Talk:Shaka


Biography

I think wikipedia should add more context in the way that they decided the next king and scenarios when the kings son was killed. 138.199.118.82 (talk) 20:40, 19 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yes 197.184.177.43 (talk) 14:56, 23 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

For the cited source for the invention of modification/creation of spear and pg #

Was doing some independant research, figured finding the source link and pg numb. would help improve the page. Please someone with more knowledge than I incorporate this into the page. Thanks for your time :)

Link to Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/zulukings0000robe_n0e0/page/42/mode/2up?view=theater

pg number: 43 2001:56A:F8CE:2800:34CD:F068:E443:6BD3 (talk) 01:56, 30 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Requested Move: Shaka → King Shaka Zulu

I propose renaming this article for clarity. The current title “Shaka” is ambiguous: in Zulu it means “the,” and modern global usage (especially in Hawai‘i and the U.S.) most often associates “Shaka” with the Hawaiian shaka hand gesture, not the Zulu king. Renaming to "King Shaka Zulu" would be more precise and historically accurate. The shorter title could instead serve as a disambiguation page, pointing to both the Zulu king and the Hawaiian gesture. This would reduce confusion, improve search relevance, and align with Wikipedia’s guidelines on WP:PRECISE and WP:DISAMBIG. Ranak Jahan (talk) 04:48, 8 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

We do not normally include a royal title for kings.
I would support a move to Shaka Zulu. SergeWoodzing (talk) 08:34, 20 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]
"modern global usage (especially in Hawai‘i and the U.S.)" Citation needed. This 51 year old American has never heard of the word shaka being applied to any hand gesture. I have, however, heard of this king. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 14:41, 22 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]
See Shaka sign, a gesture you may know as the "hang loose" hand gesture. It's extremely prevalent in Hawaii, less so on the mainland. Of course this is also why we use sources, and not our own experience, to make such decisions. So the real question is what name is he best known by in English-language sources. Beeblebrox Beebletalks 19:13, 22 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]
That is important, as usual, but it is also very important that the word "shaka" isn't even a name in his native language, meaning only "the". SergeWoodzing (talk) 01:48, 23 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]
We aren't writing in his native language. We are writing in English. If "Shaka" is the most common word used as a name for him in English, that is what we should use. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 11:33, 24 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]
You did notice that I asked for a citation, right? --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 11:34, 24 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]
No need to be a condescending. He obviously noticed, otherwise he wouldn't have pointed you to our own article on the subject. This is a talk page; we should be able to use Wikipedia articles (that are themselves sourced) without being WP:ed to death.
In either case, it is the official hand-sign of Hawaii, as codified by state law:
[§5-23] State gesture. The shaka is adopted, established, and designated as the official gesture of the State. For the purposes of this section, the shaka generally consists of extending the thumb and smallest finger while holding the three middle fingers curled, and gesturing in salutation while presenting the front or back of the hand; the wrist may be rotated back and forth for emphasis. [L 2024, c 85, §2]
You can use search trends to show that use of the term "shaka" is related to both the Zulu king and to the hand gesture. Many articles use the term to refer to the hand gesture, which you would know had you taken 30 seconds to look at the citations of the article that @Beeblebrox linked you to. Search engines produce results about both topics. It is hard or impossible to produce a singular citation demonstrating global usage, because no one author or publication has a monopoly on how words are used and to the best of my knowledge no linguists have studied the use or spread of this word in reference to the hand gesture. Ostip (talk) 08:55, 19 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]
@Khajidha I stand by everything that I said but I was cranky last night and I think that my tone was more aggressive than it needed to be. For that, I apologize. Ostip (talk) 03:04, 20 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]
No problem. My own comment was a little cranky. I had read his "why we use sources, and not our ownexperoences" as saying that I was ignoring sources when I had actually asked for them. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 21:19, 20 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks all for the feedback. I’m withdrawing “King Shaka Zulu” per WP:NCROY (we generally don’t include “King” in titles) and proposing instead a move from Shaka → Shaka Zulu with Shaka as a disambiguation page.
Evidence for the target name “Shaka Zulu” (examples to cite):
1. Encyclopædia Britannica: article title “Shaka Zulu”.
2. Oxford Reference / OUP: entries titled “Shaka Zulu.”
3. South African History Online: page title “Shaka Zulu.”
These help on COMMONNAME and support the comment favoring “Shaka Zulu.”
Proposed outcome: Move Shaka → Shaka Zulu. Ranak Jahan (talk) 11:03, 25 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]
allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Shaka