Memorials to the Zulu and British Dead at Isandlwana and Rorkes Drift

As we approach the anniversary of the Battles of Isandlwana and Rorkes Drift some thoughts on the memorials and record of events that occured on the battlefield.

A casualty rate of 10% of forces engaged in battle is today considered as catastrophic. British casualties at Isandlwana number some 70%, which constitutes annihilation. 1375 men died out of a force of 8580 originally at the camp – but at least half of these were away from the camp with Lord Chelmsford at the time of the battle. Zulu numbers have always been exaggerated, but current thinking is approximately 3000 dead out of an attacking force of 20900, which works out at more than 10%. So the battle may also be considered catastrophic for the Zulus, although they did come away with the entire contents of the camp, which was their ultimate objective.

Zulu King Zwelithini had asked on a number of occasions why the names of the Zulu dead are not recorded somewhere? Simply because they had no written records at that time, and thus the names have sadly blown away into the winds of history.

In 1999 a monument to the Zulu dead was erected at Isandlwana to coincide with the 120th Anniversary of the battle. The Zulu’s had buried their dead in maize pits and dongas. The memorial consists of a gigantic representation of a warrior’s necklace or isiQu (Zulu bravery necklace or Beads of Valor) the Zulu equivalent of a campaign medal. A “been there, got the T shirt” award, NOT the so-called “Zulu VC” so beloved by some historians. Traditionally the necklace is either made by cutting up one’s walking stick and stringing the blocks together or else specifically from imsimbithi wood (Natal Olive). The necklace was the greatest honour which could be conferred on a warrior by the King. It was awarded only in instances of exceptional bravery and would have to be approved by the King's councillors. The award was usually accompanied by ukuxoshisa, where the warrior was given cattle as a symbol of appreciation.

The necklace is shaped in the bull’s horn formation, pointing towards the hill where the warriors died. Around the base are a number of sleeping pillows or iziqiki, symbolizing that the warriors are “sleeping”, and this is thus a monument to the dead warriors.

Unfortunately, there are a number of errors. The iziqiki are not correct – they are of a West African pattern. Secondly, the Zulus traditionally don’t do monuments – they are extremely difficult to move around in their constant search of fresh grazing and water for their flocks. When a European points out the number of statues to, Nelson Mandela, all over the world, the Zulus point out that they didn’t put them up!  Europeans did!

Thus, at Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift there are now two monuments to the Zulus, one which WE think the Zulus should have and one that THEY think they should have.

Their monument is charmingly simple – a tree. Ziziphus Mucronata to be precise, more commonly called the Buffalo Thorn, or Umpafa or Lathlamkhosi. Their reasoning is simple.

• It is a living thing that you don’t have to lug around and looks after itself.
• Its leaves and berries are highly nutritious for wild animals as well as domestic livestock.
• Concoctions of the roots and leaves will cure boils and open sores, act as a painkiller and are useful in the treatment of dysentery. Infusions of the bark are used to treat chest and respiratory complaints..
• The buds, when made into a herbal tea, apparently cause a urinary tract infection which can only be cured by sexual intercourse, which causes pregnancies, and thus this tree is the giver of life.
• And the double-hooked barbs are used to capture the ancestral spirit of a warrior killed in battle by dipping a twig into the stomach cavity of the deceased and symbolically “hooking” the spirit in order to take it home.
• Thus this tree is a living thing that requires no maintenance, feeds your animals and cures you of various ailments, makes your women very sexy and takes you out when you die.

I simply cannot fault their logic. Perhaps we can learn something from them?

