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Unit ASS 101

Explorations in Cultural Diversity A

May 15 1995

Essay

How myth and ritual as political tools have been used in 19th & 20th Century South Africa

The Gammadion or Fylfot are a good luck charms, symbols to ward off evil

(Evans, 1981, p. 1085) but today, as one looks to the extreme-right factions of Afrikaner society, they have a much more sinister and prophetic connotation: they are universally recognised as the Swastika.

The now universal symbol of Nazism has been assimilated into the politics and mind-set of some Afrikaners to signify their trenchant belief that

South Africa is for the Afrikaner borne out of the loins of the Voortrekkers 1 who, in 1837 under the leadership of Piet Retief 2 , decided to escape British rule and black emancipation (Oakes, 1988) and to "quit the fruitful land of our birth" (Harrison, 1981, p. 14) because of: not so much [slaves'] ... freedom ... but their being placed on an equal footing with Christians, contrary to the laws of God and the natural distinction of race and religion

(Oakes, 1988, p. 110).

Such poignant imagery, as the swastika evokes, bitterly lends itself to the myths and rituals which have played an important yet ignominious role in the creation of South Africa; crystallizing the nature of discussion within this essay: How myth and ritual, as political tools, have been used in South

Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

However, apart from the apparent connections the Swastika has with trenchant Afrikaner beliefs, seemingly innocuous words and events have taken on meanings which many outside that country may not readily associate as symbolic of die Pad van Suid-Afrika , the path of South Africa, for they appear to have only a singular relevance to the event in which they are drawn from.

Events such as the Great Trek, the battle of Ncome, Old Testament

1 The voortrekkers were the participants in the Great Trek (see

3

). Literally, it means 'front trekkers' and refers to the vanguard of Boers who trekked out of the Cape Colony in the

1830's.

The battle at Isandhlwana on January 22, 1879, was one of the most telling defeats over

British & colonial troops by the Zulu nation, during the Anglo-Zulu wars of that time, In all, there were an estimated 20,000 Zulu warriors pitted against some 1200 British. It was here the Zulu's Bull's Horn attack was highlighted. The crushing defeat was not expected by the

British and served to dispel any thoughts they had that victory would quick.

2 Piet Retief was the voortrekker's leader and upon whose death, at the hands of the Zulu under Dingane, the Battle of Blood River eventuated in retribution.

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Note: This essay was written in 1995 while studying Anthropology at Deakin University

readings, or words and things like covenant, laager, and burning lanterns play an important role in the subjugation of black South Africa.

At this point I should qualify the thrust of this essay in that, while not wishing to minimise the role of the British and others within the history of

South Africa, the inter-connections of political symbolism, myth, and ritual will focus largely upon the Afrikaner because it is primarily their viewpoint which has moulded Suid-Afrika into the nation it is today. Reference is also made to the Zulu for, conceptually, it is they who have been, and are still mostly seen as, a thorn in the side of both a segregated or unified South

Africa.

**** **** ****

If one considers (and accepts?) the biggest myth rests in the origins of the Great Trek

3

, then all other acts and deeds emanating from it are reduced in persuasiveness: thus nullifying or reducing the power of authority entrusted upon the myths and rituals drawn from them. Therefore, this suggests, then, the voortrekkers misrepresented themselves and deceived their descendants into believing the subjugation and segregation of black of southern Africa was necessary, and that they were the only ones entitled to the land; thereby perpetuating a fraud upon all of southern Africa, especially

South Africa.

According to Oakes (1988), the origins of the trek are myths which have well served the Afrikaner version of South African history.

