16th December 1838

1838 was a year of war between Boers, English settlers and the Zulu. On Dec 16 at 6a.m., 464 Boers saw from their laager through the early morning mist, the first division of a Zulu army sitting quietly in a semicircle, 100m deep. The Boers nearly lost their nerve.

Under the command of Ndlela and Nzobo, the 16 000 strong army had been commanded by King Dingane to "find the Boers before they enter the heart of my Kingdom, and eat them up."

Besides the Boer combatants the laager was crammed with with people and animals. The 130 or so wagon drivers and leaders tied their teams of oxen head to head and pegged them to the ground and talked soothingly to them throughout the battle. The approximately 200 grooms held the terrified horses in fours.

The Zulu leaped as one to their feet, whistled, drummed their short heavy spears against their ox hide shields and rushed the laager chanting their war cries. It was a sunny day, and the Boers' powder remained dry, and the laager was soon obscured by a rising cloud of black smoke. So rapidly did the defenders have to fire that there was no time to ram the charges into the muskets.

By 8a.m. some 500 Zulu dead lay dusty and trodden. The first division, known as the uDlambedlu regiment, refused to face the fire any longer. The main body of the army, the umKhulutshane and the iziGulutshane regiments, moved up. They made repeated and determined efforts, and before their attack faltered the third division arrived in their rear and began taunting them with cowardice, and pushing through their ranks, driving the front ranks on to the laager.

But by 11a.m. the Zulu assault broke down in futility. Immediately a mounted force of 160 sallied out and cut the army in two. A large part tried to hide in the reeds of the Ncome river, but marksmen picked them off to a man. It was to be known after as the Blood River. The pursuit continued until the horses were exhausted. According to a Boer witness, the Zulu dead "lay on the ground like pumpkins on a rich soil that had borne a large crop."

That no Boers were killed was taken as a sign from God of the rightness of their cause, and led to their attitudes in the 20the Century.

Zulu power was not broken though, and they regarded the battle as a reverse but not a defeat. The Boers never occupied Zululand.

In 1879 the British invaded Zululand. King Cetshwayo sent an army of 24 000 to "eat them up." The 4 700 strong British centre column crossed the Mzinyathi river on January 11, with magazine rifles, artillery and rocket batteries, and on Jan 20th camped beside Isandlwana hill. No Zulu had been seen anywhere, and scouts were sent out to find them.

Sunday 22 January was the day of the new moon, a time of umnyama or evil, and the Zulu were decided not to fight. British scouts sighted a small group of Zulu foragers, and followed them over the lip of a valley, where they saw to their horrified astonishment, the Zulu army, concentrated, perfectly quiet, sitting on their shields. The two commanders, Ntshingwayo and Mavumengwana, formed the army into a circle and kept them seated while they gave them intructions. After some time they deployed them into battle order.

At 12.15p.m. the British commander heard that the Zulu were advancing. He deployed a regiment a kilometre out from the camp, with artillery, in a long curved extended firing line. The Zulu deployed into a crescent, 4Km wide and 300m deep. Their various regiments were identified by different coloured shields, and they expected the British to flee, for they were a marvellous sight. But British firepower all but stopped the Zulu, who then methodically outflanked the British and started to come round the rear of the camp. Though "killed in heaps" they didn't seem to mind, but filled their gaps in silence, and pressed on against the fire. They took cover when the fire was too hot, and stood their ground. When they saw the gunners stand clear, they fell flat and let the grapeshot pass overhead. The British were forced to begin a fighting withdrawal to the camp at about the same time that the Zulu centre stalled.

When the British began their retreat, the Zulu commanders on a hill realised the moment had come for the centre to attack and support the encirclement of the camp. The regimental commanders received the message and shouted, "Go in hand to hand!" The Zulu centre did not come at a run but rather at a fast walking pace. While they had been humming, like a giant swarm of bees, they now raised their national cry, "Usuthu!" and charged, throwing a shower of spears. They became intermingled with the British soldiers as they drove them back, and the encircling regiments formed up between the camp and the river, blocking off retreat.

The horror was increased by an eclipse of the sun which was at its greatest at 2.29p.m.

The British dead were found nearly all in or around the camp, in groups where they fought back to back, or along the road to the river. Here the Zulu kept pace with the fleeing soldiers, killing all the way.

The few survivors who made it over the river were met with disbelieving horror. But the Zulu did not cross the river, as their King Cetshwayo had forbade them to do so.

London newspapers reported the total loss of an army in a country Victorians had till then not even heard of.