Talk:Shaka Zulu vs Julius Caesar/Rap Meanings/@comment-208.102.35.123-20150721033602/@comment-141.161.128.27-20150724002805

It's definitely refering to the Roman's propensity for absorbing and using their defeated rather than killing them. I think this was an ill-thought out line, but there's just no way ERB actually meant to invoke the Slave Trade of recent history, especially considering how far away Zulu was (South Africa) to where the Slave Trade took slaves (West Africa). And while it is not unusual for ERB to reference events far into the future of when the speaker died, it usually has some connection to one of the 2 contestants.