A Great Zulu Victory

Thousands of Zulu nationalists marched noisily through Johannesburg in 1997 (as in other years) in commemoration of a violent 1994 clash with African National Congress supporters that left dozens dead. Many of the Zulu demonstrators were clad in furs and skins, waving clubs and spears, chanting rhythmically, once again highlighting the fierce, warrior traditions of this famous ethnic group. Many analysts say that understanding the proud past of the Zulus is essential to understanding their demands for greater autonomy in the new South Africa. I visited one of the most important historical sites in Zululand, and had this report.

Isandhlwana is a ominous rock monolith, shaped much like the Sphinx. It looks down and across a wide, wind-swept, treeless plain, about 325 kilometers southeast of Johannesburg.

The atmosphere seems unspoiled and peaceful -- a scattering of cows here and there, a few farms, a distant school complex where children sing and play.

But on the 22nd of January, 1879, Isandhlwana was a bloody battleground -- a place where British troops, seeking to remove what their leaders saw as the Zulu obstacle to expanding British authority in southern Africa, suffered their worst-ever casualties at the hands of a strong and aggressive native opponent. More than 12-hundred officers and men were slaughtered in a disciplined onslaught by about 20-thousand Zulu warriors who overran the British positions, defying the modern artillery and Rifles of the British.

Sitting on the flanks of the Islandhlwana sphinx, looking down on the faded white stone cairns that still cover the remains of the dead, one can imagine the devastating horror -- the Zulus slapping killing spears against battle shields before charging the ill-prepared positions of British troops whose commanders thought there would be no serious Zulu military threat.

David Rattray has spent a lifetime studying Isandhlwana and leads small groups of visitors to the battle site from the secluded lodge he runs in nearby Fugitive's Drift -- a river valley named after the escape route taken by the few survivors of the slaughter. Mr. Rattray says it was not so much a British military blunder, as it has long been regarded, but rather a Zulu military triumph.

“My philosophy on this battle always has been that for far too long, we've painted this battle as a British blunder. And I think that it's high time that we arrogant English-speaking people learn to give some credit where it is sorely and surely due -- this was a great Zulu victory, and we South Africans of all races must be very proud of what happened here.”

Since he was a youth, Mr. Rattray has collected the stories of individuals who participated in the battle -- especially those of the Zulu warriors who fought at Isandhlwana, stories handed down with pride to their children and grandchildren. Although many tales of valor by British officers and soldiers are known, he counts as his favorite a story of the heroism of one aged Zulu commander who rallied his troops, pinned down in a gully, at a crucial moment when it appeared they might flee in the face of withering British rifle fire.

“That story that i got from the old man, Nand Ingobezi, who got the story from his father, Matla G'Zulu Gashayo, who commanded a wing of the great Ingobamakhosi regiment. The story of that old Zulu, Inkosana Gumvundlanda of the Biela clan in that depression where there was that Zulu regiment that was being smashed by British Martini Henry bullets and the Zulus started to waver, this old man knew that "cometh the moment, cometh the man," and he rallied the men, shouting at them, "don't you dare run away. Cetshwayo [Zulu king] never told you to run away," and then a British bullet struck him and killed him.” The Zulu soldiers, stunned into action by their commander's courage, rallied and attacked. “And that old Zulu, when he told us that story, he sat on a rock and he wept. And all his stories were told with the same melancholia because he had told me that many of the young people were no longer interested in listening to him and his stories. And I have to say that we wept too. We had to let him recover and we had to recover. The impact of that was enormous that we seem to be concerned with our heroes and he was telling me about their great hero who was the great hero of them all, Inkosana."

Despite their victory, the Zulus were ultimately conquered by the British and independent Zululand eventually became part of what is now the Republic of South Africa.

But Mr. Rattray says no one in South Africa should underestimate the Zulu people today, like the British did nearly 120 years ago.

“Our country is in an era of peace now. But there are still some major issues that have to be resolved. One of these issues is the issue of the Zulus and I suppose that if you drive the Zulu political leaders into a corner they will tell you that maybe what we should be debating these days is the illegality of that British ultimatum which resulted in the loss of independence that the Zulu nation suffered from and the indignity that resulted from that over the years."

Mr. Rattray says the lesson of Isandhlwana, in his view, is one of respect and compassion -- from which he says all good things flow, today just as in the past.

Rattray was murdered at his home in South Africa in January, 2007.