KwaZulu

▪ former state, South Africa

      former nonindependent Bantustan, Natal, South Africa, that was the legal home of all of the nation's Zulus. Its area was scattered among 11 exclaves (detached sections) throughout Natal, occupying more than one-third of its territory. The capital, initially at Nongoma, was moved in 1980 to Ulundi, the last historic capital of the Zulu empire (founded in 1816 by Shaka), where the Zulu were defeated by the British in 1879 in the final battle of an extended period of British-Zulu warfare. Under the South African constitution that abolished apartheid, KwaZulu was reincorporated into South Africa in 1994 as part of the Natal province, which was renamed KwaZulu-Natal.

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