Over the years the Great Trek has taken on the appearance of an exodus of biblical proportions - when in fact only a fraction of the Dutch-speaking settlers living at the Cape joined the trek inland. Nevertheless, the political, cultural and spiritual implications of the trek make this for many Afrikaners the most important event in their history; it would be hard to define

Afrikaner nationalism without it .... the real causes of the trek remain varied and complex... few eastern Cape

Boers owned any slaves, slavery being the preserve of the wealthier farmers in the south-western Cape - and they did not trek .... it grew in the heartland of the eastern Cape frontier. (p. 110)

Nonetheless, the radiant power of the Great Trek remains the catalysis myth for an evolving political and social ideology which has long

3 The Great Trek was a period of mass migration by thousands of Dutch-speaking farmers

(Boers) from the Cape Colony. It began, first in May 1835 under the leadership of Louis

Trichardt and continued from various locations under various leaders, including Piet Retief's leadership in 1837.

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been used as the Afrikaners’' cross-of-salvation upon which to hoist their beliefs and crucify their enemies, while attempting to instil their 'order' upon the southern African landscape.

Such a suggestion, then, places the interpretations of the Old

Testament readings, given on the Great Trek and beyond, as the altar upon which the cross was placed and revered, and upon which republicanism

4

, apartheid - a ritual of exclusion (Perry a

, 1993, p.275) - and Afrikanerdom were built.

The following extract - despite its source being a work of fiction - illustrates the precept that Afrikanerdom was pre-ordained by God, and, as such, has been the justification for the suppression of black Africans.

The Bible says that the sons of Ham shall work for us and be our slaves. The Bible says there shall be a proper difference between master and slave. The Bible says we shall be kept apart, His people to themselves, the

Canaanites to themselves. I have never struck a slave. I have always tended my slaves and my Coloureds when they were sick. And I think I have shown that I love them. But I do not want them at my table and I do not like the sight of them in my church. For God has ordered me to live otherwise .... He recited those satisfying passages upon which their social order was so securely founded:

'And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren ... Now therefore ye are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being bondmen, and hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my

God .... '

After some searching in Leviticus, a book whose laws governed Boer life ....

'And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the Lord am

Holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine.'

See ... God Himself wanted us to be apart. We have special obligations, special privileges.

'And it came to pass, when Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites in tribute, and did not utterly drive them out ... but the Canaanites dwelt among them and became tributaries...

And that ... is how it should be. We have conquered the

4 Afrikaners had long attempted to establish a Republic of South Africa. Between 1838 and

1843 the 'Trekkers administered their own republic, Natalia, before the British annexed it in

1843. In 1842 the Boers declared a Republic at Alleman's drift on the Orange River and in

1854 the Bloemfontein Convention lead to the establishment of the Orange Free State republic. However, the Republiek van Suid-Afrika was not achieved until 1960.

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land. We live here. We are to be just to the Kaffirs, but they are to tribute to us (Michener, 1980, pp. 429 - 430).

One might suggest that a fictional writing merely perpetuates

Afrikaner beliefs, reinforcing the myths, in their Divine Right to rule South

Africa. However, if one considers the non-fictional writings of those such as

Moodie (1975), Paton (1980), Wilkins & Strydom (1980), and Perry & Perry

(1986), the same tenor of argument is evident; that it was God's will that the

Afrikaner control South Africa.

The rhetoric of religious fervour binds much, if not all, of the beliefs with which Afrikanerdom was, still is, associated. Constant references to

God and the Bible as being the purveyor of their beliefs are seen in perhaps the greatest myth-giver of Afrikaner History, the Covenant with God in the prayers offered by Sarel Cilliers

5

, and his fellow commandos led by Andries

Pretorius, on Sunday, 9 December, 1838:

The assembled company swore an oath that should God grant them victory, they would celebrate the day thereafter in His name and build a church to testify to their Covenant with Him (Villet, 1982, p. 86).

In the week that followed:

Each night they drew their wagons into a laager in case the Zulus attacked. Each night too, as the battle approached, they repeated ... [the] ... vow that if God gave them victory they would keep the day forever as a day of thanksgiving (Harrison, 1981, p. 17).

