A history of the Zulu Rebellion, 1906, and of Dinuzulu's arrest, trial, and expatriation

by James Stuart

The main object of this book is to describe the military operations of the Rebellion of 1906-08, a rebellion in which a considerable section of the Zulus of Natal and Zululand took up arms against the Government of Natal. Such conflict was, of course, between a race of savages on the one hand, and a number of Europeans or representatives of Western Civilization on the other. An account of the campaign that ensued might, indeed, succeed in holding the reader's attention and even afford information of practical value. However that may be, whenever great and sudden outbursts of hostility occur in human society, no one is quite satisfied unless he can, at the same time, learn something of the inner or underlying circumstances under which they came to take place. Particularly is this the case when, as in the present instance, the hostilities were planned by people with whom the British race had been in close contact and on terms of amity for upwards of eighty years. This aspect of the matter will, therefore, be kept carefully in view, in the hope that some of that fuller information, which, it is assumed, every reader naturally desires to have, may be afforded. In order that this better understanding may be obtained, it is necessary to begin with the first coming into contact of the colonists with the Zulu people.

It was in May, 1824, that the first group of European settlers arrived in Natal by sea from the Cape Colony.[2] They found large tracts of country about Port Natal almost uninhabited.[3] Learning that the King of that important section of the Bantu family, the great and terrible Tshaka, then residing in what is now called Zululand, claimed the territory as his, they immediately repaired to the royal headquarters, Bulawayo,[4] obtained from the despot permission to take up their abode at the Port and enter into commercial dealings with his people. Notwithstanding the ease with which a footing was obtained, their position was, for many years, one of very considerable insecurity, which, indeed, was inevitable under the prevailing mode of government.

The circumstances might have been different had the Zulu dynasty been long in power. As it was, for barely a decade had any kingdom existed in those parts, its existence having been brought about by Tshaka himself by means of a newly-created and remarkable military system, to be described in a later chapter, under which practically every man and youth capable of bearing arms was bound to serve. As, through the King's aggressive tactics, the borders of the country were being rapidly expanded, it can be seen his forces were constantly being augmented in proportion.

Owing, then, to the existence, on the north side of the Tugela, of this large, efficient and highly-organized army of warlike barbarians, an army whose movements were dependent on the caprice of as absolute an autocrat as it is possible to conceive—an army prepared and able, upon emergency, as was proved upon various occasions, to mobilize 40,000 to 50,000 men (inhabiting roadless, mountainous regions) within a week—it became a matter of vital importance for such state of affairs to be borne perpetually in mind; for these early colonists, it must be remembered, were, from 1824 to 1837, but a handful of strangers in a strange land. It became their first duty to maintain a strictly friendly disposition towards the Zulu monarch, and to avoid, by all means in their power, a conflict which must have severely crippled them, if it did not result in the complete annihilation of themselves, their families and dependants.

There were, however, not a few influences at work, feeble though these were, in the direction of placating the Zulu monarch, and securing, as far as possible, his continual friendly co-operation and goodwill. Among these, practical services of various kinds were rendered by the pioneers from time to time, in a collective as well as individual capacity. For instance, they were occasionally called on to assist in military expeditions; when not so engaged, they established and developed a commerce in sundry commodities, notably blankets, cloth, bangles and beads of different colours and sizes, in exchange for ivory, cattle, goats, corn, maize, etc., which proved as beneficial to the aborigines as it was lucrative for the settlers. Then again, men like Henry F. Fynn, the first European to settle permanently in Natal, ministered unceasingly to the numerous sick, indigent and wounded people, including the King and his relations, whom he found about him on every side during his journeys of exploration. In these and other ways, the foundations of a warm friendship (soon extended to every member of the party, and, later on, to all other Europeans that came to Natal) were gradually and successfully built up. Alive to the material advantages arising out of having the British settlers so close at hand—for were they not the makers of firearms?—not to refer to the intense interest undoubtedly aroused through his coming into contact with a strange, exceedingly capable and amicably-disposed race, apparently so situated at Port Natal as not to be a source of domestic or political annoyance, Tshaka, on being appealed to, readily agreed to cede to them, "their heirs and executors," a tract of country stretching some thirty-five miles along the coast, north and south of Port Natal, and running "about one hundred miles backward from the sea-shore,"[5] and there, in 1835, at the Port, was laid off the now beautiful town of Durban.

Thus, the earliest provisions consisted in nought else than the establishment and consolidation of a bond of friendship between the little band of adventurers and the rulers of the land, and, so long as that bond was faithfully observed, so long was there peace between the parties, whatever else might have been the position in respect of the adjoining states.

From 1824 to 23rd September, 1828 (the date of Tshaka's assassination), the British settlers averaged about twenty-five souls in number. Between the latter date and 1834 they fell to a smaller figure. But, from then on to 19th October, 1837,[6] when a party of Boers under Piet Retief arrived at Durban from the Cape Colony, the numbers, through the coming of traders and missionaries, and their families, were considerably increased.

The policy of the pioneers, indeed, could be no other than, for the time being, to place themselves wholly and unreservedly under the protection of the Zulu sovereign, first Tshaka, their declared and, as it proved, real and constant friend, and subsequently, Dingana, perfidious autocrat as he soon revealed himself to be. The kindly feelings entertained by Tshaka towards his Europeans (abelungu), as he always called them, and the invaluable services and substantial concessions extended to them up to the day of his assassination, are not borne in mind in these days as much as they deserve to be. This disposition carried with it, as a matter of course, an unqualified attitude of amity and respect on the part of the entire Zulu nation, only too eager to render immediate obedience to their tyrant.

With his successor and brother Dingana, the position became greatly altered. So far from cherishing a friendly disposition towards the immigrants, he regarded them as sources of peculiar inconvenience, if not as an insidious and growing menace to his very throne and person. He resented their harbouring refugees from his country at Port Natal, notwithstanding that Tshaka had always refrained from troubling himself with such escapades, on the ground that, in quitting Zululand for the abelungu at Isibubulungu (as the Zulus called Port Natal), they had but gone to his friends, and were, therefore, within reach whenever required. So uneasy and hostile did Dingana eventually become that, in 1834, he dispatched a strong raiding-party to massacre every soul, white as well as black, settled in the neighbourhood of the Port, and this vindictive order would have been carried out to the letter, had they not fled precipitately either towards the Cape Colony, or concealed themselves in the numerous bushes round about. As it was, a party, headed by Fynn, consisting of a considerable number of his Native adherents, was overtaken by the raiders south of Umzimkulu, and exterminated almost to a man, Fynn himself escaping. Nor was this the only occasion on which this King betrayed his hatred of the British settlers.[7]