Posted on 01/24/2004 5:49:47 AM PST by Land_of_Lincoln_John
In a resurgence of Zulu spirit and national pride thousands of tribesmen will gather at the site of Britain's worst imperial military defeat today to mark its 125th anniversary.
Huge numbers of those at Isandlwana will be descendants of the Zulu warriors who in January 1879, armed only with assegais, knobkerries and cattle-hide shields, outwitted and destroyed a well-armed British expeditionary force.
On the grassy flanks of Isandlwana Mountain, the final resting place to the battle's 3,000 Zulu and 1,400 British dead, Zulu prayers will be intoned and dances performed.
The current Zulu king, Goodwill Zwelethini, heads a long list of dignitaries, both Zulu and British, invited to attend a ceremony designed partly as a gesture of reconciliation.
But the event also marks an important milestone in the resurgence of national pride for the Zulus, one of South Africa's most distinct and historically rich tribal groups.
As South Africa prepares for elections this year, speakers are under instruction to remain apolitical and not stir the ethnic tensions in Zululand that erupted into political violence that killed thousands before the historic 1994 poll that ended apartheid.
"For the Zulu people the battle of Isandlwana could not be any more important because there is almost no household or family who did not lose someone," Rev Musa Zondi, national spokesman for the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), said.
"Most Zulus know from their own family history that the bones of their great-great grandfathers are lying at Isandlwana.
"The pride with which it is remembered is enormous because for us there is no other higher service that can be rendered than to die in defence of our country and our king."
Rev Zondi said Mangosuthu Buthelezi would attend the ceremony, not in his capacity as IFP leader but in his role as traditional Prime Minister to the Zulu nation.
"The ceremony at Isandlwana is a national event above party politics and that has been stressed to all the speakers," Rev Musa said. Even so, security is tight for Jacob Zuma, South Africa's Deputy President who is both an ethnic Zulu and the most senior representative of the ruling African National Congress, the IFP's bitter political rival.
The ANC is dominated by ethnic Xhosas such as Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, making Mr Zuma a potential target, and his normal contingent of bodyguards have been specially briefed on the event. Barry Marshall, director of Amafa, the cultural body for KwaZulu-Natal province, said that the Isandlwana commemoration had steadily grown in importance for the Zulu people over the last 15 years.
"You have to remember that for decades and decades the black people of this country were told they were inferior, they did not matter and their history was not important," he said. "But with the end of apartheid we are seeing a groundswell of pride, especially in Zululand, as they rediscover how important and significant their history is."
A few years ago Isandlwana - a Zulu name for the shape of a cow's second stomach, which the craggy mountain is said to resemble - was in danger of being lost as a historic site.
A school and shop had been built on the battlefield and unscrupulous traders were providing metal detectors to local Zulus to dig up artefacts like British bullet cases, Zulu blades and the buttons from British tunics.
One night two of the mass graves on the battlefield were desecrated, leaving the bones open to the elements. But with the involvement of the local tribal authority, the battlefield has been fenced off and is now protected.
While various British units erected memorials to the fallen in the years after the battle on Jan 22 1879, it took until the 120th anniversary for a memorial to mark the Zulu war dead.
International interest, mainly from Britain, has been rekindled in the battlefield by local historians such as David Rattray who set up a battlefield tour from his nearby farm in the early 1990s.
Thousands of Britons, including the Duke of Edinburgh and the Prince of Wales, have stood on the hillside to listen to Mr Rattray, a fluent Zulu speaker, who pays glowing tribute to the Zulu military brilliance at Isandlwana.
The Zulus duped the British commander Lord Chelmsford to split his strength, drawing away his main fighting troops, and then descending on the Isandlwana camp in a "horns of the buffalo" formation, attacking from the front but sending other Zulu troops to cut off any British retreat.
While Britain drew attention away from the Isandlwana defeat by emphasising the defence of Rorke's Drift later that day, for the Zulu nation Isandlwana is by far the more important.
The camp was utterly destroyed and only a few score British escaped, all horsemen who moved quickly before the "buffalo horns" had closed fully.
Foot soldiers were mopped up in small groups, disembowelled by the Zulu warriors using their short, stabbing assegais in a ritual known as "the washing of the spears".
The strict discipline of the British soldier paid off at Rourke's Drift whereas the lack of discipline took a heavy toll at the Little Bighorn.
The mutilation of the dead in large quantity is a trademark of indiginous combat.
As a result, the firing died down, the Zulus closed in and it was all over.
This was confirmed a short time later at Ulundi, when 8,000 British, with cannon and Gatling guns, formed a scquare and invited the 20,000 ! Zulu to attack them as they had at Isandlwana. Not one Zulu got within 30 yards of the British square, and the attackers were decimated.
"..and the Welsh singers sang..." the movie, ZULU w/ actors, Stanley Baker & Micheal Caine (his 1st major film)...and a case in point in the book, Military Blunders , about underestimating your foes' resources...(like the GOP is doing w/ the 'RATS in '04 and Shrillary in '08 ). :|
I have trouble with the part about Zulu history being important. It is definitely important to them, as it is to any group, and I don't begrudge them that. In the overall perspective of the world, other than the two famous battles mentioned above, it's not. Sorry.
Pinging some friends.
Also, if you think about it, had the British been armed with Henry, Spencer, or Winchester repeating carbines, the outcome of either one of these battles would have been different (larger body count in the first, victory in the second).
All you say is true, it sure scared the $*** outta the Brits...and then, there were the Boer Wars...Breaker Morant...another good pic...and then there's the American blunders, be fair. :)
Good way to put it. :/
For an excellent account of Rourke's Rift and how culture largely influences the outcome of battles, and has for centuries, I highly recommend:
Carnage and Culture, Landmark Battles that Defined Western Power, by Victor Davis Hanson.
A very good book.
Ooops, right you are.
From what I know of this battle, the "brilliance" consisted of outnumbering the British 2 or 3 to 1.
Foot soldiers were ... disembowelled by the Zulu warriors using their short, stabbing assegais in a ritual known as "the washing of the spears".
Sounds like the level of brutality inflicted on Custer's men at the Little Big Horn. But those nasty WHITE men were the aggressors ... Imagine "celebrating" Wounded Knee or the death of Nat Turner.
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