Europeans in proclaimed districts would keep their arms and that Africans would turn theirs in. Those who were forced to surrender their weapons would be compensated. According to Sprigg, this measure was necessary "for getting arms out of the hands of disloyal na

makhanda (military homesteads)

individuals in each of these companies (amaviyo)

ew ibutho (age-grade regiment)

to giya, or to perform a war dance,

abaqawe [heroes or warriors of distinction]

he king ordered them to wear a distinctive necklace, made from small blocks of willow wood (known as an iziqu),

emigrant farmers (or Voortrekkers)

(isithunyisa is a Zulu word for gu

he Zulu army, or impi,

nceku, or personal attendan

sigodlo (or private household

inyanga, or war doctor,

Some evidence exists that Portuguese and Dutch traders brought firearms to coastal West Africa in the 15th to 17th centuries,

used in Africa by the Janissaries of the Ottoman army during the 16th century, and later found their way into West Africa across the Sahara from North Africa towards the end of that century. 4 A

fricans received two guns for every slave; in 1718 they received between 24 and 32 guns for every slave

Firearms were easily deployed in the new structures – they required little skills to use compared to other missile weapons, which facilitated quick training of a central army. 26

The coming of firearms [in the mid-19th century] plunged Central Africa into a cycle of unprecedented violence, causing a large amount of victims, but also causing some to flee their territory’. 3

given the firearms role in the production of slaves and ivory. 35 Guns were instrumental in slave raids and in the hunting of elephants at a large scale. Ivory was used to buy both slaves and weapons, and was used for tributes to foreign traders to create partnerships and alliances. The ivory trade ‘consolidated the economic and military power of those who had access to guns – or who worked in alliance with those with gun

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, firearms spread deeper into the lands behind the coast. This gradual dispersion of guns coincided with the rise and consolidation of expansionist states like Akwamu, Denkyira, Asante and Dahomey, whose military prowess was based on the firearm ... . The bulk of the firearms taken into Asante and Dahomey was not carried further afield, because both states imposed restrictions on the distribution of guns in the lands to their north. 52

Officially, the Portuguese were forbidden to sell firearms to non-Christians, ostensibly on politico-religious grounds, but more credibly because, during the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Portugal was largely dependent on Flemish and German gunsmiths for its supply of firearms. 56

In 1859, Natal required all Africans to register their firearms with the lieutenant governor. This did not totally disarm Africans, but it was a crucial first step. In 1878,t h e Cape passed legislation allowing the governor to disarm entire districts. Disarmament occurred at the same time as Britain was attempting to unify the chiefdoms, colonies, and republics of South Africa under one form of government. Confederation became a famous failure, while disarmament became a patchy success.

Many Africans had to surrender their guns under the terms of a new Peace Preservation Act passed in 1878.T h i s diminished their ownership of guns but it did not sever the ideological ties between the bearing of arms and the performance of civic duties.

The new gun control measures of the 1870s pushed legal discrimination further: the Cape took a step in the direction of the Boer republics, which denied Africans all rights of citizenship, including the right to own a weapon. Africans could not be citizens of the republics, nor could they own weapons, although the intricate relations of paternalism included the idea that servants helped masters to bear arms.

redcoat deserter

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.

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.

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

A second tentative conclusion is that firearms in war had an initial success but rapidly declined in significance. This might be through the enemy acquiring equivalent weapons, or evolving tactics to cope with them, or through the original weapons deteriorating or being deprived of ammunition.

Gunpowder was more widely made in Africa, though most observers note that the quality obtained was poor.