Having found the variety of possible scenarios to be somewhat limited with Zulus as the colonial opponent, I decided to add some generic Dervish/Pathan-like types. Unfortunately since I am heavily committed to 1/72nd scale plastics with hordes of Brits, Zulu and Terrain it became necessary to find some figures to represent this stereotypical foe. This foe would be hereafter referred to as "the Plasticstani" from the country of Plasticstan. Located somewhere East of Africa and South of India and could therefore be a mixture of these two areas.
I managed to get 4 boxes of ESCI's Muslim warriors which gave me a good base to start with, although they are all armed with either some kind of firearm or swords, and if I wanted just infantry to oppose my imperial troops that would have been fine, but if I had wanted just infantry opponents I could have just stayed with the Zulu. I decided to go with a kind of generic Dervish/fuzzy-Wuzzy/Pathan/ Native that would fight in some fictional colony.
So it became necessary to find or (heaven forbid) convert figs to fill the gaps. After some experimentation I have made some "discoveries" HAT Mamelukes or Numidian cavalry make good Native cavalry. Infantry can be drawn from HAT's Zouaves, Libyan and Carthaginian light infantry figures from HAT's Carthaginian African allies work, also some of HAT's Alexander's Light Infantry figs, just paint them differently than the box says.
Ideally you want a figure armed with a spear or a sword without any visible Metal armor/capes unless it can be easily disguised, preferably without a huge shield and with hair that does not go below his shoulders, so you can easily decap him and do some headswaps.
For the European "civilizers" use ESCI or Call to Arm's Zulu War British infantry, ESCI and HAT make French Foreign Legionaires HAT US WWI infantry can make acceptable US Marines. Native regular troops ESCI made some Indian infantry in it's "Kiber" pass set, with a little knife work and some white glue ESCI French Napoleonic Infantry make passable Askari, ESCI ACW Union Infantry figures make passable Egyptians just trim of peaks of their kepis add something to raise the top of the kepi and paint.