In November 1837 Dingane met with Piet Retief , leader of the Voortrekkers . In return for their recovering some stolen cattle , Dingane signed a deed of cession of lands ( written in English ) to the Voortrekkers . It is generally believed that Dingane knew what he was signing , although he could not have had any formal education , and could not have read the contents of the document , nor could he have understood the concept of permanent land ownership , since it was not a custom of the Zulus to permanently assign land to individuals . On 6 February 1838 , after two days of feasting , the chief had Retief and his diplomatic party killed . They had been told to leave their firearms outside the royal kraal . Suddenly , when the dancing had reached a frenzied climax , King Dingane leapt to his feet and shouted '' Bambani aba thakathi ! '' ( Catch the wizards ! ) . The men were totally overpowered and dragged away to a hill called kwaMatiwane , named after a chief who had been killed there . Retief and his men were killed . It is alleged by some that the reason why they were killed was that they withheld some of the cattle recovered from Chief Sekonyela . The general opinion is that Dingane did not wish to yield the land ceded to them in the treaty and mistrusted the presence of the Voortrekkers . At the same time , Dingane 's forces killed Retief 's undefended trek party , about 500 Boers and native servants , including women and children . The Boers called this the Weenen massacre . The nearby present-day town of Weenen ( Dutch for " weeping " ) was named by early settlers in memory of the massacre
Weenen massacre
Weenen massacre
Dingane kaSenzangakhona