The Zulus and Matabele: Warrior Nations

by Glen Lyndon Dodds

  History now repeated itself. The Mandlakazi and their allies plundered and burnt uSuthu territory, this time right up to the borders of the Reserve, which sheltered most of the force that had fled from oNdini. Other uSuthu sought sanctuary elsewhere, such as in the Hlobane range, the Ngome Forest and the Transvaal. And what of Cetshwayo? After hiding in a cave near the White Mfolozi, he moved south into the Reserve. A few of his adherents then led him into the Nkandla Forest, between the Mhlatuze and Tugela Rivers, and built him a homestead where he could shelter in nearby caves beside a waterfall.

  From here Cetshwayo contacted the authorities, appealing for British intervention on his behalf. In response, Osborn—who had replaced John Shepstone as Resident Commissioner of the Reserve—demanded that the king place himself under his protection at Eshowe, where he had established his Residency. Initially, Cetshwayo refused to do so. But on 15 October (as Hamu and Zibhebhu were still slaughtering his supporters) he arrived at Eshowe, realising that he needed the support of local officials if he were to protect his people or reassert himself in Zululand.

  While Cetshwayo was at Eshowe, bloodshed continued. However, the uSuthu were not always the victims. On 14 December, for instance, beside the Black Mfolozi, a band of uSuthu fell upon Mfanawendlela kaThangana (one of the chiefs appointed in 1879) and his followers and slew them. The victorious uSuthu were led by two young members of the essentially new uSuthu leadership that had emerged after 21 July, Mankulumana kaSomaphunga of the Ndwandwe, a grandson of Zwide, and Ndabazimbi kaTokotoko, a relation of Zibhebhu.

  It was in the same month, December 1883, that Mnyamana appealed to the authorities to intervene, begging the government to establish order. Bulwer and Osborn were in favour of extending colonial rule over the whole of Zululand. Lord Derby, the Colonial Secretary, felt otherwise. When asked to consider establishing a protectorate he tartly replied: ‘I don’t want more niggers.’

  On the afternoon of 8 February 1884, Cetshwayo died at Eshowe shortly after eating a meal. The medical officer who examined the body concluded that he had been killed by a heart attack. But Zulus present believed, and they may well have been right to do so, that he had been poisoned on Zibhebhu’s instructions—the fact that at about the same time an attempt was made on Mnyamana’s life adds weight to this conclusion. Although rendered very ill, Mnyamana pulled through, and together with Ndabuko served as the official guardians of Cetshwayo’s fifteen-year-old son, Dinuzulu.

  Of Cetshwayo, Charles Ballard aptly comments:

  Cetshwayo’s memory is still revered by the Zulu people. He is perhaps the most beloved of the Zulu monarchs. His entire life was devoted to maintaining the sovereignty and social system of the Zulu kingdom. His valiant stand against the British during the Anglo-Zulu War and his subsequent exile and successful campaign to be restored as king exemplifies the nobler human qualities of tolerance, statesmanship and courage.

  When Cetshwayo died, the position of many uSuthu was truly desperate, and their suffering was to continue. In April, for instance, a trader described seeing Mnyamana’s followers who were living in rocks and caves. They were:

  in a most deplorable state, dying in dozens from deprivation and dysentery, children perishing at their mother’s breast for want of nourishment, and each person covered with the itch and otherwise emaciated, and if nothing is done to relieve them before the winter sets in there will be scarcely a soul alive, for all their crops were then cut and trodden by [Zibhebhu’s] forces.

  The Battle of Tshaneni

  By this date some of the new uSuthu leaders had recently contacted a number of Boers living in the Transvaal and secured their support in return for the promise of land. uSuthu morale was therefore boosted in late April as word of a combined move against their enemies spread through the country.

  At the beginning of May a force of white volunteers, mostly Boers, entered Zululand from the Transvaal, accompanied by Dinuzulu who had left the Nkandla Forest and made his way to the Transvaal in April. They established a laager in the northwest. Hamu and Zibhebhu thus withdrew to their strongholds. Nevertheless, not all the uSuthu welcomed Boer involvement. Mnyamana opposed the alliance and reportedly told the Boers, ‘Go back to your homes. You have come to spoil our land.’ However, he failed to persuade the majority of the uSuthu to fight on alone.

