Tales of Zululand.

Alfred Adams

Its not Lurch or Festus Adams who used to live in the old red metal house that has been moved to its new site behind Nongayi Fort, but Alfred Adams, one of Eshowe’s first European settlers.

Alfred Adams was one of the pioneer men to enter into the Zambezi region of central Africa in the 1860s when as a member of the ‘Universities Mission into Central Africa’. The mission had been inspired by Dr. David Livingston’s speeches made upon his return to England after being the first white man to see the ‘mist that roars like thunder’, which he called Victoria Falls. At the age of 19 Alfred traveled out as the mission’s ‘Agriculturist’. In February 1861 Livingston met the party at the mouth of the Zambezi River and prepared to bring the new explorers into the Dark Continent. With the help of Livingston they set up their first mission at Magomero on the banks of the Shire River in what is now southern Malawi. The mission only lasted 3 years and Alfred returned to England in 1864, the only member of the original party to have survived the mission’s short life.

Zululand under King Mpande was slowly accepting the vocation of missionaries. Alfred was chosen as an obvious choice to begin a new mission in the country to the north of the fledgling colony of Natal. His first mission was at Kwamagwaza with Rev. Robertson in 1864. 5 Years later Alfred married Selina Wood and moved across the Tugela with the blessing of Mpande and his later heir Cetshwayo. On the north bank of the Tugela Alfred Adams established the mission school of St. Andrews in 1875.

In 1879 war came to Zululand and Alfred served with the British taking part in the battle of Gingindhlovu and the relief of Eshowe. At the end of the war the British established a garrison at Eshowe and the widowed Alfred secured the contract in 1881 to supply the new Fort Curtis to the east of the town. The red house behind the fort dates from 1887. The days were spent serving beer to thirsty troopers, and cold bottles of Pop to the soldiers when the sticky heat of summer made beer unattractive. The thirst of the soldiers for ginger ale was enough for Alfred to build a mill on the Umlalazi in 1898. No longer did the wagons loaded with bottles have to strain up the hills from Durban to keep lips of Empire wet

In 1906 the Bambata Uprising forced the aged Adam’s to evacuate Eshowe reluctantly. He died on the 6^th July 1906 in Gingindhlovu, the day he left.

Bead Work

Beads have been a part of Zulu dress since the early 1800s when the first traders ventured across the Tugela from present day Durban. The beads found them selves around necks and wastes to even love letters. It didn’t take long for the colours to take meaning as well. Green and yellow beads were reserved for chiefs with red beads having more interest among the Zulu than blue and then black and white.

It was a hard life for a woman. After working in the field while the man of her dreams sat under a tree drinking beer waiting for war, she would write her beau a love letter. But a letter written in beads that he would hang around his neck. The letter is no more than a small square of beads, but the message is in the colours used.

The intricate patterns and the colours read the letter. White beads represent love and honesty, black stands for mourning loneliness and disappointment. Blue represents loyality, and distance from longing. Other emotions of colour include pink to mean poverty, red desire and tears and yellow shows wealth.

Mixed striped beans indicate doubt or the writer has been hitting the bottle while her man has been working hard under a tree.

Bishops Seat

The Dhlinza forest is a dark place. Not much light gets through the top of the canopy onto the dead leaves on the forest floor. The buck like the woods for the thick cover it gives against the predators. In 1830 the Norwegians liked it for the same reason. The forest was the ideal location to preach about a new philosophy to the people, a God, and all his complications. Out of sight.

The Zulu wanted to listen, but they were scared that their chiefs and generals would not approve. There is a clearing at the top of one hill, where the blue sky and the rain gets in, but wandering eyes can not penetrate from outside. On the grass the Zulu would listen to the tall fair men from northern Europe talk of a man and his boat, an Ark, that carried two of every animal. They listened while the chatter of monkeys would drown the white man’s words. Among the songs of birds they asked themselves how could someone find two of everything in this forest alone, rather than all across this world that was beyond the sea?

When standing in the forest it is easy to see why it took 30 years to get the first conversion to Christianity.

In 1899 the peace loving British went to war again. Once again another people needed to have it explained to them that they would never be happy until they were administered by petty clerks and shouted at by the cream of British establishment, the rich and the thick.

The Boer, perhaps due to a language barrier needed 3 years of fighting from 1899-1902 until they got the message. The British sent Australian and Canadian soldiers to the broad highveldt of the Transvaal to influence the Boer. Their presence advertising the great travel benefits available in being a dominion of the Crown.

The west Zululand border in 1899 was subject to cattle raiding by the Boer from the Vryheid and Utrecht region but it wasn’t until 1900 that the Boer invaded. Briefly holding onto Nkandla 30 miles from Eshowe, however, retreating to Ngutu where they established themselves. But by May of 1900 the war was turning against the Boer. Wives and children had been left behind on the farms while the men and boys old enough to hold a rifle rode the veldt on horseback engaged in a guerilla campaign. Colonel Bottomly in 1901 with a body of Zulu began blockading the Transvaal border and raided Boer cattle across the frontier while General French to the south undertook Lord Kitchener’s scorched earth policy on the Boer Republic.

Burgher Concentration & Surrender Camp

The war brought great pressure and sacrifice to the Boer woman alone on their farms guarding their families and livestock. The loss of cattle and all belongings from the Bottomly raids was too much to bare and some families sort protection in Eshowe from Kitchener’s policy by surrendering. 436 men and woman surrendered to the British finding shelter in the camp located at Fort Curtis, now found on the Melmoth-Eshowe road just out of the town. But some refused to leave their land and surrender. Their loyalty too strong to their independent republic seeing no safety as captives to a foreign aggressor. 91 came to Eshowe as prisoners captured by the British and became inmates of the concentration camp. From the camp they were moved to the larger camps at Merebank and Wentworth.

British Cemetery Eshowe.

On Saturday 15 February Pte Oakly was the first man to die in the siege. His grave is one of the few marked crosses that stand on the west-facing slope of the shallow valley 200 yards south of the fort. The siege took men by disease, not by battle. Had the men ventured far from the fort for battle the cemetery would be larger than it is.

