So I have my first army the Ngoni a people Lugard described as having “Character for Invincible Courage”
The Ngoni were refugees from southern Africa displaced by the wars of Shaka, king of the Zulus, who then moved north conquering a number of different peoples and founding a number of kingdoms through out central and eastern Africa. A number of Ngoni Kingdoms where founded around Lake Nyasa until they where eventually subdued by the British in the 1890s.
When the Ngoni moved north they brought Zulu fighting techniques with them which gave them a big advantage over local tribes and those early encounters seemed to give the Ngoni a psychological advantage over many of there enemies that was perhaps not warranted in the closing decades of the 19th century. Certainly the lake Nyasa Ngoni put up a very poor performance against the British in the 1890s compared to the Zulus and Matabele.
Visually Ngoni warriors were, unsurprisingly, similar to the Zulu the large classic Zulu shield, stabbing spear (called an Iklwa) and tufts of a cow’s tail (amashoba) below the knee . There are differences to having moved far from southern Africa and encountered (read beaten up) other peoples on the way the Ngoni had some styles of their own. Red cloth was popular as wraps, belts or decoration and headdresses made of Zebra skin or black cock feathers were common. The head ring (know as an isicoco and actually part of a married man's hair style) worn by Zulu warriors seems to have fallen out of favour as the 19th century wore on.
Ngoni military organization continued to be based on Zulu practices their armies where still called Impi and officers where still called InDuna . It seems the Ngoni regiments where now based on local villages and the military Kraals of the Zulus didn’t exist among the Ngoni. The Age set system was still used to recruit boys into the Ngoni armies but its not clear whether the regiments consisted of married men or unmarried men, like the Zulus, or just all warriors from a locale. In at least one battle against the Arabs the young men (amajaha) and the veterans (amadoda) fought as two distinct groups.
In battle the Ngoni seem to have continued with the time honoured Zulu horns of the bull formation however surprise night attacks on villages seem to have been a common tactic along lake Nyasa. Throwing spears seem to have become more common among the Ngoni than the Zulus of Shaka’s time but guns never seem to have featured heavily in Ngoni warfare. At the end of Mpezeni’s revolt, in 1898, the British found around 3000 guns in the kings village unused by the Ngoni against their British enemies.
I’ve been working on these guys for a while and now they are finished I thought it was time to share them. I think anyone who games 19th century Africa knows Copplestone miniatures do the best (and only) range of Ngoni miniatures out there. Sadly my gaming budget at the time didn’t stretch to a whole army of metal Ngoni. So looking around for alternatives I found a couple of boxes of Perry miniatures Plastic Zulus going cheap on eBay and decided to convert them to look more like Ngoni.
The Perry boxes are great value and two boxes gave me everything I needed to build an army under my chosen rules including morale markers, scout and baggage. So with great enthusiasm I jumped in with my green stuff and tried to sculpt suitable Ngoni features on the Perry’s Zulus. what I ended up with was a bunch of guys who wouldn’t look out of place in a 1970s Blaxploitation movie…. My cock feather head dress often ended up looking like giant Afros and my Zebra ring head dress looked more like ancient seas peoples reed headdress…ho hum. One thing trying to sculpt minor conversions with green stuff does bring home is just how bloody talented the miniature designers in our hobby are.
Anyway it was to late to stop now so I jumped on in with the painting which quickly became an exercise in how many different shades of brown I could come up with from my paint collection to paint. Everything was then jazzed up with some black and white and the occasional splash of red. Not the most colourful army I’ve ever painted but I think they look pretty good now they are finished.
So onto the pictures
First up command the King’s sons and a couple of old veteran InDuna to keep them out of trouble. One of the old boys has found himself a rather modern breach loader from some where..(Youngsters from Copplestone old boys fromPerry metal Zulu command)
Next the Scout (Perry plastic) and witch doctor (Casting Room miniatures from their Zulu villagers pack)
Morale markers/ causalities (Perry plastics)
The two units of young warriors (amajaha) (Perry Plastics)
Three units of veterans (amadoda) (Perry plastics with green stuff conversions)
Last up the baggage train. Ngoni armies would be accompanied by young girls and boys guard by a few warriors to carry supplies. (Nguni Cattle by Empress miniatures, warrior plastic Perry, other Casting room and Dixon miniatures)
Last up a couple of action shots