  On 21 May, Dinuzulu was proclaimed king of the Zulus by the Boers, having been installed with traditional ritual the previous day by Ndabuko and other senior uSuthu. Two days later he is said to have put his mark on a document in which the Afrikaners bound themselves to restore ‘peace, law and order’ to Zululand in return for a parcel of land as large as they deemed necessary ‘for establishing an independent self-government.’

  Zibhebhu justly felt alarmed. Indeed, shortly after the entry of the Boers into Zululand, he appealed to Osborn, declaring that he now feared defeat and prayed that the English would help him. Consequently, on 6 May, Bulwer urged London to respond positively. Derby was told that if Zibhebhu were attacked by the Boers and uSuthu, he would be destroyed and that such a fate would not only be ‘wholly undeserved’, but would also result in ‘the greatest misfortune to the Zulu country. A great portion of the country will pass away from the Zulu people, and the remainder, with the exception of the Reserve, will, under the [Zulu royal dynasty] come sooner or later under the domination of the Boers.’ But the British government reacted negatively. Gladstone declared in the House of Commons that military intervention would not occur outside the Reserve.

  As May drew to a close, the Boer-uSuthu force moved against Zibhebhu. The chief of the Mandlakazi was well and truly at bay and decided on flight. With his people, he moved east down into thorn country, heading for Tshaneni where the Mkuze River makes its way through a narrow gap in the Lubombo Mountains. Zibhebhu’s warriors, numbering some 3,000, took up a position here in bush on the southern side of the river—terrain where the Boers would find it difficult to operate on horseback. The women, children and elderly were hidden among caves, boulders and bushes on the far bank.

  Battle was joined on 5 June. At about 4pm, the uSuthu—perhaps 6,000 strong—arrived on the scene with their 120 or so Boer allies. The uSuthu proceeded to attack, using the chest and horns formation. Initially, however, it seemed as though the Mandlakazi might prevail, but supporting fire from the Boers proved telling, and Zibhebhu’s warriors were forced back and the majority of their losses occurred as they endeavoured to cross to the northern bank.

  Zibhebhu managed to escape, and from high ground looked down on the battle site where the victors were rounding up tens of thousands of Mandlakazi cattle and driving the non-combatants from their places of refuge. He told one of his men, John Eckersley, a white trader and mercenary: ‘I have had my day . . . but oh, my poor children.’

  Following his defeat, Zibhebhu made his way to Eshowe in a last-ditch attempt to gain British assistance. On 13 June he told Osborn, ‘all our cattle and property have been taken from us, and the people have nothing to subsist on.’

  Three days later, Bulwer informed Derby that it was ‘impossible to regard without feelings of the greatest pain and concern’ the downfall of loyal Zibhebhu who had demonstrated that he had ‘as chivalrous and gallant a nature as the history of the Zulu nation can show.’ The Secretary of State was less moved and informed Bulwer that as the British had never pledged to assist the Mandlakazi chief militarily, all he was entitled to was asylum.

  In September, Zibhebhu duly appeared in the Reserve with about 5,000 of his people. General Smyth, who witnessed their arrival, reported that the men were

  as lean as greyhounds; sleeping mats and blankets on their heads; all fully armed with assegais and shields, but with few guns; the women with enormous loads on their heads, weary and tired; children of all ages to the infant at the back. They had also a great many cattle. How such a host could have managed to pass through a large extent of hostile territory unmolested is a mystery.<
br />
  By this date traders were settling in the Reserve and gold prospectors were beginning to exploit the gold-bearing strata in the Tugela Valley and elsewhere. More significant, though, was white settlement in northern Zululand where the band of Boers who had fought alongside the uSuthu had been joined by fellow land-hungry Afrikaners and by a hotchpotch of colonial speculators and adventurers.

  On 16 August 1884, Dinuzulu had reluctantly put his mark to a proclamation that awarded the Boers 2,710,000 acres and the right to establish an independent republic. Furthermore, he conceded that the remaining portion of Zululand north of the Reserve, and its inhabitants, would be subject to the new Boer state. ‘This was the worst, the most debasing moment ever suffered by the Zulu people,’ comments Laband.