Then, on December 15:

In a vast saucer-shaped plain beyond the Buffalo River, cut by a small stream called the Ncome, their scouts told them the Zulu impis were near. As the sky darkened, the

Boers drew into a laager and set watch, singing hymns and keeping their lanterns burning. Nothing disturbed the silence of the night ... at dawn the Zulu were there, squatting in massed ranks that numbered between ten and fifteen thousand, their assegais sketching a wall of spikes against a silken silver sky and their many-colored plumes rippling in the wind. At five, the hissing began,

5 Sarel Cilliers was a veteran Boer commando and chaplain, and author of the Covenant made in the prelude to Blood River. Later, when recalling the battle he said: "The word of the Lord was fulfilled ... 'By one way shall your enemies come, but by the blessing of the

Lord they shall fly in your face' ... Kaffirs lay on the ground like pumpkins on a rich soil that has borne a large crop".

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and the impis danced forward ... Over and over the Zulu charged and were repulsed in a battle that continued unabated until the Boer's guns were burning hot and the laager was encircled with corpses. At eight, the Zulu finally fell back, leaving some 3,000 dead on the field and the Ncome flowed red with blood (Villet, 1982, p.

86).

The myth of 'Blood River' was born, creating, as Perry a

(1993, p. 267) says:

"... a charter for social action, functioning to give confidence to the fledgling Afrikaner nation". Thus, the subjugation of black Africa began in earnest for:

The boers, who had only three wounded ... had been given a victory they believed confirmed their Covenant with the Almighty. Generations afterward, the Battle of

Blood River was to obtain a significance for the

Afrikaners that perhaps not even the pious Sarel Cilliers, author of the vow of the Covenant, could have foreseen

(Villet, 1982, pp. 86-87).

**** **** ****

One hundred years later, the significance, the myths and rituals of the Great

Trek, the Covenant, Blood River and all possible things from which could be drawn evidence of Afrikaner privilege under God were reinforced; their

'meanings' reinterpreted to create and enrol support for the growing numbers of poor, urban Afrikaners (See Moodie, 1975).

And, as David Harrison ( 1981) writes in The White Tribe of Africa :

Blood River still matters ... it offers the perfect symbol for the Afrikaner Nationalist view of South Africa today

- a gallant, God-fearing country surrounded by the forces of evil. It is the theme of countless politicians' speeches ever [sic] 16 December:

South Africa is on the brink of another

Blood River, and this might be the beginning of the most vicious battle ever in South Africa's existence ...

Dingane [the chief under whom the Zulu attacked at Blood River] still threatens South

Africa in many forms, International Communism and Pan African Nationalism ...

The times call for a new covenant among the peoples of South Africa so the forces of order can be pitted against those of Marxism ...

As the Afrikaner Volk [people] had once

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resisted the impis of Dingane at Blood River, so too, the South African Volk should brace themselves against the assault of the new Russian

Imperialism. (p. 18)

The centennial reenactment

6

of the Great Trek - the ossewatrek

7

- and the ritualised celebrations of Blood River have all impacted upon the political veld of South Africa, reinforcing the Afrikaner view of Suid-Afrika.

December 16, the actual day of the Battle, is a day of National

(Afrikaner) celebration - The Day of the Covenant. All across South Africa the day starts with a flag raising, prayers and singing the Afrikaner National

Anthem - die Stem van Suid-Afrika. Within their churches, of which Perry b

(1993) says: a Dutch reformed Church ... with a large clock tower denoting Afrikaner domination in a rural area is well understood in South Africa. No black person would have dared to presume to worship there. (p. 205) they sermonise and politicise the history. At Blood River, they lay wreaths and reaffirm the vow. (Harrison, p. 18 - 19) Also:

At many ceremonies there is another striking ritual.

Every person present takes up a stone and, just before the vow, lays it on an evergrowing pile, the symbol of a united Afrikanerdom ... the implications are clear. The victory at Blood River which Afrikaner Nationalists claimed as the triumph of civilization over barbarianism was, however camouflaged, the victory of whites over blacks. Civilisation equals white, barbarianism equals black. In Rhodesia [Zimbabwe] Ian Smith insisted only that government should remain in 'civilised' hands. Every

Rhodesian knew exactly what he meant (Harrison, p.

