Another great read!
Prior to reading this book my knowledge of Zulus comprised of the movies "Zulu" and the equally excellent "Zulu Dawn", which accounts for the opening third of this book. Rather than simply retelling these famous battles, the author takes us from the root causes of this war to its conclusion in gripping style.
After a necessarily slow start describing the political background of Zululand, its many kingdoms and their unification under the famous of all Zulus "Shaka", we move onto the British army invasion. Using fictitious excuses created by the British High commissionaire Sir Henry Bartle Frere and his ally, Commander in Chief for all British forces in the colony, Lord Chelmsford they led her Majesty's forces into a war that neither Queen Victoria nor her government wanted. At the same time as this mis-adventure was about to begin, Britain was already involved in a far more serious war in Afghanistan.
Expecting a quick and easy victory, Frere was sure that the Zulus would surrender before any reprimand from Westminster arrived and that this victory would exonerate them and bestow personal glory on both.
Reliving familiar tales of the defence of Rorkes Drift and the massacre at Ishandwana described with care, the author dispels many of the myths and excuses created by the government of the day to explain away how twelve hundred of their men were routed by poorly equipped but excellently led tribesmen. "Savages" was how British soldier viewed the Zulu at the outset of the invasion, yet after Ishandwana, this perception was changed to one of supermen. A breed of men that were braver, faster and strong then themselves and after the initial victory, they also were now equip ed with the new Martini Henry rifles.
Ishandwana was the Zulus greatest victory, but by no means their only one. In fact it was not until another large scale battle and defeat at Ulundi some six months later did the tide of the war turn against the Zulu.
As is the legacy of British Colonialism around the world, when they eventually pulled out due to political pressure and the simple cost of maintaining an empire, they divided the country up into independent regions that were soon at war with each other.
With skirmishes and large scale battle fought over vast plains between the better armed white men with cavalry, artillery and Gatling guns against a fitter native force using crude but effective weapons, its easy to draw comparisons with the U.S. army's treatment of the native American Indians. And with both wars the eventual outcomes were always going to end the same way and the of a native way of life that had existed for hundreds of years.
However unlike America, the final British victory simply laid the seeds for a further war, this time against the Boers war a few years later, which would see the eventual loss of South Africa and end of empire.
8 out of 10