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To honour King Tshaka ka Senzangakona as a founder and ruler of the Zulu Nation.Declared as a national monument in 1938.The building of Dukuza, the only Zulu capital situated south of the Thukela River, started in late 1826; King Shaka was assasinated at Nyakamubi, a small homestead adjacent to Dukuza on 24th September 1828.According to Small (1969:30) the monument was largely paid for by the Zulu nation and unveiled 1954-09-24 by Paramount Chief Cyprian ka Dinuzulu. The site was transferred to NMC 1979-05-09 and is administed by KwaZulu Monuments Council/Amafa.Chaka was the outstanding figure in a long succession of Zulu chiefs. Almost two metres tall and well pro portioned, he was endowed with great physical strength and outstanding courage. He had a searching and creative intellect, but he was domineering and without a conscience. Bloodthirsty and immoral, he yet had a certain commanding presence at all times.Chaka was an illegitimate son of the Zulu Chief Senzangakona and Nandi, a daughter of a Langeni Chief. Because his life was threatened, he and his mother fled to Dingiswayo and took refuge with the Mthethwa tribe. He grew up there and through his fearlessness achieved a position of influence. After the death of Dingiswayo and his father, he became Chief of the Mthethwa and of the Zulus in 1818. He reorganised the army, forged the large number of Nguni tribes into one Zulu nation, conquered the neighbouring territories, destroyed the inhabitants and invaded the Transvaal, Swaziland and Mozambique. In this way he launched the ‘Mfecane’ or wars of extermination throughout Southern Africa. However, he adopted a friendly attitude towards the English traders in Port Natal and entered into a treaty with them.At first Chaka had his kraal in the Emakhosini valley near the present village of Babanango. After the unification of the various tribes he built a military kraal called Bulawayo II, about 32 kilometres north of Eshowe. Later still he established a model kraal at Dukuza where Stanger is now.In September, 1828, all Chaka’s regiments except one were out on warlike expeditions. His two half-brothers, Dingane and Mhlangana, assisted by Mbopha, Chaka’s trusted body-servant, took advantage of this and murdered him in his kraal at Dukuza. According to tradition Chaka’s body was wrapped in the skin of an ox and thrown into a grain-pit. It is said that the dying Chaka, addressing his murderers, prophesied: ‘Do you think you will rule the land? . . . Not you, but the White people" Swallows" will rule the land.Dingane immediately moved the main kraal from Dukuza to Mgungundhlovu, but Chaka’s grave became sacred ground. No cattle were allowed to graze there and no one was allowed to chop wood there; at one stage the local chief ordered a guard. to be placed over it.Meanwhile a village arose at Dukuza and in 1921 a local authority was established. When the village was laid out, an acre of land (4 047 m round Chaka’s grave was reserved. The Zulu Chief Solomon ka Dinizulu was mainly responsible for the idea of erecting a memorial. Most of the money for the memorial was contributed by the Zulus themselves and the monument was unveiled in 1932.Proclaimed 1938Next to Chaka’s monument there is a large round dolerite boulder. It originally lay on the high ground above the main road to the east of Stanger and a few hundred metres south of the Groutville school. According to Zulu tradition Chaka used to sit on this stone and watch his impis passing as they went horn his Dukuza kraal to his Ndumezulu and Hlomendlini kraals beyond the Tugela River.