19).

Throughout all of the Afrikaner teaching, the Battle of Blood River, the

Covenant, the laager, and the burning lanterns, are intrinsically linked to the

Great Trek and the subjugation of black Africa. The lanterns inside the

Blood River laager now provide more than mere light. During the centennial celebrations:

6 The centennial reenactment of the Great Trek encompassed the celebrations of the Battle of Blood River and may be viewed as the ritualisation of Afrikaner myth, and the turning point in twentieth century Afrikaner fervour.

7 The ossewatrek was the name used to refer to the centennial reenactment of the Great

Trek.

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No opportunity was lost to emphasise the view of the

Afrikaner's chosen destiny. At Bloemfontein when a relay of flaming torches arrived, borne all the way from the Cape by young voortrekkers, old Dominee 8 Kestell, the Boer War chaplain exulted in the symbolism:

We have received a fire from God, that fire is our nationhood. It is wonderful to think that this nationhood is from God, a burning torch which is not extinguished. It has been kept burning

The Broederbond and Father Kestell had a simple notion for keeping the torch alight ... It was the start of ... the

Reddingsdaad , (the Act of Rescue) on behalf of the poor urban Afrikaner. 'Our people must rescue itself,' said

Dominee Kestell in Bloemfontein, 'and now is the time'

(Harrison, p. 108).

The laager, the circling of wagons into a defensive perimeter, has a more pernicious meaning within its modern context. For Afrikanerdom the policy of apartheid may be viewed as a both a psychological and physical laager against the blacks.

Blood River has one very important significance; it gave the world the word 'laager', which today has more to do with attitudes than military strategy - the same attitude that has taught generations of South Africans a version of their past which has suited the strong at the expense of the weak. This version has cherished the popular view of

Bible-clutching Boers taking righteous revenge against the Zulu who had wickedly murdered one of their leaders, Piet Retief (Oakes, p. 6).

Other laagers incorporating physical and/or psychological barriers were established too; the mine-workers' compounds, the Broederbond

9

, and its sibling Federaise van Afrikaanse Kultuur-vereniging

10

are among them.

Thus, the impregnability of the Blood River laager symbolises

Afrikanerdom's bunker against the onslaught of black nationalism.

**** **** ****

8 A Dominee is a vicar or minister of any of the Afrikaner churches.

9 The Broederbond, although not initially, was a secret society founded in 1918 aimed at maintaining Afrikaner control in the areas of government, education, business, finance and industry.

10 The Federaise van Afrikaanse Kultuur-vereniging (FAK) was founded in 1929 as a cultural front for the Broederbond.

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For nearly two centuries, Afrikaners have viewed Blood River as symbolic of their defence against the Zulu impis

11

. And while acknowledging there is infinitely more to black Africa than the Zulu, it is the Zulu who, both in historical and modern concepts of Afrikanerdom, are considered the ultimate

"enemies of my blood"

12

.

In the 1800's the Zulu, under Cetshawayo

13

, were considered

"unique" among those Africans that had encountered white expansionism by attempting to preserve their independence through systematic discouragement, and even rejection, of missionaries, traders and speculators

(Oakes, 1988, p. 183)

However, because of this nature, Theophilus Shepstone

14

, in support of his switching allegiance from the Zulu to the Boers, wrote:

Had Cetywayo's thirty thousand warriors been in time changed to labourers working for wages, Zululand could have become a prosperous, peaceful country instead of what it now is, a source or perpetual danger to itself and its neighbours (ibid, p. 183).

Such views, as were later used to assist in creating the Homelands

15

, still exist to stultify the Zulu in the 'new' South Africa where KwuZulu-Natal is considered the thorn in the side of unification.

