The Washing of the Spears
1965 book by Donald R. Morris
The Washing of the Spears is a 1965 book by Donald R. Morris about the "Zulu Nation under Shaka" and the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. It chronicles the rise of the Zulu nation under Shaka Zulu in the early 19th century and Chief Cetshwayo’s inevitable war with the British in 1879 as the colony of Natal pushed at the Zulu nation's borders.
Morris worked on the book during a five-year posting in Berlin. The first edition, published in 1965, was over 600 pages with detailed bibliography. The book has been reprinted many times; an edition of the book was published in 1998, with a foreword by Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Washing of the Spears” is 1965 book by Donald R. Morris. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Washing, Spears and book, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “1965 book by Donald R. Morris” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 15, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7971505. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1965, 1879 and 1998.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
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This entry incorporates text from “The Washing of the Spears” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.