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Published: January 20th 2021
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Hipos hunting us
flashes from a nightmare ??? The heavy storm still did not pass over night. It rained buckets in the morning, making it impossible to stroll around the area, before our scheduled departure. St Lucia was deserted. It was the off season, but what as more detrimental was the Covid related impact, which completely devastated the tourism business here. Many restaurants and shops were closed, some even shut down permanently. Also, in South Africa the economic impact of the pandemic on the tourism is running deep. We still were remembering yesterday's moment when the territorial and aggressive nature of a hippo surfaced, because our skipper of the river boat approached a male too closely. The big animal looked at us with his fiery eyes, puffed loudly and started chasing us. Hippos can overturn smaller vessels or seriously damage bigger ones easily. Lucky for us the skipper knew the game and steered the boat out of the hippos range quickly enough.
We were not unhappy to depart St Lucia this morning. Too sad the atmosphere, too depressive the grey sky and rainy appeal, even if temperatures were pleasantly warm. Our next destination is 280km inland, the KwaZulu Natal battlefields around Rorke’s Drift, a historic site from the
Anglo Zulu wars in 1879.
South Africa has seen its fair share of fighting. Already long before the white settlers and merchants started the land grab from the Xosa, Zulu and other tribes, fierce fighting was common between the various African tribes. The expulsion of the true aboriginals of South Afrika the Khoisan or Hotentotes, as the white settlers called them, was a gradual process over the last 300 years. Today one can find the hunters and gatherers communities in the arid North West on the border of the Kalahari Desert and in certain parts of Namibia and Botswana. Parallels to the Australian Aborigines and North American Indians or Canadian Inuit are obvious. A second chapter in the history of fights was then between the Lutheran Dutch/German settlers (Boers) and the African tribes. After some setbacks the settlers managed to establish their states in Transvaal and Orange. Thereafter the British forces and the African tribes, especially the Zulus engaged over territorial control. And finally, the British and the Boers fought each other in a bitter war called the first and the second Boer War. In the second War the British one can say, invented and applied a systematic extinction
dry river beds
remind on occasional heavy rains of the Boer civilians by locking them up in concentration camps without food or water. (the Nazis perfected this idea 35 years later). For the historically interested of you, Nenad recommends the book “The History of South Africa” by Leonard Thompson.
The drive to Rorke’s Drift is a comfortable ride over open terrain and little traffic, climbing to a plateau of around 1’500m. The area around the border of Kwazulu and Natal (separated by the Buffalo River and Blood River, today called Ncome River) has huge historic significance for all three episodes, the fight between the Zulus and the Boers (Blood River 1838), the Anglo Zulu war (6 different battles in 1879) and the two Boer Wars around the turn of the 19th century. We visited two battles sites that took place on 22nd January 1879, the Battle of Isandlwana and the follow up Battle of Rorke’s Drift barely 30 miles away. We are staying in a boutique hotel made in Zulu style architecture with many memorabilia from British and Zulu military campaigns. It was built by an Englishman, who tragically died in a fire two years ago in the adjacent building on this property. A brave investment in
a hotel in the middle of nowhere. To get there we drove over 60km over dirt roads only passing smaller local villages. In short, in the battle of Isandlwana the British army with its African allies’ of 1’500 man, ill prepared and badly led by an arrogant Lord Chelmsford, was completely overrun and destroyed by a well-organized and purposefully fighting Zulu army. The Zulus were known for its attacking formations in the shape of the horns of an African bull. It was the worst military defeat for Britain at the hands of a native force. Some units of this successful Zulu army then went on crossing the Buffalo River into Natal, to attack and to capture the Lutheran mission station Rorke’s Drift, which was turned by the British forces into a military supply depot. A small contingent of the red coats successfully over two days defended the site, disallowing the Zulus to capture vital arms, ammunition and food supplies. This second battle in contrast was hailed by the British as one of the finest military defenses. According to our Zulu guide, a gross exaggeration needed for the PR back home in Britain.
Our Zulu guide, who in his first
The Lodge at Rorke's Drift
build in round typical Zulu styl job is a policeman in the town of Rorke’s Drift, was passionate for the history here and explained to us all the private research he did to get to the bottom of what really happened. Whilst agreeing in principle with the history written by the winners of the war, the British, (the Zulus did not record any written evidence of their battles), he pointed out that the significance of the Rorke’s Drift battle was completely overstated. In Britain the Anglo Zulu war was not being supported by the majority of the people. The ruling party was under pressure (even Queen Victoria was not too enthusiastic about this campaign) and military needed after the Isandlwana disaster quickly good news. The campaign by the British forces continued and ended in the total defeat of King Cetshwayo and his proud Zulu kingdom. As with every war some questions remain. Why were the British crossing the Buffalo River, at the time the border between the Zulu Kingdom and the British colony and why were they invading the Zulu land with such viscous determination with no intent to negotiate a piece settlement? The British Empire needed to consolidate its position in the Southern part of
the continent to prevent the German Reich to further expand from their colony in Namibia towards their colony in East Afrika, called Tanganyika. The Boers controlling most of the North East were at very friendly terms with the German Reich. A not unfounded concern that the two sides could ally possibly with the Zulus against Britain.
Rorke's Drift was established in 1849 by James Rorke an Irish who served as border guard patrolling the Buffalo River in this perimeter. The river represented the border between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom at the time. Bored with this duty he quickly established a trading post and traded with the Zulus and the merchants in Durban. He developed excellent relations with the Zulu King. To the Zulus who frequently visited his property it was known as KwaJimu (Jim's house). After his death in 1875 his wife sold the property to the Norwegian Missionary Society. Its Swedish Otto Witt took it over, using it as base to preach the Gospel to the Zulus until the British confiscated it for military reasons and chased him away.
Our stay was special in terms of accommodation, location and the spirit surrounding the place.
Nui was not finding it funny that we slept next to a field where thousands of soldiers slaughtered each other and next to a burned ruin, where the former owner perished; too many ghosts for her liking. The hospitality we received from the living was however warm and welcoming, the difficult times the business is going through in 2020 could however not be ignored. After an "officer’s" dinner, we watch the movie “Zulu” in the library of the hotel. This Hollywood production from 1964 with actors like the young Michael Caine is very entertaining, but deviates as usual from the historic truth quite a bit. After all, the movie company wanted to sell the movie t the time to the American and British public, not the Zulus!!!
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