Colossium Magazine August Issue_2018 | Page 63

British Army and Zulu Army, 1879 called iSandlwana, a spot chosen for its excellent outlook over the surrounding valleys. Rumors of an impending Zulu attack circulated, and at 2 a.m. on the 22nd, Chelmsford received the confirmation he had been wait- ing for: A strong Zulu force had been spied near the Mangeni Falls, roughly 12 miles away. Chelmsford immediately mobi- lized about half of his force for a surprise attack on the Zulu impi, leaving his subordinates Pulleine and Durnford with the altogether less glamorous task of guarding the camp. But the main Zulu force of ap- proximately 20,000 men was really resting in the Ngwebeni valley just 4 miles from iSandl- wana. The Zulus had planned to delay their attack because the 22nd, being a new moon, was considered an inauspicious day 62| Colossium . August 2018 The defeat at iSandl- wana resulted in a strong British back- lash that allowed them to conquer the Zulus and capture King Cetshwayo be- fore the year was out. Nelson Mandela become president of South Africa in 1994 for a battle. When they were spotted by British spies under Durnford’s command, however, they had no choice but to spring into action. E mploying the character- istic izimpondo zankomo (chest and horns) for- mation invented by King Sha- ka some 50 years earlier, they swarmed toward iSandlwana. Armed with spears and old-fash- ioned muskets they weren’t adapt at handling, the Zulus should have been no match for the Brits with their modern rifles and 7-pound field guns. And at first, the battle appeared to be going according to expectations: “Doz- ens of the enemy were dropping with each British volley,” writes Alan Lloyd in The Zulu War: 1879, “sending ripples of hesita- tion through the masses around them.”