On 22 January 1879, the British army suffered its worst colonial defeat of the nineteenth century when 1,500 men armed with the most modern weapons then available were wiped out at the battle of Isandlwana by a Zulu army—an impi—of 25,000 warriors armed only with spears. That an army of this size had slipped past British reconnaissance on the open veldt of South Africa to mount such a successful attack was remarkable in itself, but a second battle on that same day at a small mission station named Rorke's Drift made the

On 22 January 1879, the British army suffered its worst colonial defeat of the nineteenth century when 1,500 men armed with the most modern weapons then available were wiped out at the battle of Isandlwana by a Zulu army—an impi—of 25,000 warriors armed only with spears. That an army of this size had slipped past British reconnaissance on the open veldt of South Africa to mount such a successful attack was remarkable in itself, but a second battle on that same day at a small mission station named Rorke's Drift made the

Thus the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879: an unauthorized aggression conducted for reasons of geopolitical strategy by a man who considered himself to have the interests of the empire at heart and who dis

subject of the Zulu War, both in Zulu and in English, it becomes clear that the Zulu view of the war was very different from the English or European view, not so much as to detail but as to men

mined that Cetshwayo should be the Zulu king and not Mbuyazi. The British army came but did not stay; the red soldiers were withdrawn after only a few months, and sailed away together with Lord Chelmsford, Evelyn Wood, Redvers Buller, Bartle Frere, Garnet Wolseley, and all. The Zulu king was indeed removed for a few years, but he was then restored to his kingd

The Archives of Zululand: The Anglo-Zulu War, 1879 is the first in a series of collections which in 2003 will see the publication of Shaka and the Founding of the Zulu Kingdom, to be followed by series on Dingane and Mpande, on the disintegration of the Zulu Kingdom, on Zululand as a British Colony, on the writings of Bishop Colenso, and on the Bambatha Rebellion.’ Commencing with the Anglo-Zulu War was a wise choice

The Archives of Zululand: The Anglo-Zulu War, 1879 is the first in a series of collections which in 2003 will see the publication of Shaka and the Founding of the Zulu Kingdom, to be followed by series on Dingane and Mpande, on the disintegration of the Zulu Kingdom, on Zululand as a British Colony, on the writings of Bishop Colenso, and on the Bambatha Rebellion.’ Commencing with the Anglo-Zulu War was a wise choice

Boer and British - pressures on the Zulu and the internal disagreements and struggles within Zululand, amongst the Zulu generally and especially within the ranks of the uSuthu