Zulu, a nation of Nguni-speaking people in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. They are a
branch of the southern Bantu and have close ethnic, linguistic, and cultural ties with
the Swazi and Xhosa. The Zulu are the single largest ethnic group in South Africa and
numbered about nine million in the late 20th century.
Traditionally grain farmers, they also kept large herds of cattle on the lightly wooded
grasslands, replenishing their herds mainly by raiding their neighbours. European settlers
wrested grazing and water resources from the Zulu in prolonged warfare during the 19th

century, and, with much of their wealth lost, modern Zulu depend largely on wage labour on
farms owned by individuals of European descent or work in the cities of South Africa.