ISANDLWANA: Wearing ceremonial animal hides, bone necklaces and brandishing spears, the Zulu warriors prepared for battle against the British redcoats on Saturday (Jan 21) in a re-enactment of one of the most humiliating defeats inflicted on colonial troops in South Africa.
At the foot of the Isandlwana hill, which gave its name to the epic battle, the rocky ground is warmed by a blazing southern summer sun.
It was in this spot in South Africa’s southeast KwaZulu-Natal province that some 20,000 Zulu warriors attacked a British garrison and crushed the rifle-wielding soldiers after hours of fierce and bloody hand-to-hand combat on Jan 22, 1879.
“That day, we defeated the British. That battle is a source of pride for Zulu people and that’s how we built the Zulu nation,” Simelane Velaphi, playing a warrior, told AFP.
The Anglo-Zulu War is notable for several particularly bloody battles, including an opening victory of the Zulus at the Battle of Isandlwana.
On that fateful day, there were few survivors with over 1,300 British soldiers killed with the Zulus also suffering heavy casualties.
The crowd of spectators included the Zulu king and dignitaries from the First Welsh Battalion.
The war established the warrior legend of South Africa’s largest ethnic group.
The Zulus make up nearly a fifth of South Africa’s 11 million people.
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