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The Dundee Diehards re-enactment team
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Sixty kilometers south east of Dundee lies Isandlwana, the scene of the
first major battle of the British invasion into Zulu-land. Here, on 22
January 1879 twenty-thousand Zulu warriors attacked an unprepared
British army camped at the foot of the sphinx-like mountain called
Isandlwana. This is also the scene for the commemoration of the
battle and our reason for travelling to what would otherwise be just
another unknown hill in Natal.
Turning
onto the gravel road towards our destination we found that the
commemoration would be more popular than first thought. At the gates
we were greeted by a group of neatly dressed police officers who
pointed us past a row of buses to the parking area and visitors
entrance. Our confusion grew at the sight of mysterious white
marques, huge black stages and shiny security fencing. Receiving a
food package on entering the gate did not help alleviate our befuddled state. Fortunately the food
was accompanied with a Zulu newspaper and a program. Our confusion
gave way to a round of "oh's" and "aah's" and then the
realization that the Isandlwana commemoration had been hijacked by
politicians. It seems motorists at dangerous intersections are no longer
the only high risk casualties of hijacking, even history can now be
added to South Africa's crime statistics.
The red-coats fighting off the enemy
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Fortunately,
the highlight of the day had not been taken away from us. The crowd
of predominantly Zulu supporters had filled the white marquee behind
us and on the other side of the security fence, the red-coats were
hoisting the British flag while the Zulu warriors gathered in three
groups on the opposite side of the field. A commentator perched on
one of the two huge black stages, blared a biased account of the
battle over super-sized speakers as the Zulu warriors attacked the
small group of red-coats in waves representative of the actual
battle one hundred and thirty-two years earlier. With the final attack by the Zulu warriors, the crowd cheered
with delight as the British forces were defeated. A bit of dancing and
singing later and the whole show was over. The proceedings were turned
over to the hi-jackers. First to speak was Prince Mangosuthu
Buthelezi who within the first couple of sentences praised himself
for how hard he fought against apartheid. At this point we decided to
leave (fortunately we were free to do so) and visit the Isandlwana
battle field.
The
re-enactment did not really show the scale of the actual battle of
1879. It must have been a terrifying sight seeing thousands of Zulu
warriors running towards you, specially since the British were not
expecting it. We walked the dirt road to the monument, something we
were soon to regret as the sun beat down on us. At the monuments we
could hear the loudspeakers noisily relaying the speakers voice.
Another decision was made to return to the cars and head for Rorke's
drift where one hundred and fifty British and colonial troops
successfully repelled an attack by four thousand Zulu Impi's. A fact
which the commentator conveniently neglected to mention.
The final moments of the re-enactment
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