Die lastige bure op die Noordgrens (Historia, 2021)
Tot en met 1812 was die huidige Natal baie dig bevolk. 1 Dit was ook die jaar waarin Shaka bewind aanvaar het in die gebied ten noorde van die Tugela. Die verskillende stamme het baie naby mekaar gewoon en goeie buurmanskap was kenmerkend. Shaka het die bevolkingstruktuur, wat hoofsaaklik op vreedsame naasbestaan gebaseer was, geheel en al met sy uitdelgingsoorloe ontwrig. Peter Becker sien Natal na 1821 as "a country laid waste by Shaka's armies. . .apart from the few beggars who eked out a precarious existence in the vicinity of the port and a handful of half-starved wretches in the hills. Natal was denuded of inhabitants. Not a basket of grain could be gathered from the weed-infested fields or tumbledown settlements, and the only trace of cattle was the expanses of dung which here and there marked the sites of former cattle-folds".
Keywords: Shaka; Zululand; Shaka Zulu; Dingaan; Natal; Northern border