The Zulu are a nation living in southern Africa, right? Nonetheless I’ve heard Central European Time being referred to as “Zulu Time”. Probably it’s not that bad a term because calling the time zone Central European all over the hole length of the meridian would appear somewhat neo-colonialist, but OTOH there are plenty of nations living in CET, so why was “Zulu” picked? Besides, they made it into the international spelling code (you know, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and so on). OK, choice isn’t all that broad for Z, but one doesn’t hear too much about the Zulu so it’s not the most obvious pick. Are there any historical or other reasons why the term came into these usages?