There is a total of 67 graves in the cemetery, 11 from the 2/3^rd ‘Buffs’, 10 from the 99^th Regiment, 5 from HMS Active and Pte W. Barber from the Army Hospital Corp. The remaining graves are for men stationed after the siege.

The crosses are still within the 11 terraces first built in 1879. There is little to distinguish this ground but short stone walls keeping the terraces apart. Other regiments found here are the Royal Scotts Fusiliers, 6^th Dragoons, 1^st Leicestershire Regiment, Wellington’s Regiment, 64^th Regiment, 11^th Hussars, and the 2^nd York and Lancaster.

They are all a long way from home.

Zulu Maiden Coming of Age.

Its another reason for the woman to dance and sing while the men sit back and drink beer. But before the dancing the girl must be prepared before the transition to womanhood. In becoming a woman it indicates she is eligible for marriage and motherhood. To be a faithful wife she must understand her duties and in the two months before she is presented she is isolated in a hut and visited by wise old women who teach her well. At the dancing she wears a shirt that symbolises her virginity, and the caul of ox fat. Her sisters and family wear skirts that show whether they are mothers or maidens. Money is presented to her from the guests and pinned to her head. She dances wearing her crown of bank notes

Coward’s Bush

Shaka insisted on an army without fear. An army without fear should not shy from pain nor worry about death. Shaka expected his men to lust for battle and to enjoy the taste of death. A wound in the back was a death sentence. It showed one had been running from the enemy. But if a coward could not be found after a battle men would be executed regardless ‘pour encourager les autres’, which wasn’t much fun whether you spoke Zulu or French.

Sometimes men returned from battle with wounds but others were suspicious how they were received. Men would murmur that in the thick if battle he had shied away. But how could one tell is a man was a coward? How could you prove it to the King? Easy, did he mind pain?

Outside Eshowe at the bottom of a valley the acacia thorns grow thick. Their white thorns stand strong rustling in the wind, rattling like sabers. Bushes growing into each other as a thick wall. This valley holds Coward’s Bush, the bush that showed was a man true to his King.

The regiment would assemble and the accused would stand in front of them. He had to prove himself to his comrades and walk into the acacia and keep walking showing no pain, nor slowing nor flinching. Should he acknowledge discomfort death was instant.

It is not known if any man came out of Coward’s Bush a hero.

Engagement (Matrimonial)

Nicky Oppenhiemer and the rest of De Beers haven’t quite cracked Zululand. Then again giving a girl a nice rock of ice might be a cheaper way of getting married that dropping off 11 cows at the father’s kraal. It’s a sign of respect even though some think it’s a bit like saying “remember me? The rich guy with all the cows your daughter goes to the movies on a Friday night? Well here’s 11 cows, I am now broke but I would like to support her as a wife”

Its a sign of respect for all the effort and money the father has put into his daughter and the loss of income he will receive from her no longer working in the fields. Others say it is a sign of love from the father showing that only when a man is able to part with 11 cows and support a wife is he financially secure enough to be a husband.

An engagement is a unique time in a Zulu Maidens life. It is a period of sisterhood where she falls neither under the full authority of her father nor husband to be. This is a period of celebration and the ritual and dancing is a woman’s affair. The men come to watch with their weapons, but they are not part of the party. They get up to make mock charges at the woman, but it is because they are threatened by the maiden’s solidarity.

Zulu War.

Disraeli remarked “A wonderful people, the Zulu. They beat our generals, they convert our bishops and they write finis to a French dynasty”

The Prince Imperial, Louis Napoleon, the only son of the exiled Emperor Napoleon III died in Zululand, victim to an eight strong Zulu ambush when acting as an ADC. Killed by repeated stabs from asagais stabbing spears when sketching potential routes for the advancing column. Bishop Colenso, first bishop of Natal was excommunicated in 1866 for heresy for questioning the first five books of the Old Testament after one his converts asked him did he really believe in Noah’s Ark.

The generals were presented with a scenario they had not expected in 1879, a war. A war of defeats and sieges from a disciplined opponent who were more confident fighting with their traditional primitive weapons then their recently acquired rifles. The 1879 victory of the Zulu at Isandhlwana is known by most English as when 2000 men, British troops and native soldiers, were decimated in the space of a few hours. Their bodies lain disemboweled on the Zululand dust signifying one of the Empire’s greatest colonial defeats. However, it is the strategically irrelevant defense of Rorke’s Drift the next day, immortalised in the Michael Cain movie Zulu, which is the image most hold about the war

1300 soldiers and sailors were held under siege for 3 months in the Zulu war in Eshowe. From the 26^th January, days after Isandhlwana, until 1^st April the Zulu kept the southern invasion column holed up at night in an earth fortification not larger than a football field, 200 km east of Isandhlwana. The little known siege was a direct consequence of the defeat to the west and was the only presence in Zululand for three months while a second invasion was planned. On Saturday 15 February 1879 Pte Oakly, 2/3 Rd Regiment ‘The Buffs’, was the first man to die in the siege. His grave is one of the few marked crosses that stand on the west-facing slope of the shallow valley 200 yards south of the fort.

Fort Pearson.

With the ultimatum declared the British waited for Cetshwayo’s reply, which they knew would be war. The British invasion would have several crossing points of the Tugela. The furthest south would be at the Lower Drift of the Tugela a hundred miles from Ulundi the royal kraal. Colonel Charles Knight Pearson was the commanding officer of the column.

The Lower Drift in the summer of 1879 was too broad bloated with the rains to ford, but with the arrival of the dry season it could be a conduit for a Zulu invasion into Natal and onto Durban. Colonel Pearson had a total just short of 5000 men and supplies to bring into Zululand and this open stretch of river was chosen to punt the men across. The primitive fort was built to overlook the river on a knoll on the south bank. It was expected to be a staging post to feed the army as it drove deeper into enemy territory. The Fort had telegraph communications with both Durban and Pietermaritzberg. Mirroring Fort Pearson on the other side of the Tugela once the invasion had begun the Royal Engineers built Fort Tenedos, honouring HMS Tenedos, which had assisted in the invasion.

