Zululand, History of a Nation. Southern Africa people. Zulu identity has changed over time. Before the ascendancy of King Shaka, the term Zulu referred to only one clan that recognized "Zulu" as its founding ancestor. After Shaka's mission of conquest and consolidation, the term came to refer to hundreds of clans under the control of the Zulu monarchy. After the beginning of British colonial rule of Natal in 1843, Zulu identity became associated with a particular territory, especially the northern part of KwaZulu-Natal Province, formerly known as Zululand. Today Zulu "ethnic" identity is linked to the language and the monarchy. There is a great deal of doubt and uncertainty regarding Zulu history because of its use as a political tool to support apartheid or argue against it and, in the early 1990s, to argue for or against the Inkatha Freedom Party's struggle for Zulu sovereignty. Despite these issues the Zulu have maintained a strong sense of themselves as Zulu by associating their surnames with being Zulu, maintaining a large vocabulary of praise names, and maintaining specific Zulu cultural practices