Cetshwayo

Ruler of South Africa’s Zulu kingdom (r. 1872-1879)

• Born: c. 1826
• Birthplace: Near Eshowe, Zululand (now in South Africa)
• Died: February 8, 1884
• Place of death: Eshowe, Zululand (now in South Africa)

The last independent Zulu king and the only nineteenth century Zulu ruler to visit England, Cetshwayo delivered one of the most humiliating defeats ever administered to a British imperial force in history and rallied sympathy in Great Britain to the plight of colonized Africans.

Early Life

The first son of the Zulu king Mpande, Cetshwayo (keh-TSHWAY-oh) grew up under the shadow of his paternal uncle, the great Shaka, who founded the Zulu kingdom. However, although Cetshwayo was Mpande’s oldest son, he was not guaranteed the right to inherit his father’s kingship because his mother, Mgqumbhazi, did not rank as Mpande’s “great wife.” Mpande favored Mbulazi, Cetshwayo’s younger brother, as his successor but never formally named him as such. To earn the kingship, Cetshwayo sought to gain popular support. When the Zulu fought a successful campaign against the Swazi people in 1854, Cetshwayo returned home as the hero. Soon many Zulu began comparing him to Shaka, commenting that his appearance, personality, eloquent speech, and singing and dancing skills resembled those of Shaka.

As Cetshwayo gained in popularity, tensions mounted between him and his brother until 1856, when a violent civil war broke out. Mbulazi’s izi-Gqoza faction had seven thousand fighting men, and Cetshwayo’s Usuthu (a word that became Cetshwayo’s battle cry) faction had twenty thousand. Eventually the izi-Gqoza retreated to the Tugela River and were defeated at Ndondakasuka. The Izi-Gqoza were routed, and Cetshwayo became the undisputed heir to the kingship. He then took real control of the kingdom, even though his father was still alive.

Cetshwayo’s control of the kingdom did not go uncontested. In an effort to legitimize his rule, Theophilus Shepstone, a British colonial official based in Natal, arrived in 1861 to show that England formally recognized Cetshwayo’s rule. Cetshwayo’s power was not absolute; warriors owed their primary loyalty to their districts and the chiefs that led them, not to the king. Cetshwayo therefore needed as much support as possible.

Life’s Work

In 1872, when Cetshwayo was made king after his father died, Shepstone attended his coronation. To garner more support, Cetshwayo reinstated the militaristic policies of Shaka by keeping his military well prepared. He also restored Shaka’s conscription system, which forbade young men from marrying until they had served in the military.

Despite his military strength and tactics to secure the kingdom, Cetshwayo was not as aggressive as Shaka and did not use Shaka’s methods, such as executions, to maintain domestic peace. Rulers of individual districts could order executions, but Cetshwayo himself did not. The only instance when Cetshwayo showed aggression toward his neighbors after becoming king occurred during a cattle shortage in 1878. He asked permission from the colonial administration in Natal to raid the Swazi kingdom for cattle. When Natal denied his request, Cetshwayo did not pursue the matter.

Not everyone in Cetshwayo’s kingdom agreed with his policies. In 1878, several hundred men and women defied the marriage ban by marrying without the necessary time in the military. In July of that same year, two adulterous wives of a Zulu chief fled to Natal to avoid execution. Under Zulu law, the women were apprehended and returned to Zululand. The Natal government interpreted the incident as an act of aggression and demanded that Cetshwayo surrender the Zulu men who had crossed into Natal, but Cetshwayo refused. A few months later, two Englishmen who wandered into Zulu territory were briefly detained, and the British regarded that incident as an act of aggression as well. The governor of the Cape Colony, British commissioner for South Africa, Sir Henry Bartle Frere, used the incident to support his claim that the Zulu kingdom needed to be suppressed by force.

On December 11, 1878, an ultimatum written by Frere was delivered to Cetshwayo. It demanded that the Zulu disband their army and abolish military conscription. It gave Cetshwayo only thirty days to complete a task that was impossible, even if he were willing to comply. Not wanting war, Cetshwayo met with his great council to find a means of preserving peace without accepting the British ultimatum. Cetshwayo offered to give the British cattle and to surrender the men who went after the women in Natal. However, the British ignored his offer, and the ultimatum expired.

On January 11, 1879, Frere declared war on the Zulu, thus beginning the brief Zulu War . The British general Lord Chelmsford marched an army into Zulu territory. While his force was camped at Isandlwana on January 22, the soldiers who remained at the camp were overwhelmed by a large Zulu army. In the slaughter that followed, the British lost about 52 officers—more than had died in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815—along with 806 regular soldiers and 500 African allies. Later that same day, another Zulu army, commanded by Cetshwayo’s younger brother Dabulamanzi, attacked a small British detachment at Rorke’s Drift. In a heroic defense of a mission station, the British repelled the Zulu attack, even though they were greatly outnumbered. However, Cetshwayo was not trying to fight a war and had no plans to attack British settlements in Natal.

After these opening battles, the British were more determined than ever to destroy Zulu military power, and they denied Cetshwayo’s repeated requests for a truce. A large British army pushed onward to Ulundi, one of Cetshwayo’s royal kraals. On March 29, 1879, the British managed to defeat a large Zulu army at Kambula. As Chelmsford continued the British advance on Ulundi, Cetshwayo continued his efforts to negotiate peace. However, his efforts failed, and he fled Ulundi before it fell to the British on July 4, 1879. The British occupation of Ulundi broke the Zulu power, but Cetshwayo himself evaded capture until August, when he was found in a kraal in the Ngome forest. Despite his defeat, observers noted that he still retained his regal dignity.

