History of the Zulu war and its origin

by Frances Ellen Colenso

I send you a copy of Sir Garnet Wolseley’s conditions of peace, as published in The Natal Witness. They are universally condemned here. 1. The chiefs are to be under British Residents, and they must be supported by a force. But who is to pay? It is said the Zulus are not to be taxed, as that would amount to annexation; or, rather, it would test Sir Garnet’s arrangements. If he is afraid to tax the Zulus the Residents will be afraid to control them. The test of defeat with Kafirs is the loss of cattle—they do not estimate the loss of life; but we have not taken cattle. Indeed, the balance is on their side: they have carried off more than we have.[180] The test of submission is obedience, and they have with one accord disobeyed the order to give up their guns. The test of the Queen’s authority in South Africa is the payment of taxes. Even Cetywayo offered to pay a hut-tax; and if Sir Garnet does not impose one, all the young men in Zululand, before a year is over, will point to their cattle, their guns, and their immunity from taxes, and boast that they were not beaten. If the Zulus are to be controlled by British Residents they should pay a hut-tax. Our natives pay a hut-tax of 14s. per hut. I have understood that the Cape Government wish it to be uniform throughout South Africa, and to be fixed at £1. We estimate the population at three-and-a-half persons to a hut, and at 14s. it amounts to 4s. per head. Besides that the natives on farms pay rent to the farmer, and the more they adopt our habits the more do they pay through the Customs. The Zulus could readily pay £1 per hut, or, say £36,000 per annum. Cetywayo’s Government was an expensive one. His commissariat alone was a heavy drain upon the resources of the people. Savages, as well as civilised persons, understand that they must support their Government; the Zulus, therefore, would recognise the justice of being taxed; and not to tax them is, I consider, to abandon one of the duties of Government. Moreover, it is said we are to be taxed to pay our quota of the recent expenditure. But our natives will hardly understand first fighting the Zulus, and then having to pay for it. It will seem to them as if they were the offending party, if they, and not the Zulus, are taxed. 2. The conditions discourage trade. It ought to be encouraged to the utmost. Instead of forbidding importation by sea, a Custom-house should be established at the one port or landing-place, 3. The alienation of land is forbidden, in order to keep out the white man; but he should be encouraged to enter, and so long as the land is held in common by the whole tribe there will be no improvement in agriculture. Or, to take the conditions in order—2 is impossible; the young men will be quarrelling with one another at weddings and other gatherings, tribal fights will ensue, and the chiefs must have a force at their command. 3 I have touched upon. 4 is nugatory; if a chief wishes to put to death he can give a man a mock trial and have done with it. 6 overlooks that wars often do not begin with the chiefs; the young men bring them about. 8 I have touched upon. The whole implies the active and constant superintendence of the Resident, and that will be resisted: some kraal or kraals will be disobedient to orders, the chief will be unable or unwilling to enforce obedience, and the Resident must call in other assistance at great expense; and at whose? There is nothing enduring, nothing practical in this settlement, if it deserves to be called such. It is not likely to last, and everyone expects, after a short interval, more bloodshed and more reckless expenditure. The burden cannot be thrown on the Colony, as the Government has not been consulted on the terms of peace. The whole thing is a cruelty to the Zulus, to the colonists, and to the suffering home population, for there will be another £3,000,000 or more to be voted yet; but during the whole time meat was 8d. and bread 4d. per pound. 1s. 6d. per diem was consequently ample allowance for the keep of a soldier; of course I am aware there were numerous other sources of expenditure, but it is extreme folly to send an army out to a distant place, with power to draw upon the Treasury at will; it is too great a trial for human nature. As a blind, all sorts of things are said about the colonists; a great deal or even all may be true, but it does not explain half. That, however, is by the way; but I must mention, before concluding, that one of the newly-appointed chiefs is a white man named John Dunn. He left home when about fifteen or sixteen, and has since lived with the Zulus, taking to himself a number of wives. This appointment is looked upon as an outrage to public morals and as an insult to the colonists. I say nothing about the missionaries, as I do not wish that they should lean upon the civil power; the Church must do her proper work in her proper way. I simply write as an Englishman, to one who largely guides the counsels of the nation, to lift up my voice against what has been done, and is being done, in this part of the empire. Trusting you will excuse my thus trespassing upon your time, believe me to remain yours most respectfully,

James Green,
Dean of ’Maritzburg.

