SOUTH AFRICA: On Dingaan's Day

Dingaan the Vulture was one of Darkest Africa's crudest black despots.* In 1838 a column of 600 Boers in white covered wagons was trekking northward from the Cape colony into Natal; the bearded Voortrekkers (pioneers), who wanted to get away from the hated British and find new homes in the Zulu domain, asked Dingaan to give them land. The Vulture agreed, if the Voortrekkers would first recover some cattle stolen from him by a hostile tribe. The Boers did so, then went to seal the bargain at a great feast in Dingaan's kraal.

The guests left their weapons outside the kraal...

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