Jonas Gwangwa with Hugh Masekela and Kippie Moeketsi. (Photo: Halim s Photographic Service, Cape Town BAHA/Drum Social Histories / Baileys African History Archive / Africa Media Online)
The date 23 January is shaping up to be a devastating one for Southern African music. This weekend, jazz enthusiasts were forced to confront the news of legend Jonas Gwangwa s death – three years to the day that Hugh Masekela leapt off to blow his trumpet in the sky. Two years since the prolific Oliver Mtukudzi and his guitar left our realm.
But the date has always had a weighty significance, stretching as far back as 1879, when Zulu warriors – triumphant after their victory at Isandlwana just days before – were defeated by the imperial forces of the British army. Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded to British soldiers, and it wasn t until 1999 that the Zulu warriors who defended their embattled kingdom from British subjugation were memorialised.
This competition is now closed
Shortly before four o’clock in the sweltering hot afternoon of 22 January 1879, a small group of British and colonial troops, packed into a mission station on the border of Natal and the Zulu Kingdom, had the news they dreaded. Earlier that day, a British column, advancing into Zululand, had been annihilated at Isandlwana. Now there was nothing between the enraged Zulus and the little mission station at Rorke’s Drift, which had been turned into a makeshift hospital for the purposes of the war.
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Some officers wanted to pull out and ride for safety, but Assistant Commissary James Dalton argued that they were bound to be slowed down by the wagons of sick and wounded, which meant the Zulus would inevitably overtake and destroy them. Instead, Dalton told his men to put up makeshift barricades of biscuit boxes and corn sacks. “Now,” he said grimly, “we must make a defence”.
A royal painting of the Battle of Rorke’s Drift has had its description updated to acknowledge its links to imperialism.
It is among 62 works in the Royal Collection to be amended in the wake of the Black Lives Matter campaign.
Part of the Anglo-Zulu war of 1879, Rorke’s Drift saw 141 British soldiers defend a field hospital against an attack from 4,000 warriors.
Eleven Victoria Crosses were won in the battle which was depicted in Zulu, a 1964 film starring Michael Caine.
The online description of the oil painting, by Elizabeth Thompson under commission from Queen Victoria, now notes: ‘This work is connected to colonialism and imperialism.