But at all events we had gained one definite result by all the blood and money spent in the Zulu war. The most important and earnestly insisted on immediate cause of our attack upon Zululand was the invasion of our soil, and the violation of our sanctuary, committed by Mehlokazulu and his brother, sons of Sihayo, when they seized and carried off two women who had taken refuge in Natal. We “requested” the Zulu king to deliver up the young men to us for judgment and for punishment, and he begged us to accept a fine in lieu of the persons of the offenders. We declined this proposal and repeated our request, which suddenly became a “demand” when it appeared in the ultimatum, and as such remained.

It was said at the time that, had the young men been given up even after the troops had crossed the border, hostilities would have been suspended until the rest of the demands could be complied with. But they were not, so we went to war.

And now, at last, the war was over, one of Sihayo’s sons had fallen in battle, and Mehlokazulu, the other, was in our hands. Here was what we had fought for, and obtained! What would be done with him? By the military authorities he could only be treated like any other prisoner of war, and released unharmed amongst the other Zulus. He was therefore handed over to the civil authorities at Pietermaritzburg to be tried by them, although he was denied the same advantages of counsel which are accorded by law to other civil prisoners.

This denial was commented upon unfavourably by those who desired justice to be done, but, apparently, Mehlokazulu required no counsel, for he was not tried. He had committed no offence on British soil punishable in a Zulu subject by British law. His own king could have punished him by our request, but we had deposed and transported that king, and there was no law by which we could have inflicted anything beyond a trifling fine for trespass upon the man whom we had compassed heaven and earth, and shed so much of England’s noblest blood, to seize. The magistrate declined to commit him for trial, and Mehlokazulu was permitted to return to his home. “Doubtless,” remarks The Natal Colonist of October 27th, “the legal adviser of the Crown was concerned in the case, and framed the charge which there was the best chance of being substantiated. And this is the result—‘there was no evidence to maintain the charge.’... It is a miserable conclusion to a most miserable affair.... The charge which, as we have seen, is almost made the chief occasion of the war which has desolated so many homes, and cost millions of money, completely breaks down when brought to the test of legal trial, and the prisoner is, of necessity, set at liberty. We never believed much in the other pretexts for the war put forward by Sir Bartle Frere, but we confess that we always thought the outrage by Sihayo’s sons was one to be visited with condign punishment, whether it was one which would justify war or not; and even though we knew it was only a pretext, seeing that it only took place long after war had been determined on, and preparations for it had been begun to be made.”

“But the ultimatum and its demands are things of the past. Rivers of blood have flowed to enforce these demands, and now they are put on one side as utterly valueless, both by the settlement of Zululand and the release of Sirayo’s son.”[181]

With this humiliating fact we must close our record of the Zulu War. In doing so, we feel that too many of the circumstances which we have thus recorded reflect no credit on the name of England—that name which as English men and women we most desire should be honoured by the world at large; and we realise with pain that, so far as our work may be perused by dwellers upon other shores, so far have we lessened the glory of our motherland in their eyes. But, however much we may regret the necessity, we do not therefore think it a less imperative duty to bring to the light as much as possible whatever wrong and injustice has been committed and concealed by those to whom England has entrusted her power and her fame. That the light of publicity should be thrown upon them is the first step towards their cure, or at least towards the prevention of any further wrong, and it is with the truest loyalty to our Sovereign, and the deepest love and reverence for our country, that we have undertaken the task now completed.

THE END.