As we lead up to the three battles that took place on the 22nd January 1879 - 136 years ago - one tends to overlook the so-called Left Column commanded by Colonel Evelyn Wood VC. On the 10th January 1879 (the day before the expiry of the British Ultimatum to the Zulus), Woods Column encamped at Bembas Kop on the Blood River. Having met up with Petrus Lafras Uys (a Boer from Utrecht), who decided to support the British (thus alienating himself from several of his kinsmen) Uys guided Wood to a point 20 km from Rorkes Drift where they met Lord Chelmsford. The general was pleased that Wood had not encountered any opposition from the Zulus, who were, of course, assembling at the kings capital of Ondini to be ritually prepared to counter the invasion of Zululand. First of those rituals involved the First Fruits ceremony.A type of melon was collected from the coastal region, taken to the King’s capital at Ondini (Ulundi) and then tossed about until it was broken. Each warrior was required to touch it. The purification of umnyama (evil or darkness) followed. A black bull representing evil influences in the land was caught on the second day of the call-up at the respective amakhanda (garrisons) on the Mahlabathini plain. The bulls were killed bare-handed by an ibutho (regiment), following which izinyanga (war doctors or medicine men) then cut strips of meat from each bull and treated these with muthi (medicine) to strengthen the warriors and bind them together in loyalty to their king. The strips of meat were then roasted on fires lit from wood collected the previous day and the izinyanga threw the strips into the air. The warriors—who would have been drawn up in a great circle—caught and sucked them. The izinyanga then burned a special mixture of muthi and the warriors breathed in the smoke and were then sprinkled with cinders from the fire. In the meantime, the Inkatha yezwe yakwaZulu was removed from its repository and taken to Ondini. This was a coil of tightly woven grass in the form of a tubular ring the size of a small motor car tyre, bound with a python skin. It dated back to the time of King Shaka’s rule and during such ceremonies the King would sit upon it. It was as dear and as ritually significant to the Zulu Nation as the crown jewels were to Great Britain. Indeed, seizing and destroying the Inkatha would later be an objective of the British army; its task was to locate the Inkatha, destroy it and in effect break the link between the Zulu people and their king. The warriors were then given more muthi, lined up next to a pit close to where the eNthukwini stream flows into the White Mfolozi River and made to vomit into it. The izinyanga then took samples of the vomit and added them to the Inkatha. Traditionally the Zulus believe that one’s spirit comes from one’s stomach, so the spirit of the nation was represented in this symbolic manner. Some physical traces of these ceremonies were then bound into the Inkatha, before it was returned to its repository. Cetshwayo’s intelligence system made him aware of the strength of the British army and the routes it intended taking. He was aware, too, that the Lieutenant General Commanding the Forces, Lord Chelmsford, was with the Central Column and it was therefore important to match him against his own Army commander, Chief Ntshingwayo kaMahole Khoza. Wood, meanwhile, returned to his camp at Bembas Kop. The scene was now set for the battles of Nyezane, Isandlwana and the Defence of Rorkes Drift on the 22nd January 1879. The photos show Woods campsite at Bembas Kop and the partially restored isigodlo (royal residence) of King Cetshwayo kaMpande at Ondini (Ulundi).
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 05:00:02 +0000
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