Earlier South African empire

If a Bantu empire had been created in South Africa earlier than the 19th century, could it defeat would-be colonists? How would it be formed? If you believe Wikipedia, the importation of maize from the Americas allowed the Zulu population to grow to the point where Shaka could begin his conquests. Could native African crops or earlier importations of other continents' staples help form an earlier empire? (Perhaps Great Zimbabwe could import some useful technologies and crops before it collapses. . .)
 
@Asp is an expert on Africa, particularly the modern era (last two centuries). I don't know the answer but am curious to hear his.

No, I'm not an expert, lol. This is a little early in history for me.

They would need a foreign European sponsor to provide weapons tech, much like Ethiopia had when they played the powers off to get guns to defeat the Italians.
 
No, I'm not an expert, lol. This is a little early in history for me.

They would need a foreign European sponsor to provide weapons tech, much like Ethiopia had when they played the powers off to get guns to defeat the Italians.

Someone like Portugal or the Dutch?
 
There were quite a few African states in South Africa, but they were pretty disorganised and were constant rivals, and then the Mfecane came (in part because of Portuguese trade in the region which introduced New World crops and weapons) and millions were killed or displaced.

Most of modern South Africa could definitely remain out of European hands for a long time (although a dedicated Scramble for Africa will probably be impossible to resist, since there's too much gold and potential wealth plus the strategic location), but the Western Cape and Northern Cape, where it's mostly desert and scrub plus sits on a very important sealane, will be difficult for this state to initially penetrate into (the Bantu peoples had limited penetration OTL) and will also be impossible to prevent Europeans from gaining a base there which they'd likely want to expand on if given the chance. All this will make South Africa a lot more attractive for the slave trade too.
 
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