It was from this fort that the first casualty of the war was felt. Seaman Martin manning the invasion punt fell overboard and was eaten by a crocodile.

Isandhlwana.

The British Prime Minister Disraeli said of the Zulu ‘A wonderful people, the Zulu. They beat our Generals, they convert our Bishops, and they write finis to a French dynasty’. On the 22 January 1879 the Zulu inflicted perhaps the most humiliating defeat on the British Army during its days of Empire. Just short of 2000 men of both the British army and local volunteers were left dead in the Zululand dust after 2 hours of fighting. The Zulu had already made the Bishop of Natal, John Colenso, question his faith’s doctrine and they later killed the son of Napoleon Bonaparte III. Disraeli also lost the next election thanks to them.

The centre column, under the command of Chelmsford the General in charge of the war, crossed the Buffalo River in the height of summer in early 1879 invading Zululand. The river was rising with the rains and the rolling hills of the kingdom were thick with the season’s growth. Below a sphinx-shaped Kopie 9 km from the river’s ford at Rorke’s drift an advanced base was established. It was decided that it wasn’t necessary to defend the encampment. No trenches were dug in the rocky soil, or breastworks built from the lose rocks on the ground. Chelmsford earlier had met with Paul Kruger, the Boer Leader, in Durban who recommended the setting up of defensive laager with ox-wagons when in Zululand as it had served them well against the Zulu in 1838. The British general choose to ignore him.

On the morning of the 21^st Major Dartnell reported seeing 1000-2000 Zulu 10 miles northeast of the camp. Chelmsford upon receiving this message left on the morning of the 22^nd with a combined force of 2500 men leaving lieutenant-Colonel Henry Pulleine in command. In the early morning after Chelmsford’s departure occasional sightings of Zulu bands were reported. The one armed lieutenant-Colonel Durnford was a veteran of native battles in South Africa, and upon arriving at the camp mid morning took command, had some lunch and rode out into the veldt to attack a small reported force of Zulu.

The impi split into its familiar horn shape. Shepstone retreated to warn the camp. Durnford too was warned and he returned. The men guarding the camp were armed with 30 rounds each, and a long way from the armory wagons. The impi swarmed towards the invaders. The left horn advanced and soon breached the retreating British line. Within a short period of time their rounds were spent. The last stand of those who did not run was hand to hand combat, bayonet against asagai. Within 2 hours the 1/24^th regiment were fallen with their colours. Chelmsford returned only in time to bury the dead.

John Dunn.

John Dunn, a Scot and an adventure with a beard as full and long as his legacy and as thick with as many hairs to match his number of wives. A man whose life from an early age would be full of turmoil. At the age of 12 he had seen his father killed by an elephant on the banks of the Brei, but he had stayed in the bush close to his gun to find his trade in hunting. Travelling and making his living by his rifle at the age of 20 he was fluent in Zulu and Xhosa speaking them as mother tongues.

His taste in wine and woman where served by both the Natal gentry and the Zulu chiefs. Cetshwayo, the Zulu king, needed a man who understood the needs of the Zulu but had the ear of the authorities in the emerging colony of Natal. Cetshwayo offered him land for his skills in diplomacy and in 1857 made him a chief. Those of civilised company in Durban furnished him, and his first wife Catherine, with dinner parties.

In 1873 Cetshwayo needed guns fearing a conflict with the Boer in the neighbouring Transvaal, and Dunn knew where to get them. Having the Boer as a neighbour in southern Africa has always carried the risk of them calling around for more than a cup of sugar after Sunday prayers. Delagoa Bay, soon to become Lorenzo Marques (Maputo) to the east was a Portuguese trading post and an easy point to begin his gun running network. Dunn was unfortunate to get to the town before the arrival of the Brazilian cabaret acts that made the place such fun to visit in the 1970s. However, with his great wealth in Zululand from gun running he could afford a few extra wives, forty eight in total. Such was his wealth he paid Lobola for all of them. His time in the company of his wives still allowed him to keep his skill as a marksman and his hunting bag at his death did exceeded his accounted for offspring of 128. It was possible that he did have the occasional girlfriend during the times when none of his 48 wives understood him.

After the defeat of Cetshwayo by the British the Zulu kingdom was split into 13 governing chiefs. Gen Sir Garnet Wolseley administrator of Natal made Dunn chief of the largest territory from the Mhaltuze river in the north to the Thukela in the south, the region around Eshowe. Dunn was a great inspiration to the hippie movement in the 1960s and was first to coin the phrase “Make Love, Not War”.

John Ross. The McLean.

Most boys when they are 10 run off to join the circus. But not John Ross, who was actually called Charles Rawden Maclean, who changed his name to join the merchant navy. He lied about his age, he was 10 but said he was 13 to ensure passage. He was Scottish and a red head. By his own description a red head with white pasty skin, which burnt easy on a foggy day in Glasgow. Why did he go to find the African sun? Because that was where his brig Mary was bound, commanded by James Saunders King going back to help with the establishment of the Farewell Trading Company at Port Natal.

King hadn’t learnt much from his grounding of the Salisbury back in 1824. This time in 1825 he tried to off load before the bar, but instead broached the bar and lost the rudder. It was wrecked, which might explain why he had an unsuccessful career in the Admiralty. All hands came to shore by boat, except for one. John Ross couldn’t swim and fell over board. In the waves he clutched out for his last until he saw a large dark body move towards him in the water. A long line of white teeth in an open gap. An open mouth showing a wet tongue, powered by four paws and a tail. John was saved by the ship’s dog, a big hairy Newfoundland. He grabbed the main and was taken to shore.

Stuck at the beach they began to rebuild the ship. They gave the old figurehead to Shaka, its shape and colour scared the Zulu who investigated the emerging camp. It was a long time rebuilding the ship. 4 sailors stole the longboat they had come to shore on and tried for Delagoa Bay. Now only 5 remained, together with John Ross. It was along time building the ship, not launched until 1828, now called Elizabeth and Susan. The fact that the crew had taken on 10 local maidens may have reduced their commitment to a full day’s work.

