Brave Men's Blood

Book excerpt: One of the most highly regarded books on the British campaign of the nineteenth-century Anglo-Zulu War fought in southern Africa. Robust and economically self-reliant, the Zulu Kingdom—created by Shaka kaSenzangakhona—was seen as a threat to British colonialism. In December 1878, the British High Commissioner in South Africa, Sir Henry Bartle Frere, picked a quarrel with the Zulu king, Cetshwayo kaMpande, in the belief that the Zulu army—armed primarily with shields and spears—would soon collapse in the face of British Imperial might. The war began in January 1879. Three columns of British troops under the command of Lt. Gen. Lord Chelmsford invaded Zululand. Almost immediately, the war went badly wrong for the British. On January 22, the Centre Column, under Lord Chelmsford’s personal command, was defeated at Isandlwana mountain. In one of the worst disasters of the colonial era, over 1,300 British troops and their African allies were killed. In the aftermath of Isandlwana, the Zulu reserves mounted a raid on the British border post at Rorke’s Drift, which was held by just 145 men. After ten hours of ferocious fighting, the Zulu were driven off. Eleven of the defenders of Rorke’s Drift were awarded the Victoria Cross. These are the best-known episodes of the war, and Rorke’s Drift went on to inspire the classic film Zulu, which established Michael Caine as a star. Drawing on new research performed since the centenary in 1979, the author delves deeply into the causes of the war, the conditions during it, and the aftermath.