The historically powerful symbolism presented by an historically defiant, independent Zulu nation is an essential element to the 'modern' belief that they are the propagators of dissension and disunity, and harbingers of violence:

Political violence in South Africa increased nearly 30 percent in April [1995] with most murders occurring in the Zulu heartland of KwaZulu-Natal .... This Province

... is the only area where old-style political violence continues .... The violence in KwaZulu-Natal [is] undermining international confidence in post-apartheid

11 Impis are regiments of Zulu warriors.

12 This response, "enemies of my blood, is taken from the motion picture Zulu and the reply given by a Boer attached to the South Welsh Borderers at Rorke's Drift when asked why he had remained to fight the Zulu.

13 In March 1881 and "languishing" in internment at Cape Town Castle after the defeat of the Zulu in the Anglo-Zulu wars, Cetshawayo dictated a letter to then Governor of the Cape

Colony, Sir Hercules Robinson, in which he said: "I have done you no wrong, therefore you must have some other object in view in invading my land". Source: Reader's Digest,

Illustrated History of South Africa, (1988, p. 182.

14 Theophilus Shepstone was a former Administrator of the Transvaal, following its annexation in 1877, and a former ally of the Zulu.

15 The Homelands, a system whereby members of particular African language groups were offered self-government, but not independence, and with its 10 ethnic areas became the backbone of apartheid.

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South Africa (Reuters, AFP, 1995).

However, such views are, it is said, erroneous for their typified power and prowess have been questioned, as indicated in Perry c

(1992), as a myth created by the whites:

[Some academics have said] white people wanted to exaggerate the claims of the Zulu to be a powerful, strong nation in order to build up their own deeds; in other words, if they could say the Zulu were not so powerful and were not so strong then the obvious lesson to be learnt from that is that the Zulu wouldn't be such a powerful equation in the future peaceful development of

South Africa (Perry c

, 1992).

If correct, such myth creation is not new to South Africa as historian

George Chadwick

16

, according to Harrison (1981), implies that Afrikaner history mostly fails to mention that:

Serving under Pretorius [at Blood River] were four hundred and sixty-four Voortreekers and their six commandants; there were also three Englishmen from

Port Natal ... and approximately a hundred and twenty black Port Natal scouts, almost certainly armed with muskets. At the Battle of Tugela earlier that year the scouts had used them to great effect, firing in volleys.

Also in the laager were black 'leaders' for the oxen, and drivers for the wagons as well as coloured agterryers

(after-riders) to take care of the spare horses ... a total of around eight hundred, by no means the exclusive

Afrikaner force of Nationalist legend (pp. 17-18).

Such misrepresentation, it may be argued, goes to the core of

Afrikaner fervour and defiant retention of the altruistic intent of the Great

Trek, and was as much perpetuated then as it was one hundred years after

Blood River; being finally built into Afrikaner society through the erection of monuments 17 which cemented their beliefs of being Suid-Afrika's chosen

16 George Chadwick was an historian and member of the South Africa's National

Monuments Council and a Board Member of the Trustees of the Museum attached to the

Voortrekker Monument.

17 The monuments referred to here include: the Voortrekker Monument (a project of the

Broederbond), Pretoria, and whose foundation stone was laid in 1938 as part of the

Centenary celebrations of the Battle of Blood River. Among its many features is a said to be a pin prick hole in the roof through which, at midday on December 16 each year, a ray of sun falls directly onto the cenotaph within its centre and the words of the South African

National Anthem; and the sixty-four life-size bronze wagons formed into a laager at the site

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people.

Today, the myths of unification and its associated, and continued, disaffection of the Zulu are being perpetuated in parallel to the independent myths of Afrikanerdom and black nationalism.

Not only has the Inkatha Freedom Party's decision to walk out of the country's constituent assembly been blamed for the rise in political violence in KwaZulu-Natal, it also being blamed for " undermining international confidence in post-apartheid South Africa" (Reuters, AFP, 1995).

Finally, to illustrate and further support this conclusion, I refer back to my opening paragraphs of the swastika's symbolic connections with

Nazism and Afrikanerdom.