In this time of building there is much speculation to the activities of the boy. Alone and isolated with a distinctive head of hair. Shaka is thought to have taken an interest in the boy, knowing his own isolated youth, inviting him to find attention in the royal harem. At the age of 13 the boy was not considered a threat, but had Shaka known of the appetite for Zulu maidens of Zululand’s other Scott, John Dunn, he might have not been so sympathetic.

John Ross used his knowledge of the Zulu and the land to his ship mates advantage. In March 1827 he was the first European known to walk the 600 miles return trip through the coastal swamps to Delagoa Bay to find much needed supplies for the Mary’s remaining crew. Shaka gave him an escort of an inDuna, Langaliable. An old man he returned the favour to many years later when found on the wrong side of the colonial administrators.

On April 30 1928 the Elizabeth and Susan sailed for Cape Town. In the times of the building Port Natal was rarely visited by the Admiralty, but it still remained a frontier outpost for the determined.

Khekheke.

A kraal as big as a village stands on the side of a hill looking east outside Eshowe. It could be a village for the number of woman sitting in the shade watching the children run around the cars and the people who stand waiting patiently. But some of them are family, the others are clients. The cars, over 10 of them and the wives, as many as 14, are all KheKheKhe’s, the most influential sangoma in Zululand. An old man with snow in his beard, but fire in his eyes, who descends from Dingiswayo, Shaka’s mentor.

A man this respected is sort after by the Zulu and his days are long and full of demands as he cures his people of their ills and fears. His craft is linked to the snakes in his valley and they are the sources for his cures. Every 23^rd of February he walks into his valley to find his snakes to show his people how he controls his knowledge of nature. Such is his bond, he fears not to hold a puff-adder in his mouth, and a mamba in his hands. The 23^rd is a unique day in Zululand.

King Shaka Day

Ethnic identity for the Zulu was something hard to keep in the high days of minority rule in South Africa. To find this identity the King and his advisors went to the union of the nation by Shaka at the beginning of the 1800s for a focus. The man who had unified the clans to become the most feared nation on the continent was chosen. Ironically they chose the month Shaka was murdered to celebrate his influence on the people of heaven.

The King appears in his full pomp of leopard skins and feathers, together with his princes. The Nation still remembers the man who made them proud. The men flock to the indahba with their spears and shields, reminding the continent that the Nation is alive, but at peace.

Prince Imperial of France

Louis Napoleon, the Prince Imperial of France was in Zululand. He had previously been a cadet at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. What was he doing in Zululand? Probably he was there for the same reason as most of the British officers, he couldn’t get a job doing anything useful in England so he came to Africa to look busy.

He lived in England after his father, Emperor Napoleon III, had left France for exile with the humiliating defeat of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870. Louis was a popular boy whose report card was filled with ‘good and games’ and ‘plays well with others’ at the academy.

With the outbreak of war he missed his chums, and wished for a good ‘biffing’ with the Zulu. He pulled a few strings (Queen Victoria) to be able to be sent out as an observer. Off to Africa he was sent with his great-uncles’ sword, clean underwear and his collection of Biggles Books.

Within in a short while Chelmsford found his name as irritating as hearing the word Isandhlwana. He attached a group of minders to play with the boy who was nicknamed PIM, nice but dim, by the General’s staff.

On the first of June 1879 together with an escort of colonials the Prince went out to make himself really useful and sketch the terrain ahead for the column at Itelezi hill. The Prince with a full case of ginger beer went to find a bit of adventure and away from his horse found 8 Zulu.

The Prince was unable mount his large white horse in time, and in a display of horsemanship only to be matched years later on a similar white horse by Eugene Terreblanche, didn’t quite work out the break/clutch/accelerator on the thing. He died in Zululand and there is a monument near Nondweni.

Martyr’s Cross.

East of Eshowe a large iron cross stands on top of Mpodweni hill high above the valley of sugarcane and Zulu kraals. From the rusting cross the Indian Ocean is visible even on still winter mornings when the valley floor is full of smoke from the burning of the cane crop. The cross was erected to commemorate Maqhamsela Khanyile, the first Zulu Christian martyr of the Norwegian Lutheran missions in Zululand who died at the end of the last century.

It is thought that the Zulu had no belief in a God figure and found the missionaries arrival and teachings interesting in an esoteric way. They were tolerated because they showed loyalty to the king, and had uses as ambassadors and interpreters of eurocentric thinking especially with the establishment of the British Colony of Natal. Cetshwayo was the king of the Zulu in the 1870s, an intelligent man painfully aware of the encroaching Boers to the northwest and the English to the south. The missions poised no treat to the King until 1877.

The first missions arrived in the 1840s in Zululand, but it was not until 30 years later did they gain their first conversion to Christianity. Maqhamsela Khanyile converted to Christianity and in doing so regarded himself released from doing military service. The might of the Zulu was in its military machine, and every kraal knew that the kingdom was under threat from the whites.

On a stormy Friday in March 1877 Maqhamsela was alone on the hill when confronted by his executioners sent from the king. He was asked to choose between his God, or the king and his army he must serve within. He chose his God. He died with the second bullet.

The crack of the rifle was coincident with the beginning of the storm. In the rain and flashes of lightning executioners and onlookers scattered down into the shelter of the valley. After the storm those who ventured back to the grassy summit found no body of the martyr. Some believe he went to heaven, which he deserved, others say the body went to the jackals which was better than he deserved.

Mbongolwane Wetlands.

The headwaters of the east flowing Amatikulu River provide the raw materials for the Zulu homecraft industry of thatching and sleeping mat making. The shallow broad valley is only 20 km west of Eshowe high on the eastern edge of a deep escarpment. The 380 ha of wetlands are within a community owned tribal area and it holds six different vegetation types. The Tribal Authority grants individual households rights to use portions of the river for reed cultivation.

The marshy trend of the river is dense with the seeded heads of grasses and reeds falling and rising in the spring wind. Down among the marshland woman wade into the grass and cut with sickles. They tie the bundles up with lengths of the same grass and slowly make the walk up the sides of the valleys to their kraals to stack the harvest below trees to let the grasses dry out. Between the lengths of marshland water loving vegetables are grown. Easily recognizable are broad leave lettuce and cabbage, and more typically indigenous foods like madumbe, the long purple potato-like vegetable.