Four months after the battle a burial party came back to the site to bury the remains. Bleached bones lay in the African sun. These were gathered up and cairns of stones built over bones, that were buried. The size of the cairn does not denote the larger or smaller number of bones – as many people over the years have intimated. Today these are painted white and are scattered across the battlefield, on the ledge of the mountain, down the Fugitives trail and on the banks of the Manyanzama river. The numbers of these cairns have varied over the years as some have been lost, been found again or simply disappeared. There is supposed to be a map of the position of the cairns drawn up in the 1960’s. This has been referred to in some publications and many of us know that it is supposed to exist but I am still searching for it. It is not in the Natal Archives or Killlie Campbell library. Many historians and battlefield tour guides believe it to be in the archives of Talana Museum. It is not. The museum inherited all of Ken Gillings and Steve Watts research and I personally classified and indexed those two incredible and valuable collections. I also digitised the entire photographic of the 2 men – in excess of 12000 photos. The documents are still being digitised. The map or a copy is not in either of those 2 collections.  However, there is one further place to search. In June 2022 the museum inherited George Chadwicks’s research and copies of all his publications and reports. This body of material still has to be classified, sorted and indexed. It will happen in the next few months.

Numerous memorials have been erected to the fallen on the British and colonial troops. These include the Maritzburg College Old Boys Memorial, the Natal Police and the Natal Carbineers Memorial. All of these memorials were privately funded by the regiments themselves. Numerous private memorials and headstones have also been erected by family members. These include the graves of Capt. Shepstone on the southern slopes of Isandlwana hill, and Pvt. James Blaikie, in the colonial cemetery. There are also memorials to Messrs Archbell and Hitchcock.

The only grave that we know indicated where a specific person was buried at Isandlwana was that of McLeroy. There used to be a memorial headstone on the grave but we have not seen in for many many years.

On a visit to the Isandlwana battlefield, Sir Rider Haggard, who accompanied the Dominions Royal Commission to South Africa in February 1914 and the four provinces of the Cape, Orange Free State, Natal and the Transvaal. This is an extract of his account of his visit to Isandlwana battlefield:

“It was sad for me to stand by the piles of stones which cover all that is left of so many whom I once knew; Durnford and Pulleine and many other officers of the 24th, George Shepstone and the rest. Coghill I knew also very well but he died with Melville by the river bank ... We walked back towards the store past the little graveyard where I see that Hitchcock, the first husband of Osborn’s daughter is buried with a few others whom it was possible to identify, and across the dongas and the rough ground about them.”  When I had gone some way I turned and looked back at this lonesome, formidable hill standing there, a fit monument for the multitude of dead; immemorially ancient, stern and grand. The twilight was closing in; the sky was red, fading into grey. Over that savage crest trembled one star: Heaven’s own ornament. Near to it gleamed the faint but luminous bow of the newborn moon, that same young moon which once hung above the slain upon this forsaken field of blood. I walked awhile, picking my way over the stony ridge and dongas where the last stand was made against a roaring flood of foes, and again looked back. Now the stark mount had become very black and solemn, the trembling star had sunk or vanished and of the following crescent of the young moon but one horn appeared above the hill. It looked like a plume of faint, unearthly fire burning upon Isandlwana’s rocky brow. This must be a quiet place for man’s eternal sleep. But the scene which went before that sleep!  The next day the party “followed the path of the routed towards Fugitives’ Drift. At first the cairns are many but by degrees they cease. All were slain by now save those who were marked for another space of life. But even today I can scarcely bear to think of those last incidents of a mighty tragedy of which I heard so much when I was young, and will write of them no more. They are forgotten among men. Peace to the brave, white and black together, for be it remembered our men did not die alone. “Is this a victory of which you tell me?” asked Cetywayo, as he surveyed his thin regiments, ‘Wow! I name it defeat’.

At Rorkes Drift there are 3 burial sites where Zulus were buried and the walled cemetery with the memorial to the British soldiers. It was only in 1999 that a memorial tablet was placed on one of the Zulu grave sites. Until then the only memorial to the Zulu fallen was the memorial tablet at the entrance to the cemetery at Ulundi Battlefield –

And of course the one grave that most visitors to the site don’t know of or ever get to is that of James Rorke, the ferryman.

There are other graves in the vicinity of these battlefields but those will be another story.