This has been the most repeatedly screened mini-series ever shown on syndicated television in the United States. By 1992 it had been seen by over 350 million viewers. The series dislodged John Marshall's "The Hunters" and the later The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980) and its follow-ups as the prime shaper of American perceptions of "tribal" history in southern Africa. The series even achieved cult status.
Based on 'Joshua Sinclair (I)''s own novel "Shaka Zulu", itself based on the oral tradition of the Zulu people.