Nandi’s Grave

Nandi was King Shaka’s mother, and her status was paramount in the Kingdom. She fell ill in 1827 with the coming of summer and her health slowly deteriorated until she died in October of dysentery. Henry Fynn the trader from Port Natal was there and attempted to nurse her to health. But her death wasn’t the only one he witnessed that year in Zululand.

Nandi’s death was greeted by mourning from her son, and her son’s nation. The mourning developed into mass hysteria as the nation came to the King’s kraal. They wailed, they scream, they berated and they feared to stop. The day after the death the crowd grew and the sun got stronger. But no one dared stop and leave to eat or fetch water. Some went to the streams only to be attacked and clubbed for dereliction. Men clubbed each other fighting over who mourned more. A nation began to destroy itself. The King approved. Henry Fynn reported 7000 people were killed in the first day of mourning.

Three days after dying Nandi was buried with 10 handmaidens. Their arms and legs broken buried alive to keep her company. A regiment of 12,000 men with 15,000 head of cattle was sent to guard her for a year.

The madness continued for months after. Shaka forbade crops to be planted, sex, and milk was to be emptied from the cows to the dust. He was asking at Nation to stave.

The mourning was brought to an end by Gala, a man who could not tolerate the destruction anymore. His words that Nandi was not the first person to dies in Zululand was enough for the King to hear and order all to stop.

Nongqayi.

To the west of Eshowe stands Nonqayi Fort looking straight out of the movie Beau Jest. Whitewashed walls with turrets at three corners, but the forth is missing. The walls with rifle slits, the turrets with ramparts. There is no desert to be seen here only the Dhlinza forest following the banks of the Mpushini River. The fort was built in 1883 not to house the Foreign Legion but the Zululand Native Police, the Nongqai.

The troop was formed in the same year as the erection of the fort under Inspector G. Mansel. Initially 25 mounted men and 25 infantry were placed under British officers. The force soon swelled to 200 men. The Zulu men dressed in dark blue knickerbockers and pill hats, but more often slouch hats when on patrol in the new addition to the British Empire from the end of the Anglo-Zulu war.

The first attempt in building their headquarters overlooking the Mpushini River failed. Some say it was a curse from a Sangomas put on the bricks for it would house men who had changed loyalty from a Zulu King to a foreign Queen. Halfway through building the fort it began to fall down. The bricks began to crumble. The walls were torn down and they tried again. But not all the bricks could be used again. Some had crumbled like sugar. There were only enough bricks to build three turrets. The northeast corner of fort has no turret. The turret that is closest to the old King’s royal kraal, Ulundi.

Norwegian Cemetery.

Bishop Schreuder of the Norwegian Mission Society established the KwaMondi Mission Station in 1860. The name was given from Christian name of its missionary, Ommund Oftebro. Oftebro surrounded his Chapel and home with an orchard, which was his love.

Cpt Warren Wynne of the Royal Engineers saw the use in the mission upon arriving with Pearson’s Column on the 23^rd January 1879. The buildings would help in providing shelter, as fortifications would be dirt because of little timber around. By the end of the siege the orchard had been chopped down and the mission nearly leveled.

On the southern corner of the fort is found the cemetery beside the site of the old chapel. The chapel is only recognisable as a gentle rise in the grass. But the missionaries and their descendants of Norwegian stock are buried in a tight and tidy plot.

The oldest grave is of Dr. C.T. Oftebro, died 1888.

Battle of Inyesane.

Pearson crossed into Zululand on 13 January 1879 with 4750 officers and men, 384 wagons and 24 carts. Cetshwayo sent 70 year old isikhulu Godide, Chief of the Ntuli clan to meet the invaders.

Pearson divided his column and slowly they lumbered across the muddy veldt, only crossing the Matigulu River by 21 January. The King had fought against enemies himself in this coastal region a knew a good place to attack. North of the Nyezane stream the coastal plain rises to hills, and a thick-forested valley was found between two open grassy hills. One hill is called Wombane. The King knew the British to be vulnerable in convoy, especially because they were unfortified. The column was strung out to 8 km in length.

Scouts were sent ahead of Pearson’s column to prevent their exposure to ambush. On the morning of the 22^nd, a day without rain, the scouts of the Natal Native Corp. were sent ahead to recce the thickly grassed hill, Wombane. Godide’s men were waiting and five streams of men flooded down the hill.

Pearson manouvered his Gattling gun, two 7 powder guns and a rocket tube to a knoll at the base of the pass to the high ground of Eshowe. This position gave the British the advantage and the recently developed Gatling Gun was used by the British for the first time in action. The Zulu were armed with muskets, but couldn’t compete against the greater range of the Martini-Henry rifles. The Zulu showed discipline and took aim at the British officers, shooting Pearson’s horse from under him.

Of the 2687 men attacked in the column, 3 officers were killed, 9 men and 14 injured. Over 300 Zulu died. Godide prepared to ambush again, but Pearson chose to halt his column at Eshowe.

Old Goal. (Great story here)

A long time ago in Eshowe people would get drunk and in trouble with the law. They might sing too loud, dance to long or tell too many lies. If you spent too much time in the pub sometimes the only place to sleep was a nice cell.

In the last century a man with a terrible thirst arrived in Eshowe. He told the men in the bar he knew a thing or two about beer. He even had some of his own brew in his wagon. He said it was too precious for anyone to drink. Not even the pretty red head girl across the bar could have some, no mater how long she danced with him. No mater how often he threw her spinning across the floor as the banjo played into the night.

Dancing makes a man thirsty and the bar soon had no beer left. With the no beer the banjo refused to play. Out from his wagon the man went and brought in bottles of his famous brew. The banjo liked it and played. The bar liked it and danced. How they danced. Who could tell the dancer from the dance? They spun and they twirled. Some lost their feet and fell to the floor and slept where they landed. But some didn’t like the music and the police came. Why is this bar open? Who supplied this beer? “I did” Said the stranger with his arm around his red head love. “Then to our jail you must come” they said and dragged him away from his love.

