History of the Zulu war and its origin

by Frances Ellen Colenso

“This Government trusts that Cetshwayo will maintain that moderation and forbearance which he has hitherto shown, and which the Government has great pleasure in bringing to the notice of the councillors of the great Queen, and that nothing will be done which will hinder the peaceful solution of the Disputed Territory question,” July 25th, 1876 (1748, p. 97).

Meanwhile repeated acts of violence and brutality on the part of the Boers are reported, and in the Blue-books before us the Zulu complaints are confirmed from various official sources, by Mr. Fynn, Resident Magistrate of the Umsinga Division (1748, p. 10), by Sir Henry Bulwer (1748, pp. 8, 11, 12, 25), by Sir T. Shepstone himself (1748, pp. 10, 24, 29, 52, 56), by Mr. Osborn (1748, p. 82), and by Sir Henry Barkly (1748, p. 25). No attempt at settlement, however, had been made in answer to these appeals up to the time of the annexation of the Transvaal, in 1877, by Sir T. Shepstone; after which so great a change took place in the tone of the latter upon the subject of the disputed territory.

Upon this question we may quote again from Mr. Fynney’s report of the king’s answer to him upon the announcement of the annexation of the Transvaal. “I hear what you have said about past disputes with the Boers, and about the settlement of them,” said the king; “the land question is one of them, and a great one. I was in hopes, when I heard it was you who visited me, that you had brought me some final word about the land, as Somtseu had sent from Newcastle by Umgabana to say that his son would come with the word respecting the land so long in dispute, and I felt sure it had come to-day, for you are his son. Now the Transvaal is English ground, I want Somtseu to send the Boers away from the lower parts of the Transvaal, that near my country. The Boers are a nation of liars; they are a bad people, bad altogether; I do not want them near my people; they lie, and claim what is not theirs, and ill-use my people. Where is Thomas (Mr. Burgers)?”

“I informed him,” says Mr. Fynney, “that Mr. Burgers had left the Transvaal.”

“Then let them pack up and follow Thomas,” said he, “let them go. The Queen does not want such people as those about her land. What can the Queen make of them or do with them? Their evil ways puzzled both Thomas and Rudolph (Landdrost of Utrecht); they will not be quiet. They have laid claim to my land, and even down to N’Zabankulu (you saw the line), burned it with fire, and my people have no rest.”

“Umnyamana (Prime Minister) here remarked,” continues Mr. Fynney, “we want to know what is going to be done about this land; it has stood over as an open question for so many years. Somtseu took all the papers to England with him to show the great men there, and we have not heard since.” To which Mr. Fynney, of course, had no reply to make.

Within a fortnight of the annexation the Boers on the Zulu border presented Sir T. Shepstone with an address, stating that during the last ten or twelve years (i.e. from 1861, when this encroachment was begun by the Boers) they had “suffered greatly in consequence of the hostile behaviour of the Zulu nation, but more so for the last two years” (i.e. from 1875, when the Boer Government proclaimed the disputed territory to belong to the Transvaal, and proceeded to levy taxes upon its Zulu inhabitants), so that, they said, their lives and goods were in danger (1814, p. 14).

Accordingly Sir T. Shepstone writes to Lord Carnarvon as follows: “I shall be forced to take some action with regard to the Disputed Territory, of which your lordship has heard so much, but I shall be careful to avoid any direct issue.”[74]

“It is of the utmost importance,” he continues, “that all questions involving disturbance outside of this territory should be, if possible, postponed until the Government of the Transvaal is consolidated, and the numerous tribes within its boundaries have begun to feel and recognise the hand of the new administration.”

These remarks already show the change in sentiment, on Sir T. Shepstone’s part, which was more markedly displayed at the Blood River meeting between him and the Zulu indunas. The conference proved an utter failure, as also did several other attempts on Sir T. Shepstone’s part to persuade the Zulus to relinquish to him, on behalf of the Transvaal, the claims upon which they had so long insisted.