This book was personal for me, having spent so much time in Natal in my teens on famliy holidays, this book really brought home some of the things I had seen whilst on holiday whilst not really appreciting how difficult it was to exist on the dolphin coast. Read this if you want to learn more about how Durban was founded, what relations were like with the Zulu kingdom and some crazy revelations on how Shaka ruled the Zulu people. Profound.
This is the definitive account of the rise of the Zulu nation under the great ruler Shaka and its fall under Cetshwayo. The story is studded with tales of drama and heroism: the Battle of Isandhlwana, where the Zulu army wiped out the major British column; and Rorke’s Drift, where a handful of British troops beat off thousands of Zulu warriors and won eleven Victoria Crosses.
Acclaimed for its scholarship, its monumental range, and its spellbinding readability, The Washing of the Spears is a gripping portrait of not just the Zulu War of 1879, but also of Britain’s colonial policy at this moment.