On September 1, 1879, Cetshwayo boarded the steamship Natal and sailed to Cape Town. Upon his arrival there, crowds gathered to see the famous Zulu king. Cetshwayo was housed in Cape Town’s old castle during his first months in exile. Later he was moved to a farm called Oude Molen, where he received many visitors, including the prince of Wales, the future king of England. In 1881, Cetshwayo received two more visitors, Prince Louis of Battenberg and Lady Florence Dixie. The latter was enthralled with Cetshwayo and met with his longtime friend and ally, Anglican bishop John Colenso. In mid-1882, after Dixie had returned to England and pleaded Cetshwayo’s case before the government, Cetshwayo was invited to go to England to meet with colonial officials. He arrived in England in August and became a major attraction for the public and reporters.

While he was in England, Cetshwayo met with many people, including the prince and princess of Wales and Queen Victoria, with whom he exchanged portraits. He also met with the secretary of state for the colonies, Lord Kimberley, with whom he discussed the conditions of his return to the Zulu kingship. The British government demanded that Cetshwayo disband his army, accept a British adviser, and recognize the borders of British territories. Cetshwayo accepted Kimberley’s terms and returned to Zululand on January 10, 1883.

Cetshwayo returned home to find his people badly divided. The Usuthu were immersed in infighting and had become uncontrollable. Zibhebhu, a rival chief, was the Usuthu’s main target. In March, 1883, Zibhebhu attacked the Usuthu, killing more than four thousand men. In July, he attacked Ulundi and burned the royal kraal. Cetshwayo himself suffered a leg wound and fled to the British-controlled Nkandla Forest. In October, Cetshwayo’s British adviser, Henry Francis Flynn, moved him to a Gqikazi village. Still fearing Zibhebhu, Cetshwayo refused to return to Zululand.

On February 8, 1884, Flynn was informed that Cetshwayo was very ill and took a doctor to Eshowe, where the king was staying. On his arrival there, he found Cetshwayo dead. Unable to perform an autopsy, the doctor ruled the king’s death as due to heart failure. However, the Usuthu disagreed, claing that the king had become ill after eating meat that was not supplied by them. Cetshwayo had gone into convulsions and died quickly, prompting suspicions that he had been poisoned by Zibhebhu’s followers.

Significance

In an effort to secure British military support, High Commissioner Frere often described the Zulu as fierce, brutal, and inhumane—warriors who were completely uncivilized and devoid of humanity. He also portrayed Cetshwayo as being as fierce and brutal as Shaka had been. Frere treated minor conflicts with the Zulu as signs of aggression and impending war, and eventually forced an actual war. However, although Frere portrayed the Zulu as dangerous, he also assumed that the British could defeat them easily. It was an egregious error that led to the British disaster at Isandlwana—the most humiliating defeat in British colonial history. The Zulu War that followed Frere’s declaration of war has become a well-studied area of history.

Cetshwayo became an iconic figure among British subjects who opposed imperialism. His victory at Isandlwana helped to illustrate the economic and human cost of British imperial desires. Moreover, although one of the justifications of imperialism was to civilize so-called “savages,” Cetshwayo himself appeared to be anything but a savage. His calm and friendly manner defied Frere’s description and helped to change the imperial view of the Africans.

Bibliography

Binns, C. T. The Last Zulu King: The Life and Death of Cetshwayo. London: Longmans, 1963. Sympathetic popular biography of Cetshwayo.

Cetshwayo, King of Zululand. A Zulu King Speaks: Statements Made by Cetshwayo kaMpande on the History and Custom of His People. Edited by Colin de B. Webb and John B. Wright. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 1987. Posthumous collection of documents and testimonials in Cetshwayo’s own words, edited by professional historians.

Edgerton, Robert B. Like Lions They Fought. London: Macmillan Press, 1988. Popular account of the battles of the Zulu War, with detailed discussions of Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift.

Guy, Jeff. The Destruction of the Zulu Kingdom: The Civil War in Zululand, 1879-1884. London: Longman, 1979. Scholarly study of Zulu politics during the fall of the Zulu kingdom.

Knight, Ian. The Anatomy of the Zulu Army: From Shaka to Cetshwayo, 1818-1879. Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 1999. Military history of the Zulu kingdom that considers Cetshwayo from a military perspective.

Lock, Ron, and Peter Quantrill. Zulu Victory: The Epic of Isandhlwana and the Cover-Up. London: Greenhill Books, 2002. Detailed study of the Zulu victory at Isandlwana and its ramifications in the British military.

Morris, Donald R. The Washing of the Spears: The Rise and Fall of the Zulu Nation. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1972. Popular history of the Zulu with detailed and well-written descriptions of events in the Zulu War. Many reprint editions.

Omer-Cooper, J. D. History of Southern Africa. 2d ed. London: James Currey, 1994. Comprehensive history of Southern Africa by a specialist in Zulu history who helps to put the Zulu in the broader context of regional history.

Robert, Brian. The Zulu Kings: A Major Reassessment of Zulu History. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1974. Popular history of the Zulu and detailed discussion of the Zulu kings.