Zulu Rising

The battle of Isandlwana was the single most destructive incident in the 150-year history of the British colonization of South Africa. In one bloody day over 800 British troops, 500 of their allies and at least 2,000 Zulus were killed. It was a staggering defeat for the British empire and the consequences of the battle echoed brutally across the following decades as Britain took ruthless revenge on the Zulu people. In 'Zulu Rising' Ian Knight shows that the brutality of the battle was the result of an inevitable clash between two aggressive warrior traditions.

In June 1876 the 7th U.S. Cavalry was savagely defeated at the Little Bighorn in the Montana wilderness during an attempt to seize Sioux and Cheyenne hunting grounds. Three years later redcoats mirrored this utter disaster with an equally high-handed grab for Zulu lands in South Africa. Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer and Lieutenant Colonel Anthony W. Durnford had much in common, from modes of dress to the way they died. This book interweaves the stories of the two soldiers and their final battles, revealing how, to an astonishing degree, similar personalities, aims, tactics, weapons, stupidity and a gross underestimation of the powers of the native people led to calamitous defeat.

My Book of Poems Revisited is based on my personal beliefs, my life experiences and how I overcame adversities that threatened my life and livelihood.

This vivid military history explores two pivotal battles in the 19th century war between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom. The battle of Isandlwana on January, 22nd, 1879 was one of the most dramatic episodes in military history. In the morning, 20,000 Zulus overwhelmed the British invading force in one of the greatest disasters ever to befall a British army. Later the same day, a Zulu force of around 3,000 warriors turned their attention to a small outpost at Rorke’s Drift defended by roughly 150 British and Imperial troops. The British victory that ensued—against remarkable odds—would go down as one of the most heroic actions of all time. In this thrilling blow-by-blow account, Chris Peers draws on firsthand testimonies from both sides to piece together the course of the battles as they unfolded. Along the way, he exposes many of the Victorian myths to reveal great acts of bravery as well as cases of cowardice and incompetence. A brief analysis of the aftermath of the battle and notes on the later careers of the key participants completes this gripping exposé of this legendary encounter.

Toward the end of the nineteenth century, the British embarked on a concerted series of campaigns in South Africa. Within three years they waged five wars against African states with the intent of destroying their military might and political independence and unifying southern Africa under imperial control. This is the first work to tell the story of this cluster of conflicts as a single whole and to narrate the experiences of the militarily outmatched African societies. Deftly fusing the widely differing European and African perspectives on events, John Laband details the fateful decisions of individual leaders and generals and explores why many Africans chose to join the British and colonial forces. The Xhosa, Zulu, and other African military cultures are brought to vivid life, showing how varying notions of warrior honor and manliness influenced the outcomes for African fighting men and their societies.

Everyone knows about Rorke`s Drift and Isandlwana but what happened at the end of the Zulu War has never been told before ‒ and it’s every bit as exciting.

The short but savage Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 pitched well-equipped but complacent British soldiers into combat with the Zulu, one of history's finest fighting forces. The clashes between these two different armies prompted tactical innovation on both sides, as the British and their Zulu opponents sought to find the optimal combination of mobility, protection and firepower. This engrossing study traces the changing face of infantry combat in the Anglo-Zulu War. Three major engagements are detailed: the Zulu ambush at Nyezane, repulsed by the British using their established tactics; the shocking defeat and massacre of outmanoeuvred British forces in savage close-quarter fighting at iSandlwana; and the British victory at Khambula following their adoption of more condensed firing lines and prepared positions.

In Eight Zulu Kings, well-respected and widely published historian John Laband examines the reigns of the eight Zulu kings from 1816 to the present. Starting with King Shaka, the renowned founder of the Zulu kingdom, he charts the lives of the kings Dingane, Mpande, Cetshwayo, Dinuzulu, Solomon and Cyprian, to today's King Goodwill Zwelithini whose role is little more than ceremonial. In the course of this investigation Laband places the Zulu monarchy in the context of African kingship and tracks and analyses the trajectory of the Zulu kings from independent and powerful pre-colonial African rulers to largely powerless traditionalist figures in post-apartheid South Africa.