At the time of the Ossewatrek, the General Secretary of the Garment

Worker's Union, Solly Sachs, a Jew and one-time Communist, sought to have some of his members - many of whom were white Afrikaner women in what was a multi-racial union - involved in the processions. The response he received from the 'Trek' organisers (mostly the Broederbond) was, and is arguably still so today, typical of the Nationalist view:

The Afrikaner nation is busy uniting, to mobilise forces against you and your sort. The thousands of Afrikaner daughters whom you have in your clutches will settle with you .... Our people do not want anything to do with

Communists and Jews, the high priests thereof, least of all. The day when we Afrikaners begin to settle with you

Jews, you will find out that Germany is a Jewish paradise compared with what South Africa will be

(Harrison, p. 111).

Thus, the myths and rituals will continue and change. And the day Nelson

Mandela came to power will be ritualised as the ANC's own Blood River: another laager against Zulu independence; a laager against white supremacy and Afrikanerdom. oOo of the Battle of Blood River.

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References:

Evans, I. H. (ed.). (1981). Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable (Revised

Ed.). London: Cassell Publishers Ltd.

Harrison, David. (1981). The White Tribe of Africa . London: British

Broadcasting Corporation.

Michener, J. (1980). The Covenant . London: Martin Secker & Warburg

Limited.

Moodie, T. D. (1975). The Rise of Afrikanerdom: Power, Apartheid, and the

Afrikaner Civil Religion . Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of

California Press. (pp. 177-86, 198-201). In Explorations in Cultural

Diversity , Hughes, J. (Chair), (1993). Geelong: Deakin University

Press.

Oakes, D. (ed.), (1988) Illustrated History of South Africa; The Real Sto ry.

South Africa: The Reader's Digest Association.

Paton, A. (1980). Towards the Mountain: An Autobiography . Cape Town:

David Phillip. (pp. 206-10). In Explorations in Cultural Diversity ,

Hughes, J. (Chair), (1993). Geelong: Deakin University Press.

Perry, John & Perry, Cassandra. (1986). Crowding Out: South Africa and the squatters of Nyanga. Canberra Anthropology , Vol 9, No 1, pp. 4-

22. In Explorations in Cultural Diversity , Hughes, J. (Chair).

(1993)Geelong: Deakin University Press.

Perry a

, J. (1993). Political anthropology: symbols, images and power in

South Africa, in Explorations in Cultural Diversity , Hughes, J. (Chair),

(1993). Geelong: Deakin University Press.

Perry b

, J. (1993). Hear me talking to you - doing oral biography, in Crick, M.

& Geddes, B. (eds.). (1993) Research Methods in the Field: ten anthropological accounts (Reprinted 1994). Geelong: Deakin

University Press.

Perry c

, J. (1992). Political Anthropology [Audio Tape]. Explorations in

Cultural Diversity: Anthropology. Geelong: Deakin University.

Reuters - AFP. (1995) Political violence in South Africa jumps by 30pc

(1995, May 6-7). The Weekend Australian , p. 15.

Villet, B. (1982). Blood River , New York: Everest House.

Wilkins, I & Strydom, H. (1980). The Super-Afrikaners . Johannesburg:

Jonathan Ball. pp. 13-21. In Explorations in Cultural Diversity ,

Hughes, J. (Chair). (1993). Geelong: Deakin University Press.

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Author's Note

The whole political and cultural landscape of southern Africa, especially South

Africa, has long fascinated me and within the contents of the preceding essay I have attempted to capture the myths and rituals which have long been the recipe for Afrikaner nationalism.

However, the enigmatic problems of South African politics are not easy to encapsulate. The Afrikaners' Dutch-Germanic heritage and deep Calvinist beliefs underscored their dogged approaches in populating and working southern Africa. It also underscored their opposition to the British.