In the morning she stood waiting outside the jail. He walked slowly to her, his head sore “marry me?” she cried. “Oh yes” he said “that is a wonderful brew I will remember this day for ever”. He put the shape of the jail, a castle, on the front of every bottle to wish men the same luck as he with his beer. That’s where Charles Glass got the castle on his beer. He took the front of his night’s goal in Eshowe.

That’s what they say in the pub hear, but people will say anything for another drink. Sure isn’t story telling thirsty work?

Rorke’s Drift stands up there with the other great British victories of Dunkirk and the Charge of the Light Brigade. It perhaps should be remembered as Michael Cains’ finest hour standing there in his red jacket saying the last thing an engineer would say when 4000 Zulu came over the hill.

Its not every day the British army gives away 11 Victoria Crosses because someone disobeyed orders. But that’s what they did after the battle. Not that Michael Cain did anything wrong standing below the Amphitheater in the northern Drakensberg in the film 200 kays away from the actual battle site.

It wasn’t the British who disobeyed orders. It was the Zulu prince Dabulamanzi who ignored his King and general. Cetshwayo knew well what would happen to men running towards armed fortifications and ordered against such at the beginning of the war. The slaughter at the Battle of the Blood River in 1838 by the Boer was the proof that warriors had no chance against hidden rifles over open ground.

Dabulamanzi’s impi had not fought at Isandhlwana and full of pride wanted to blood their spears. The routing of the Red Coats that afternoon made the small field hospital appear an easy target. But commanding officers Chard and Bromhead, had fortified the perimeter with mealie bags taking inspiration from Michael Cains’ impressive disregard of the noble, but savage Zulu. A mixture of able and wounded men held off odds of nearly 40 to 1 for 10 hours, compared to the 2 hour rout at Isandhlwana to lesser odds.

Rorke’s Drift.

A day when the central column of the British invasion into Zululand had been annihilated the Generals and politicians had to find meaning to a heroic defense by the Welsh Guards that would had not have survived another attach from the Zulu. 11 Victoria Crosses were given in one day, the most ever given in a single engagement. Dabulamanzi went back to the King knowing his mistake.

Samarang (1883). Eshowe / Zululand

The oldest house in Eshowe was established by ” The Father of Eshowe” pioneer, adventurer, trader and polititian Ernest Brunner and stands graciously amongst original shrubs and trees planted there. The original trading store foundations and bakery remains are on site.

Samarang named after his wife’s birthplace in Java. Peacocks strutted in the grounds and his famous aviary of doves earned him the zulu nickname Mashyinyoni.

Brunner served in the battle of Gingindlovu and Inyesane and also as magistrate of the Eshowe district with John Dunn.

He established a business on the site carrying stock comprising everything to build and furnish a house, cultivate the soil and feed the people. An oil and paint shop, cabinetmaker, bakery and fine stable.He was also an auctioneer, valuator and agent for Natal Breweries.

He was the first M.P for Zululand on the Legislative Assembly.

The six month trial of King Dinizulu took place at Samarang in 1888 following his exile to St Helena.

The Natal Judiciary including Sir Harry Escombe and Sir Walter Wragg were there and Harriette Colenso’s party was there to see that there was fair play.

Samarang is associated with names of Zulu kings Ceteshwayo and Dinizulu. As well as the legendary John Dunn and British soldiers and administrators such as Sir Theophillis Shepstone ,Harry Escombe, Charles Saunders Melmoth Osborne, Captain Mansell and missionaries Robertson, Schreuder and Oftebro.

This Eshowe landmark has a great colonial tale to tell. It is presently occupied by former springbok athlete Dr. D. Clark and his wife Pat.

Sargent West. Eshowe British Military Cemetery.

Frank and Mary Chennells of Eshowe in Zululand were visiting Stony Stratford with their family in 1928.They went into a toy shop opposite the Cock Hotel (The Bull being down the street). The 80 year old owner greeted the Chennells and it was soon established that the owner a Mr West knew of Eshowe.He had said that his happiest days had been in that town.He buried his first wife in the soldiers cemetry.She was probably the first white woman to be buried in Eshowe and maybe Zululand.Caroline West was buried in 1894 and was 29 years old.

The Wests two descendants from a second wife were daughters.

Sgt West was in the siege of Eshowe.He stayed on a few years after that.Guy will send me his military particulars.

Mary Chennells (nee Rogers ) many many years later relates how she as a young girl in 1915 was trained in first aid by a Mr West at Stony Stratford.Many young people were trained before the first world war.

Wasn’t it a coincidence to she should end up living on a a farm “The Chase” adjacent to the Eshowe town

King Shaka’s Grave.

Shaka was killed by his half brothers Dingane and Mhlangana late in September 1828. He was 41 when he died and had ruled for only 12 years.

Shaka had moved his royal kraal down from Kwabulawayo outside Eshowe years earlier down to the coastal plan, 70 miles south to KwaDukuza. Shaka knew he had lost the following of the people with the destruction caused by his mother’s mourning. There was a plot within the Royal Family against him as he had become a man distant from his people. His answer was to keep his plotters as far away from him as possible. After a failed campaign south against the Mpondo, he sent his army north without leave towards Delagoa Bay to raid the Gasa Kingdom.

His half brothers did not obey their king and returned to kill him instead of traveling north. Both brothers slaying him with their asagais within his kraals. The literature has the king list many properties before his death to his assassins. However, he did not say “Et tu Brutus?” nor give the winning lottery numbers to either. Shaka’s slain body lay overnight in his kraal where it had fallen, no one fearing to touch him, not even the hyenas.

Regardless a king needed to be buried. He was buried at the kraal he died as tradition for a king. His body was buried wrapped in an ox hide together with his belongings of beads, pots and weapons. The kraal was left deserted as the nation sought a new king. Guards remained with the grave for the man had been great.

16 years later in 1844 the British authorities divided the area south of the Tugela out to farmers proving one of Shaka’s supposed prophecies. T. Potgieter, a Boer, was given the plot holding the King’s grave and he established his farm there.

Later the town of Stanger was built over the site. The first king of the Zulu, Tshaka Ka Senzangakona, is buried but the site lost, somewhere on Couper Street.

