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Impi

For other uses, see Impi (disambiguation).

The impi was a military formation that transformed the face of southern Africa, on into east and central Africa. Its highest development took place under Shaka, initiator of several important organizational, weapon and tactical innovations.[1]

Impi is a Nguni word meaning war or combat and by association any body of men gathered for war, for example impi ya masosha is a term denoting an army. Impi were formed from regiments (amabutho) from large militarised homesteads (amakhanda). In English impi is often used to refer to a Zulu regiment, which is called an ibutho in Zulu or the army.[2][3]

Its beginnings lie far back in historic local warfare customs, when groups of armed men called impi battled. They were systematised radically by the Zulu king Shaka, who was then only the exiled illegitimate son of king Senzangakhona kaJama, but already showing much prowess as a general in the army (impi) of Mthethwa king Dingiswayo in the Ndwandwe–Zulu War of 1817–1819.

  1. ^ Donald Morris, 'The Washing of the Spears,' Touchstone, 1965.
  2. ^ Phil Tomaselli, The Zulu War 1879, Federation of Family History Societies (Publications) Limited, 2006, p.6
  3. ^ Paul Coquerel, L'Afrique du Sud des Afrikaners, Editions Complexe, 1992, p.40
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