From the blacks perspective, a general failure outside of South Africa to recognize the historical divisions between the various groups has led to an allencompassing approach of black Africa being a total black unit with no cultural digression. The result now is an almost total lack of understanding of why the Zulu still fight for freedom. Failure to understand such traditional divisions will serve to ensure the Zulu remain the proverbial 'powder-keg'.

Having said this, I must therefore explain that the preceding essay is purposely taken from an Afrikaner viewpoint, because it is they who have shaped the face of modern South Africa. They, and the Zulu are the historical modern enemy of each other. They are each the "enemies of my blood" and therefore, to unify South Africa, it is they who must come to table, together;. for it is they who are so much alike. They are both powerful minorities. They do understand each other. In other words, without the perpetual reinforcement of having left the

Cape because of the yoke of British rule:

In 1834 the Xhosa invaded the colony in an attempt to recover territory they had lost in the earlier frontier wars .... convinced by missionairies that the Xhosa were justified in fighting for the recovery of their land ... [Governor] D'Urban was reprimanded [for annexing even further land from the Xhosa in punishment] and ordered to hand back the annexed land.

For the farmers, this was the last straw ... [they] decided that the Cape Colony was no longer tolerable as home .... The

Boers had developed a traditional way of ... dispensing justice according to their own dictates of fair play. But as the stronger

British Government made its military and political authority felt ... the role of the Boer commandos ... was drastically curtailed .... For the farmer, the actions of the British bordered on the imbecilic (Oakes, p. 112) .

In the near distance thousands of Zulu warriors took up their positions before me. I watched, awe-struck; their mixture of simple and plumed regalia swayed and floated like foam off a strangely calm yet increasingly turbulent sea.

The rhythmic, tumultuous beating of their shields implied more than violent force, it exuded confidence. They faced me; determined in their cause, defeat of their ancestors at 'Blood River' some forty years previous had not dampened their spirit in their attempt to annihilate the British - the South Wales Borderers - at Rorke's

Drift, as they had done earlier that day at Isandhlwana 1 .

1 The battle at Isandhlwana on January 22, 1879, was one of the most telling defeats over

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I recall, vividly, a Boer attached to the unit who, when asked why he was still with thereafter others had fled or refused to stay, said the Zulu were "the enemies of my blood".

That celluloid image, in the simply titled movie, Zulu

2

, left an indelible imprint within me; a fascination of and a bias toward the Zulu and their place in

Southern Africa, and the problems that have besieged them and South Africa for what seems an eternity. Yet, when one looks beyond the imagery, the myth that the

British 'defeated' the Zulu is implicit on the assumption that the Zulu gave up the fight. Conversely, as is expressed in the film, it may be said the Zulu allowed them to live on the basis of the British 'warrior-like' defence of the mission.

Interestingly, the images of the Zulu Impi singing, dancing and stomping, their assegai 3 poised, ready for war, are also images of contemporary South Africa which the white population have historically represented as exemplifying attitudes to the conglomerate forces of black southern Africans, not just the Zulu.

Following the opening up of the interior, mostly the result of the voortrekkers, it was inevitable the British would follow, and while Blood River continued to serve as the pivotal point in Afrikaner and southern African history, the British too took heart from such events, believing in the myths of white supremacy but not necessarily condoning complete subjugation. Yet, images of a past society, hordes of vicious savages ready to strike unforgivingly, are easily transferable and adjusted to modern South Africa.

British & colonial troops by the Zulu nation, during the Anglo-Zulu wars of that time, In all, there were an estimated 20,000 Zulu warriors pitted against some 1200 British. It was here the Zulu's Bull's Horn attack was highlighted. The crushing defeat was not expected by the

British and served to dispel any thoughts they had that victory would quick.

2 Zulu, the movie, portrays the Battle of Rorke's Drift, 1879, between the Zulu armies of

King Cetshawayo and the South Wales Borderers Interestingly, the role of King Cetshawayo was played by the Chief Buthelezi, head of the Inkatha Zulus in south Africa today.

3 An Assegai is a light, slender hardwood spear.

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