Zulu Conquered – Ron Lock

The first Britons to reach Zululand were a handful of shipwrecked traders. They found themselves at the mercy of a nation whose name would become a byword for ferocity and courage.

The castaways were fearful of their lives but, to their surprise, were well treated and prospered. At the time, the Indian Ocean shoreline of the Zulu kingdom extended for almost 400 miles, whilst its inland frontiers reached as far as the Drakensberg Mountains. Fifty years later the kingdom had diminished by half, followed by a threat that it would shortly cease to exist.

And so it was, in December 1878, as Cetshwayo ka Mpande, the Zulu king, contemplated the British ultimatum with which he knew it would be impossible to comply, he pondered on the past and with bitterness mused: First came the traders, then came the missionaries and then came the red soldiers. British traders, missionaries and her red soldier army had been invidiously advancing into Zululand for decades. From their arrival in 1828, every encounter and demand brought the red soldiers closer to the Zulu army of 40,000 disciplined warriors the bravest of a brave nation.

War was inevitable: Cetshwayos army, medieval in terms of weapons, versus the British army, equipped with the breech-loading rifle.