  The boundaries of the New Republic, as it was called, were broad. Indeed, Natal officials estimated that five-sixths of Zulu territory outside the Reserve was declared part of the republic. London thus responded by formally warning the Boers in January 1886 that their claim to such a large slice of territory in the region was prejudicial to British interests. As a result, the Boers vented their anger on the uSuthu, who had appealed for British intervention. Moreover, fines were imposed on leading uSuthu and hostages were taken. Hence the uSuthu again appealed for help. In February, messengers were sent to Osborn imploring the British ‘to come at once’ and save them, ‘the Queen’s people and land from the Boers.’

  In March, Sir Arthur Havelock, who had recently taken over from Bulwer as governor, told the uSuthu that the British government would perhaps bring about an agreement with the New Republicans in which ‘a portion of land’ might be secured for the Zulus and that if it did so they should be grateful.

  Later in the year an agreement was reached between the British and the Boers. The latter did well in the negotiations, at the expense of the Zulus. True, the Boers dropped their claim to a protectorate over Dinuzulu. Nevertheless, the Zulus lost a very high proportion of their best lands—most of the highland grazing and the important mixed veld in the upper reaches of the principal river systems. Much of what was left to them was tsetse territory where malaria was endemic.

  Then, on 19 May 1887, the lands allowed to the Zulus were joined with the Zulu Native Reserve and both areas were henceforth to be known as the British Colony of Zululand. Revenue would be raised by a hut tax which, as noted above, had hitherto only been levied in the Reserve. The Governor of Natal was given the additional responsibility of serving as governor of the new crown colony. In November 1887, Havelock visited Zululand and told the uSuthu leaders:

  the rule of the House of Chaka is a thing of the past . . . It is like water spilt on the ground. The Queen rules now in Zululand and no one else . . . . It is to save the Zulus from the misery that must fall upon them if they were left to themselves that the Queen has assumed the Government of the country.

  But this was not all. Havelock announced that Zibhebhu should be permitted to return to his ‘old tribal lands.’ Within a fortnight, therefore, Zibhebhu was homeward bound, and it was soon reported that he was taking possession of his former territory by force, expelling uSuthu from their homesteads.

  Consequently, on 23 June 1888, between 3,000 and 4,000 uSuthu under Dinuzulu (who was now viewed by the authorities as merely a chief) surprised and routed Zibhebhu and his outnumbered followers in northern Zululand on the Nongoma Heights near Ivuna, the headquarters of a magistrate whose partisanship of Zibhebhu had angered Dinuzulu. As a result, Zibhebhu fled and was to live near Eshowe for a number of years before returning to his hereditary territory, where he died in 1905.

  Following the battle, the British moved to quell growing resistance and, on 2 July 1888, a force consisting of regular soldiers, Zulu policemen and black levies, defeated an uSuthu force under Shingana at Hlophekhulu Mountain near oNdini and resistance began to collapse. Consequently, Ndabuko surrendered to the colonial police, while Shingana and Dinuzulu escaped to the Transvaal. They soon returned to Zululand, however, where Shingana was arrested. On the other hand, Dinuzulu made for Natal to surrender himself to the authorities.

  In 1889, the three men were tried for high treason, sentenced to long terms of imprisonment and exiled to St Helena, an island in the Atlantic Ocean. Here Dinuzulu was to learn to read and write, and to play the piano tolerably well. Moreover, he sported European clothing, including military uniforms, and fathered several children (by two women he had been allowed to take into exile with him), including his future successor, who was given the biblical name of Solomon.

  Dinuzulu left behind a land that was to suffer in the 1890s from unprecedented and devastating crop failures due to drought and swarms of locusts. In addition, in 1897 the extremely virulent cattle disease, rinderpest, virtually annihilated Zulu herds. Smallpox, introduced from the newly discovered gold mines of the Witwatersrand in the Transvaal, where Zulus had sought employment, wrought additional suffering.

  A substantial number of Zulus worked in the mines. In fact, in 1894 Zululand was said to be one of their principal sources of native labour. Zulu labourers were also attracted elsewhere, to Natal and the diamond fields of Kimberley.