Shembe Church.

The Nazareth Baptist Church is a faith of half a million Zulu originating from the prophet Isaya Mloyiswa Mdliwamafa Shembe, born 1870. As a small child he was resurrected from the dead and later in life he was instructed by God to live apart from his wives. At the age of 30 he began walking the fields of Free State preaching his knowledge of the Bible. He came to Natal and began performing the miracles of Christ. The current Shembe is the 4^th in the succession, the lineage and the reason for succession is a closely guarded secret.

The religion gives great importance to Zulu tradition incorporating traditional clothing, dancing and singing into their worship. The faith takes source from the Old Testament and therefore Saturday is observed as a holy day.

The Shembe has 21 homes and every October he is found at his residence on the outskirts of Eshowe, Judaea. 25,000 of the faith full come to his home and camp out around his compound. They build houses and shacks for their month of pilgrimage, and leave a ghost town unoccupied for the remaining 11 months.

Shembe is a preacher and healer. Zulu come to Judaea and sing praise and dance at the weekends, sometimes it is women covered, sometimes men with pith hats, different groups are allowed to keep unique traditions. When Shembe comes from his house to meet his people those who approach him must bow for no one is allowed to look down on him. The faithful queue for hours for an audience. When they are in front of him they give money and ask his advice, which he gives only once paid. They ask him to anoint their hands with Vaseline, which they believe will cure their ills.

He is a wealthy man in Western possessions and those of pay for his position believe he deserves it for the hope he gives them. They reward him for doing his job well as a prophet, making people believe in tomorrow.

Siege of Eshowe & Battle of Gingingdlovu.

The Zululand invasion by the British was a catalogue of setbacks. The middle column under Chelmsford had been decimated at Isandhlwana. The southern column lead by General Pearson ground to a halt 37 miles across the Tugela at Eshowe.

On the 24^th January, 2 days after Isandhlwana, Pearson unaware of the defeat established camp at Eshowe encountering limited resistance during his assent from the Tugela river crossing. With a clear view of the ocean beyond the green valleys Pearson fortified the deserted Norwegian mission of Eshowe laagering the wagons he had brought his supplies up from Natal with. Even though established in hostile territory Pearson could only venture further in to the interior with more troops and a guaranteed supply route from the camp at the Tugela crossing. The defeat of Isandhlwana had removed the availability of reinforcements and 37 miles into Zululand he had over stretched his limited resources. Within only a few days of establishing a camp, Pearson was cut off and under siege from the marauding Zulu in the forested valleys around him.

Back in dreary damp England the population was discovering over their tea and toast how their glorious boys had been laid disemboweled on the fields of Zululand. Hero’s of the Empire sat hidden behind ruined walls captive to near naked dark men, apparently uncivilised savages whose technology was only a short stabbing spear. No longer was this a ‘native affair’ in an upstart colony to be administered by low ranked civil servants. The Empire’s honour was at stake and over 10,000 men where sent south and from other colonies to stage a second invasion of Zululand to bring the victory the public demanded.

At the end of March Chelsmford crossed the Tugela taking the coastal route to relieve Pearson. He moved slowly, fortifying his encampment every night. The lessons learnt from the beginning of the year put to use. Somopo was the Zulu general, a prince and friend of the King, he had held responsibility in the years before building up the nation’s supply of modern weapons. The induna of the emaNgweni ikhanda was under instructions from Cetshwayo to prevent the column reaching the besieged Eshowe.

On April 1 Chelmsford built a fortified camp close to the Inyezane River at the burnt remains of the kraal at Gingindlovu. Now a day from Eshowe Somopo had no choice but to attack having never been given an opportunity in the open field because the column had taken the more defensive coastal route under the guide of John Dunn. Out of the cold mist on the morning of the 2^nd Somopo’s impi charged the gattling guns. Over 700 Zulu were not to ever see their kraals again. The second invasion joined with Pearson to drive further into the Kingdom, now under serious threat.

Signal Hill.

No one had expected a war with the Zulu and therefore the army hadn’t packed accordingly. Pearson’s column began the siege looking south at the Tugela with no knowledge of was there to be relief sent, and when. No signaling equipment had been provided.

Captain Warren Wynne of the Royal Engineers had the idea of making a small hot air balloon to hopefully carry messages on the breeze. He made it, but he never launched it. Some bright spark had the idea of trying to make a signal heliograph with a shaving mirror. On the hill mBombotdhane, south of the fort they built the first attempt. The ground falls away from this hill by several hundred feet to give an interrupted view to the south across the coastal plain to the Tugela and Fort Pearson.

It didn’t work with such a small mirror. But an officer’s servant, perhaps believing his commander’s view that when men were at the best in wartime meant ‘in their looks’ were misguided, produced a 18” by 12” mirror from his officer’s trunk. The mirror, combined with some old gas pipe from the mission, was put to good use. Lining up the sights with the outside world was hit and miss. The make sure the improvised system was sighted, a ‘volunteer’ had to stand in front of the pipe and get blinded. Once blinded, it was thumbs up and the trooper was heartily thanked by his officer.

On the 14^th of March the first communications was eventually established and the base long starved of news was filled in. Boredom and monotony dogged the siege and the heliograph was charged at 5 shillings a message to the troops. The officers took advantage as well, asking for fresh flannel shirts to be sent with the relief column. The money raised was put into a pool as part of the relief fund for dependents of those who had died whiling serving with the column.

Songs & Sounds of Zululand.

On the road to Mandawe Cross is a school. The soccer field is an open expanse of dust. Boys run across it trying to force the soft roughen ball between the uneven rough wooden posts.

But the bare feet that beat this ground in the evening dust don’t follow a ball but the changing rhythms of drums. Sections of oil drum strapped tight with cow hind. The fast the beat from the drums the harder the feet fall from the children of *&*^ School who come to practice.

Indlamu, is the dance the boys practice. But is it a dance or a joust? The dancer leads the beat raising his foot from the ground and bringing it down hard on the ground with the beat. When he is done, he is followed by another, who dances until he is spent. The rising dust settles on the sweat of the tired bodies. The boys have tried to pull down the heavens with their hands in the umGebhulo and have swayed together like a mamba in the umChwayo.

