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.”