ZULU STRATEGIC AND TACTICAL OPTIONS IN THE FACE OF THE BRITISH INVASION OF JANUARY 1879

Abstract

Until recent years, historians of the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 made little attempt to unravel the strategic and tactical options of the Zulu preparing to face the British invasion of their kingdom. The inadequacy of such an approach was epitomised in the dismissive comments of Donald Morris, whose book, The Washing of the Spears, first published in 1966 and reprinted regularly thereafter, has remained the most popular and influential book on the war. When mentioning Zulu strategic planning, for example, he had nothing to say except that the Zulu king, Cetshwayo kaMpande, had 'no clear plan in mind’.