  In 1897, Zululand was formally incorporated into Natal (which had been granted self-government in 1893) and in January of the following year Dinuzulu, Ndabuko and Shingana were allowed to return from exile. However, the government—in contrast to most Zulus—only recognised Dinuzulu as one of its izinduna, from whom it could seek advice on matters of Zulu custom. He was also to be the chief of uSuthu Locations Nos. 1 and 2, small tracts of land beyond the Black Mfolozi.

  One of the main reasons for incorporating Zululand into Natal was so that it could be opened up to further white settlement. Consequently, in 1904 the Zululand Delimitation Commission recommended that 2,613,000 acres (40.2 per cent) of the land should be set aside for white ownership and exploitation. Hence the territory occupied by Zulus living to the north of the Tugela was reduced to just 3,887,000 acres. As Stephen Taylor comments: ‘The Zulus were watching the extinction of their pastoralist heritage. After locusts, drought and disease, they were now being squeezed between wattle and sugar plantations arising suddenly on the coast, and the white farmers’ herds that roamed the hills of the north.’

  The 1906 rebellion

  Further cause for dismay came in August 1905. This witnessed the passing of a bill at Pietermaritzburg imposing a poll tax of £1 on every adult male not already paying the hut tax: a measure intended to enhance the government’s revenue by drawing young men who had hitherto eluded paying taxation into the colony’s revenue net. However, as Shula Marks comments:

  Although married men who paid the Hut Tax were exempt from the Poll Tax it was the younger men who provided the money for their fathers’ tax. The kraalhead was responsible for the paying of the tax, but it was levied on all huts in his kraal, including those of bachelors, unmarried girls and widows.

  Inevitably, then, and especially in view of the general impoverishment of blacks, largely due to natural disasters (which had continued into the early twentieth century), the passing of the poll tax was widely viewed by Africans as oppressive.

  For some, it was the final straw. Late 1905 witnessed mounting tension not just among Zulus in Zululand, but among other Zulus and Africans living south of the Tugela, including individuals who had espoused Christianity: the number of Zulu converts had only become substantial in the last decade of the nineteenth century. Small-scale violence erupted below the Tugela in February 1906, and soon occurred in Zululand itself under the leadership of Chief Bambatha of the Zondi clan. The chief, who was in his mid-40s, lived in a spectacular valley on the Natal side of the Tugela. He crossed the river in March to consult with Dinuzulu at the latter’s homestead at Nongoma after hearing that police had been sent to arrest him following his refusal to pay the tax.

  Secretly, perhaps, Dinuzulu found the idea of revolt appealing. However, he told Bambatha that he would not
countenance rebellion. Nonetheless, he allowed the chief to leave his family at the royal homestead. Bambatha, presumably encouraged by what he took as tacit approval, made his way back to Natal, gathered his warriors, and attacked a police patrol on 5 April, killing four of its members. He then crossed into Zululand and withdrew into the difficult terrain of the Nkandla. Appeals were then sent out to other chiefs for support. One of those who responded was Sigananda kaSokufa of the Chube, who was in his late 90s and a stalwart supporter of the Zulu royal house.

  In response, Colonel Duncan McKenzie and the newly formed Zululand Field Force—which was soon to number over 4000 whites and was assisted by some 3,000 African levies—was sent against Bambatha and his associates. On 5 May, while descending Bobe Ridge, a contingent of troops came under attack from about 1,000 rebels who were wearing a distinctive badge, a stiff piece of white cowhide or cowtail worn upright on the headdress, which the uSuthu had used in the 1880s. The warriors burst out from behind cover and charged. Some had guns, but most were armed with spears and small shields. Bambatha’s witchdoctors had said that the troops’ bullets would turn to water. The transformation failed to happen, and the Zulus were driven off with heavy loss.

  The rebellion dragged on, however, and for several weeks McKenzie scoured the countryside, hunting down the rebels who were essentially conducting guerrilla warfare. The decisive battle, which McKenzie was itching for, finally came on 10 June after he had received reports that a number of rebel forces, including Bambatha’s, were converging on Sigananda’s stronghold, the deep and narrow Mome Gorge in Nkandla, and were encamped at the entrance. McKenzie therefore issued orders for his own scattered troops to advance towards the gorge.