There is little energy left for football afterwards even if the moon and the stars illuminate the wide field of dreams.

Isandhlwana

Durnford rode east after their expected pray, while scouts looked for smaller quarry. A small band was seen by Capt. George Shepstone and chased. Upon cresting a hill in pursuit the young officer uttered the famous line “where did all those f*&king Zulu come from?”. Below them was 20,000 warriors resting, waiting to attack the next day. Discovered they rose and charged. The impi split into its familiar horn shape. Shepstone retreated to warn the camp. Durnford too was warned and he returned. The men guarding the camp were armed with 30 rounds each, and a long way from the armory wagons. The impi swarmed towards the invaders. The left horn advanced and soon breached the retreating British line. Within a short period of time their rounds were spent. The last stand of those who did not run was hand to hand combat, bayonet against asagai. Within 2 hours the 1/24^th regiment were fallen with their colours. Chelmsford returned only in time to bury the dead.

The Legend of John Dunn.

The Matabele. Mzilikazi.

The Matabele, also known as the Ndebele are descendents of the Zulu. In 1822, Mzilikazi, one of Shaka’s generals was dispatched over the Drakensberg from the coastal plain to raid the Sotho chief Ranisi’s kraal. When Mzilikazi returned to his king he refused to give his spoils of cattle committing an act of treason. The rebel’s only option was to flee the kingdom. He went north to Swaziland with 300 warriors, and then on to the Eastern Transvaal, amassing Swazis and Sothos into his band. A drought in 1825 forced Mzilikazi’s enlarging troupe into the high veldt, making settlement in the region of present-day Pretoria. On the high veldt he established his power to the north over the Limpopo, west to the edge of the Kalahari.

In 1836 Hendrick Potgieter crossed the Vaal River with a small band of men to search for suitable land for settlement as part of the Great Trek. The Matabele acknowledging the treat of approaching Boers raiding their settlements south of the Vaal, killing families and stealing cattle.

On the 16^th October 1836, Hendrick Potgieter with a small commando left their laager of wagons and met the approaching Matabele and asked for peace. The Matabele attacked despite the plea, but were repulsed. Potgieter continued traveling further into Mzilikazi’s Kingdom aware of the fertile land north of the Vaal and the Soutpansberg and the Limpopo.

On the 9^th November 1837 the Boer routed the royal kraal of eGabeni. The people had already begun fleeing north ahead of the Boer. The Boer victory signaled the end of the Matabele in the Transvaal. Eighteen months later Mzilikazi established his royal kraal close to the curved pink granite hills near present day Bulawayo

The baskets of Matabeleland are similar to the Vukani baskets of Zululand in decoration and shape, yet they have independent origins.

Basketry has always existed within the Zulu people, but only in a functional capacity for storage and food preparation. The Zulu Vukani (Vukani; wake up and live) tradition was started in the late 1960s when a drought spread over northern Natal into Zululand, and hunger grew in the green hills and forested valleys.

Vukani.

In 1961 a Swedish Lutheran missionary, Pastor Kjell Lofoth, came to South Africa for a brief visit, but vowing to return. After completing his training in Europe a few years later he returned to Africa and was sent to Dundee in northern Natal, and then on to Swaziland. In 1965 he arrived at the Evangelical Lutheran Mission in the rolling dusty veldt at Rorke’s Drift. The following year a drought came to the province and helping the people survive occupied most of his energy. Programs were set up initially for the distribution of food among the Zulu, but he realised that what was needed was a system of generating income. An arts and craft centre was developed and the products marketed.

Clay pots, and their contents, in Zulu tradition symbolise hospitality. The pots are marked with simple patterns like triangles. An inverted triangle symbolizes a man, an upright one a woman, a diamond shape a married woman, and an hourglass shape a married man. These symbols decorate pots and have significance when presented to guests. The symbols that had once been limited to colourful glass bead jewelry and on clay pots were now put into hand weaved baskets.

These symbols have moved into the ornate Vukani basketry. Perhaps a product of simplicity in weaving mats, but Zulu artists do admit to using the symbols for meaning in some cases. The art has developed, to exhibits touring in Europe and North America, to finally taking up shelf space at the Met in New York. But the largest collection still remains in Eshowe.

Walter Cele’s Farm

Walter a man nearly as old as the continent himself. A man with nearly as many wives as the King. But Walter is a gentleman, who knows the tradition of hospitality among the Zulu. Retired among his small cane fields, with his children and grandchildren. When he isn’t giving advice and support across his valley he is seen with visitors showing them his magical home and friends. He talks of his days in Swaziland, how his community has grown and changed. He tells how the Zulu traditions from the last century are still the same, but not so obvious. He’ll tell a story over lunch, sometimes. But he will always spare the afternoon to some sweet Zulu Beer and a nice place in the shade. With as many wives as he does, he needs the rest. Walter is a proud Zulu who may wear western clothes, has a heart placed back in the days when from the side of his hut he would count his inkomo (cows) between sips of beer. Lots of cows is a lot of beer.

Zulu Kings Reed Dance.

Oh yeah its good to be the King in Zululand. Every September the maidens of the Kingdom make their way to the kings palace at Nyogeni. The young woman in traditional clothing carry long reeds above their heads swaying their way up to the seated king. The tradition was copied by the Zulu in the 80s from Swaziland. In the years of apartheid the Zulu leaders wanted to restore traditional values and national identity in a time when the minority government rule fostering migrant labor was fostering a collapse in family structure. The Reed Dance was used as a way of promoting celibacy among the young and to reduce teenage pregnancies. The King now uses the ceremony as a method to promote his AIDS awareness campaign.

Zulu Wedding.

You won’t find a walking marange being chased by a penguin Zululand. Nor expect to find a stressed mother of the bridge worrying about her hat. Instead find some men sitting on the side of a hill looking to the sea with their asagai and shields at their sides sipping slowly on beer. In front of them is the bride, dancing as swaying with her friends and sisters. The old ladies stand to the side rolling long cackling wails of celebration as they too sway but to a slower beat.