Adrian Greaves - The Zulus at War: The History, Rise, and Fall of the Tribe That Washed Its Spears

Also by Adrian Greaves

Flight of Colour , Debinair, 2000

Isandlwana, Cassell, 2001

A Review of the South Africa Campaign , Debinair, 2001

Curling Letters of the Zulu War , (co-author with Brian Best), Pen & Sword, 2001

Rorkes Drift, Cassell, 2002

David Rattray Guide to the Battlefields of Zululand , (co-author with David Rattray, and editor), Pen & Sword, 2003

Redcoats & Zulus, Pen & Sword, 2004

Crossing the Buffalo , Cassell, 2005

Whos Who of the Anglo-Zulu War , 2 Volumes, (co-author with Ian Knight), Pen & Sword, 2007

Lawrence of Arabia Mirage of a Desert War, Cassell, 2011

Isandlwana How the Zulus Humbled the British Empire , Pen & Sword, 2011

Forgotten Battles of the Zulu War , Pen & Sword, 2012

Copyright 2013 by Adrian Greaves and Xolani Mkhize

FIRST NORTH AMERICAN EDITION 2014

FIRST SKYHORSE PUBLISHING EDITION 2014

All rights to any and all materials in copyright owned by the publisher are strictly reserved by the publisher.

First published in Great Britain in 2013 by Pen & Sword Military, an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Jacket design by Jon Wilkinson

Print ISBN: 978-1-62914-513-6

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-63220-201-7

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge a number of people who have rendered valuable assistance to me in the preparation of this book.

I owe a huge debt to my wife Debbie for her unfailing patience and assistance while I was conducting the necessary research and putting the book together. Our lovely house was strewn with papers, photographs and maps, and whilst I always claimed to know where everything was, she didnt, and the temptation to tidy up was almost too much.

I will always thank Consultant Surgeon Cliff Stossell and his wife Katie, his operating theatre sister, for saving my life in 1986 following a road traffic accident, and for their care and skill during the many operations that followed over the years. It was my greatest pleasure, eventually, to accompany them around the stunning battlefields of Zululand and introduce them to my many South African and Zulu friends.

I especially thank all my long-standing Zulu friends at Rorkes Drift, especially Xolani Mkhize and the Reverend Wilfred Mbatha, who showed me some of the secret places of Zululand and who sought out and provided me with local material and interpretations of Zulu folklore that would have been impossible for me to access without their support. Xolani volunteered to be my co-author and he provided the interpretations of Zulu folklore. He was always a delight to work with.

Ian Knight was, as ever, hugely supportive and his willingness to comment, especially on the later Zulu kings, was always appreciated. Dr David Payne generously volunteered the impressive volumes of Charlie Harfords papers, which enabled me to fill many gaps in my research. I have relied on some material previously unseen by researchers and while this is referenced, any interpretation is mine and mine alone. This is my final book, due to anno domini , and I have used my twenty-five years of walking the battlefields of Zululand to try to understand and explain the Anglo-Zulu War, its participants and their descendents. I have been privileged to accompany some remarkable people while exploring these fascinating and desolate battlefields. They include, in no particular order, Xolani Mkhize and Reverend Wilfred Mbatha of Rorkes Drift, Chelmsford Ntanze from Isandlwana, David Rattray, Dave Charles, Ian Knight, Ian Castle, Dr David Payne, George Chadwick, Paddy Ashdown MP, Prof John Laband, Ray Heron, Isobel Swan, Ron Lock and all the guests from Holts Battlefield Tours who, over many years, so politely listened to me at all those haunting battlefield sites.

I am also eternally grateful to David and Nicky Rattray for their generosity in accommodating me at their magnificent Fugitives Drift Lodge during my numerous visits to Zululand. I first met David at Rorkes Drift nearly twenty-four years ago while I was accompanying some tourists to the graves of British soldiers. David was supervising the groundwork of his proposed lodge and innocently asked me, Do you think people will pay to come here? The following year I took the first tourist coach the 20 miles along a bumpy dirt road to the new lodge for Holts Battlefield Tours; other tourists, regal and otherwise, soon followed. While staying at the lodge, I was privileged to experience numerous walkabouts with David to explore some of his special locations and talk over the finer points of Zululands rich history. Davids savage murder was an inconsolable loss to his family and friends and I am grateful to Nicky for enabling my association with her lodge to continue.

Hala gachle !

Adrian Greaves

Tenterden
2013

Photographs are from Adrian Greaves collection unless otherwise stated.

1870s map with the location of Zululand.

An 1840s map of South Africa, then mainly unexplored.

An original and rare 1879 map of Zululand, with pre-invasion British positions.

The location of Rorkes Drift showing the disputed territory that led to the 1879 Zulu War.

A Zululand map showing the disputed territory and battlefields.

Foreword

I first met Adrian Greaves in 1992 at Fugitives Drift Lodge where I was then working for the late David Rattray as a guide. Adrian had phoned before departing Durban to check directions and I had given him details of the route to the Lodge, only for one of us to have mixed up our lefts and rights. Adrian duly arrived three hours late, having forged his way, with his young family, in an old Mercedes across 60 miles of rarely-used dirt tracks, crossing the Thukela River on a planked bridge and negotiating numerous hill ranges and two dense forests. Drinks at the bar and a few laughs quickly resulted in the beginning of a long friendship to this day we are still unsure of the route by which he actually got there.