LEADERSHIP BY TERROR 177Shaka encouraged regressive group processes. Feeling in himself the
urge to regress to these archaic forms of functioning, he built on the
same weakness in others. By simplifying his complex world into distinct
us - and - them categories, he defi ned a clear path out of chaos; by making
his people anxious and uncertain, he made them dependent on him.
Riding these waves of regression helped him combat the demons of his
inner world and build a powerful nation.
The battlefi eld was the ideal stage on which to play out these regres-
sive group processes. By harnessing general feelings of anxiety, Shaka
transformed a private war with his inner demons into a real war. What
better way to deal with aggression than by blaming an outsider — by
vanquishing a foe? What better way to act out paranoia than by attack-
ing the enemy within, killing one ’ s own people? And if the cause of a
setback was unclear, there was always witchcraft to blame.
Shaka ’ s paranoid operational code was highly contagious. During
his relatively short reign, he created a culture that left no options: either
you participated, or you were eliminated. Participation meant propagat-
ing still more suspicion and mistrust, creating (and killing off ) still more
scapegoats. Ironically, that shared task of fi nding and destroying scape-
goats facilitated group identity formation among the Zulu.
Shaka ’ s readiness to deal swiftly with known enemies and suspected
conspirators gave him the upper hand. But he had an additional trump
card: he was the ‘ chief diviner. ’ He played that card often. Having a
great dread of sorcery, and believing that sorcerers were everywhere, he
was quick to accuse others of witchcraft. In the early part of his regime,
Shaka had kept his war doctors busy working magic against the external
enemies the clan was fi ghting, and relied on his own witchdoctors
to ‘ smell out ’ the enemy within. But he was uncomfortable with the
autonomy this gave the witchdoctors — their ability to ‘ smell out ’ his
personal favorites was not appreciated — and eventually limited their
power, at which point he became de facto the only diviner in the
country. With a virtual monopoly on magic, he followed the route of
many totalitarian despots before him: total mind - control. Achieving the
triumph of paranoia over reason, he made his subjects believe that he
could read their thoughts and see their most secret actions.
A Culture of Conspiracy
The tyrannical leader and his followers create a common culture char-
acterized by shared delusions of grandeur and persecution (Kets de
Vries and Miller, 1984a ; Kets de Vries, 1989 ). The leader encourages his