Zulu
The Zulu is a tribe of black Bantu people in Southern Africa, mainly in South Africa.
Contents
History
Bartolomeu Dias, a Portuguese explorer, sailed round the Cape of Good Hope in 1488. More Portuguese traders soon arrived in search of gold, silver, ivory, and slaves. By the 17th century, Dutch settlers arrived and began trading with Indigenous people in the Cape. They were Boers, or farmers, and soon outnumbered the Portuguese. These European settlers called themselves Afrikaners, meaning Africans.
The Afrikaners expanded over the mountains eastward into areas close to Zulu settlements. European settlers from Britain, Holland and Germany were already present in areas neighboring the Zulu settlements by the time Shaka established the Zulu realm in 1818. They settled in less fertile land and engaged in trade with the Zulu.
The Zulu chieftan, often referred to as a "king", Shaka (1787–1828), still praised by some Zulus, created a military domain associated with the Mfecane ("crushing, scattering, forced dispersal, forced migration"), with estimates for the death toll in the range from 1 million to 2 million.
- "One element in Shaka's destruction was to create a vast artificial desert around his domain... 'to make the destruction complete, organized bands of Zulu murderers regularly patrolled the waste, hunting for any stray men and running them down like wild pig'... An area 200 miles to the north of the center of the state, 300 miles to the west, and 500 miles to the south was ravaged and depopulated."
Anglo-Zulu War
There were other more pressing concerns for the Boer Republics. The two territories of Orange Free State and Transvaal were squeezed between the British-ruled Cape Colony to the south and west, Zululand to the east and other European-ruled colonies to the north (including British Rhodesia and Bechuanaland).
During the 1870s there were a series of skirmishes within the Transvaal between the Boers and local tribes. In particular intensifying struggles between Boers and the Pedi led by Sekhukune I over land and labour resulted in the war of 1876, in which the Boer aggressors were defeated due in part to the firepower bought with proceeds of early Pedi labour migration to the Kimberley diamond fields.
There were also serious tensions between the Transvaal Republic and the Zulus led by King Cetshwayo. The Zulus occupied a kingdom located to the south east, bordered on the one side by the Transvaal Republic and on the other by British Natal. Upon taking the throne King Cetshwayo had expanded his army and reintroduced many of the paramilitary practices of the famous Shaka, king of the Zulus. He had also started equipping his impis with firearms although this was a gradual process and the majority had only shields, clubs (knobkerries) and spears (throwing spears and the famous assegais). Over 40,000 strong, the disciplined, well motivated and supremely confident Zulu warriors were a formidable force on their own home ground, notwithstanding the lack of modern weaponry. King Cetshwayo then banished European missionaries from his land, and there were suggestions that he might also have become involved in inciting other native African peoples to rebel against Boers in the Transvaal. The Transvaal Boers became more and more concerned, but King Cetshwayo cleverly maintained good relations with the British in Natal in an effort to counter the Boer threat.
In 1877, Sir Theophilus Shepstone, the British Secretary for Native Affairs in Natal, annexed the South African Republic (Transvaal Republic), for Britain using a special warrant. The Transvaal Boers objected but as long as the Zulu threat remained, found themselves between the proverbial rock and hard place; they feared that if they took up arms to resist the British annexation actively, King Cetshwayo and the Zulus would take the opportunity to attack. They also feared a war on two fronts; namely that the local tribes would seize the opportunity to rebel and the simmering unrest in the Transvaal would be re-ignited. The British annexation resulted however in resentment against the British occupation and a growing nationalism.
The Transvaal Boers led by Paul Kruger (the future Transvaal President) thereafter elected to deal first with the Zulu threat, and local issues, before directly opposing the British annexation. Paul Kruger made two visits to London for direct talks with the British government. In September 1878, on his return from the second visit, Kruger met in Pietermaritzburg with the British representatives, Sir Bartle Frere and Lt. General Frederic Thesiger (shortly to inherit the title of Lord Chelmsford), in order to update them on the progress of the talks.
Sir Theophilus Shepstone in his capacity as British governor of Natal had his own concerns about the expansion of the Zulu army under King Cetshwayo and the potential threat to Natal especially given the adoption by the Zulus of muskets and other modern weapons. In his new role of Administrator of the Transvaal, he was now responsible for protecting the Transvaal and had direct involvement in the Zulu border dispute from the side of the Transvaal. Persistent Boer representations and Paul Kruger's diplomatic manoeuvrings added to the pressure. There were incidents involving Zulu paramilitary actions on either side of the Transvaal/Natal border, and the British increasingly began to regard King Cetshwayo (who now found no defender in Natal save Bishop Colenso) as having permitted such "outrages", and to be in a "defiant mood". Shepstone therefore convinced Sir Bartle Frere that King Cetshwayo and his Zulu army posed a threat to the peace of the region. In December 1878 Frere ordered Cetshwayo to disband his army. Cetshwayo refused and mobilized his forces instead.
On 11 January 1879, the British invaded Zululand with about 7000 regular troops, a similar number of black African "levees" and a thousand white volunteers. The British anticipated that the Zulu War would proceed in a pattern typical of numerous colonial wars fought in Africa, namely that relatively small bodies of professional European troops armed with modern firearms and artillery, and supplemented by local allies and levies, would march out to meet the natives whose ragged, badly equipped armies would put up a brave struggle, but in the end would succumb to professional soldiers wielding massed fire-power. Various locals (including Paul Kruger) who from personal experience had great respect for the military capabilities of the Zulus stressed the need for caution, and in particular strongly advocated defensive tactics such as concentrating fire-power from fortified strongpoints such as wagons drawn into a circle (laagers). However, the advice was disregarded and on 22 January 1879 the British lost more than 1600 soldiers when a Zulu attack caught them in the open at the Battle of Isandhlwana.
- On 22 January 1879, Chelmsford established a temporary camp for his column near Isandlwana, but neglected to strengthen its defence by encircling his wagons. After receiving intelligence reports that part of the Zulu army was nearby, he led part of his force out to find them. Over 20,000 Zulus, the main part of Cetshwayo's army, then launched a surprise attack on Chelmsford's poorly fortified camp. Fighting in an over-extended line and too far from their ammunition, the British were swamped by sheer weight of numbers. The majority of their 1,700 troops were killed. Supplies and ammunition were also seized. The Zulus earned their greatest victory of the war and Chelmsford was left no choice but to retreat. The Victorian public was shocked by the news that 'spear-wielding savages' had defeated their army.[1]
Shortly afterwards, a British outpost at Rorke's Drift on the Zululand-Natal border, fighting defensively in and around the stone buildings of a small trading store which had been hastily fortified, withstood a second Zulu attack with great losses to the Zulus. After reinforcements arrived, the British won a series of skirmishes and eventually conquered the Zulu capital at Ulundi by July 1879. This war to all intents and purposes signalled the end of the independent Zulu nation. The British consolidated their power over Natal, the Zulu kingdom and the Transvaal in 1879 after the Anglo-Zulu War.
Sir Garnet Wolslely then turned to the Pedi in the Transvaal and they were finally defeated by British troops in 1879.
