THE ZULU KINGDOM AND THE BOER INVASION OF 1837-40
◗ John Laband
◗ Helion & Company (2022)
◗ £25.00
◗ 266 pages (softback)
◗ ISBN:9781914059896
◗ helion.co.uk
The word ‘Zulu’ probably fills most wargamers’ minds with images of Stanley Baker and Michael Caine defending Rorke’s Drift, accompanied by Men of Harlech (certainly lots of historically inaccurate – but terribly inspiring – singing from both sides! Ed.), but Number 19 in Helion’s From Musket to Maxim 1815-1914 series covers the period when Dutch settlers migrated from the British Cape Colony and fought with the Zulus to establish their Republiek Natalia, which became the British District of Natal in 1843.
This book places the Boers’Great Trek in the context of many migrations taking place at that time in southern Africa as a result of political and social upheavals, of which the militaristic Zulu Kingdom had been the most significant. It also uses recorded Zulu oral testimony and evidence to present their political motivation, strategic objectives and conflicts within the royal house.
The battle ofVegkop in 1836 against the Ndebele proved that musket-fire directed from a secure wagon laager could defeat a more numerous army of warriors armed primarily with spears and this would be the tactic that enabled the Boers to succeed against the Zulus in 1838 at the battles of Veglaer and Blood River. In that campaign the Zulus showed themselves to be masters of surprise, ambush and manoeuvre in the open, winning the battles of Bloukrans, eThaleni, the Thukela and the White Mfolozi.
The author provides detailed descriptions of the Zulus’military system; their preparations for war and tactics in combat; the Boers’weapons; the construction of their ox-wagons, and the creation of wagon laagers for defence.
Ten pages of colour plates, bound in the centre of the book, are mainly reproductions of contemporary prints of Zulu and Matabele warriors and later pictures of some of the battles, but also include modern photographs of two Afrikaner monuments to the battle of Blood River, the Zulu Ncome monument and a memorial to Piet Retief and his companions.
Black and white illustrations in the text include a few photographs of Zulu warriors taken in 1860, reproductions of portraits, contemporary scenes and pictures of battles between Boers and African warriors.
Twelve maps illustrate Transorangia and the Great Trek to Zululand, 1836-37; Dingane’s capital of emGungundlovu; the battles of Bloukrans, eThaleni, the Thukela or Dlokweni,Veglaer or emaGebeni, Blood River or Ncome, White Mfolozi or oPathe, and the amaQongqo Hills, and the dismemberment of the Zulu Kingdom, 1838-43.
The book concludes with a four-page Afrikaans-English and siSwati-English glossary, a nine-page bibliography and an index.
The actions described in this book would almost certainly be regarded these days as too controversial for public display wargames, because of their role in the creation of the Republic of South Africa and the enthusiastic celebration of Blood River by its apartheid regime. In the current reassessment of colonialism, many wargamers might feel uneasy recreating such engagements even in private. But wargamers who already possess Zulu forces for the war of 1879 may be interested in sending them against the muzzle-loading weapons of early Boer forces, which can be improvised by judicious selection of Alamo period Texians, Confederate irregulars and members of‘Wild West’wagon trains, together with their wagons.