Impi is a
Zulu word for any armed body of men. However, in English it is often used to refer to a Zulu regiment, which is called an
ibutho in Zulu. Its beginnings lie far back in historic tribal warfare customs, when groups of armed men called
impis battled. They were systematised radically by the Zulu king
Shaka, who was then only the exiled illegitimate son of king
Senzangakona, but already showing much prowess as a general in the army of
Mthethwa king
Dingiswayo in the Mthethwa-
Ndwandwe war in the early 1810s.