rorkesdriftvc.com :: View topic

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2006 10:50 pm

Keith
Thanks for the photo.
Is not it possible that, perhaps, Wood buried the Six Border Horse on his 20th May visit when he would almost certainly have visited Campbell and Lloyds grave?
Have you any more info on the graves you saw on Nyoni Ridge?

Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2006 10:43 pm

Mel

It is possible that Wood buried them later, as you say, although he does not mention doing so in his memoirs and he was pretty extensive in his cooverage of the period.

The graves on Nyoni are almost identical, a slight mound surrounded by stones to outline the grave. I thought I had a photograph of one too but I can't put my hands on it, sorry.

KIS

Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2006 1:17 am

Keith,

I'm curious as to the Zulu graves you describe. As you know I'm still new to the study but most of what I've read thus far seems to point to a seemingly casual attitude on the part of the amaZulu to the disposition of 'normal' individual's remains. After Isandlwana the Zulu bodies seem to have been disposed of in dongas and grainaries with some left on the field covered by their shields. I haven't read any reference to actual burial or Zulu cemetaries other than Royal gravesites. I was wondering if their was any criteria (exceptional bravery or sacrifice perhaps) which would result in Zulu internment for non-royal or prominent warriors.

Having just finished "Langalibalele and the Natal Carbineers" I found a quote by Mgebisa, one of the amaHlubi present at Bushman's River Pass to be quite revealing and tying in with what I've thus far learned of the amaZulu- "We black people do not go near dead bodies if we can avoid it. Only those who had killed the men would do so." (This of course in reference to the three Carbineers and two Basutos killed there but it would I think apply to all dead bodies.) This statement would seem to indicate that that the death rituals of the time were shared by all the Bantu speaking peoples so internment would seem a singular honour and perhaps be commented upon.

Best

Michael

Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2006 10:53 am

Michael

Zulu burial rites appear to have been anything but casual and the whole ritual constituted part of the entire purification process. However, as to how these rituals were truncated in the cases of battle casualties, I've found this a bit more difficult to pin down. (I'm not sure at present whether the graves Keith mentions are believed to be battle fatalities or later Zulu deaths from normal causes in that area).

A great deal of work has been published on Zulu death & burial rites by very well known authorities on the Zulu, and these are relied upon by most modern writers but unfortunately they say little that I can see about - for example - single men and/or any female. CT Binns "The Warrior People" (Robert Hale, London 1975) devotes a whole chapter or two on the subject. He knew the Zulu very well and also relied on both Bryant & Krige (as most do, so we have one of those cases where everyone cites just three or four works).

Bryant "The Zulu People as they were before the White Man Came" (Shuter & Shooter, PMB 1949) also devotes a whole chapter but once again not much is said about the status of the deceased when below head-of-the-household level, and much of it is about the clan heads, chiefs or royalty.

Krige "The Social System of the Zulus" (Shuter & Shooter, PMB 1936) covers much the same ground - there is a lot to cover, as the rituals are long established and very complex - and she also asserts that "...in the time of Shaka and Dingane only kings, chief men and soldiers of note were buried; others were simply abandoned in the bush. Now, however, this is no longer done and everyone is buried." She cites both Gardiner and Isaacs for this statement.

If one turns, therefore, to Allen F. Gardiner "Narrative of a Journey to the Zoolu Country" (Struik, Cape Town, reprint 1966) he relates how he tried to dissuade the Zulu from "the revolting custom of casting the bodies of deceased persons into the woods, to be devoured by wild animals." He adds more but I think it possible (with the benefit of what later observers have written) that he partly misunderstood what he heard from the mourners he spoke to.

One or two of them also cite Henry Callaway "The Religious System of the Amazulu" (1850s/1860s for memory, but my copy is a Struik Cape Town reprint 1970). Callaway mentions the actual burial rites less fully but does, at least, seem to imply that the usual custom of watching over the grave applied to any Zulu. With the exception of Gardiner, Callaway (another Anglican missionary) was the very earliest observer and writer in English on all this, apart from a number of missionaries who also touched upon the subject in their correspondence, reports & memoirs.

From all this, I think it depends on the period, and certainly depends on the status and perhaps sex of the individual. It also probably depends on the district. These observers were recording Zulu customs at a time when the combined Zulu nation was still either in its infancy or had been established for only a few generations. Assuming the rituals do not, of course, come down from the original small Zulu clan, the customs were clearly not Zulu at all but were from all the various clans & peoples in the district before the "mfecane" and to a lesser or greater extent were Nguni.

Not a lot of this will help with the battlefield fatality question but I do think there is plenty of material available to explain that the disposal of bodies when there was no burial was not the casual act it might appear to be but a deliberate and important part of the ritual. And the burial/non-burial custom itself appears to have been a small (but vital) part of the entire, complicated funerary rites.

Peter

Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2006 6:33 pm

I fear that Ron's computer is 'hors de combat.' Here is his response on the gravesites.

" I apologise for being silent for so long. The graves close to those of Campbell and Lloyd on Hlobane could be either Zulu of a later period, or those of Weatherley's troopers.However, as already stated in this discussion, the Zulu people normally disposed of their dead by carrying the body away from the homestead and allowing nature and predators to dispose of the remains.To quote E.V. Krige, ' The Social System of the Zulus' .... only Kings, chief men and soldiers of note were buried; others were simply abandoned in the bush.'
It therefore seems unlikely that the six or seven graves on Hlobane could, in such a remote place, be those of prominent Zulus. On the balance of probability, they are more likely to be those of the troopers who fell at that very spot, keeping the abaQulusi at bay, while Wood, in utter folly considering the circumstances, conducted a burial service for Campbell and Lloyd.
( Incidentally Keith, there are a few similar graves a dozen yards or so below Fort Nolela that can be discerned when the scrub has been burned.They too are unmarked.)
Assuming then that they are the graves of the Border Horse, who buried them and when? They were certainly not interred at the same time as Campbell and Lloyd.
The first visit, post battle to Hlobane, was in May 1879 when a search was made for bodies. An incredibly difficult task bearing in mind that Hlobane, a running battle, was fought over a mountainous area of some fifteen square miles or more, much of it covered in grass six feet high. It must have been like searching for the proverbial needle in a hay stack. It is not surprising that the searchers were not very successful and, rather than admitting that bodies could not be found, it is possible that in some instances, no doubt with the very best of intentions aimed at consoling bereaved ones, pretence was made that certain remains had been given a decent burial when nothing of the sort had occurred. This is conjecture.
Wood made a visit in May 1879 when several bodies were identified by clothing and other personal items. For instance the bodies of Charlie Potter and Cecil Williams, both of Wood's Irregulars, were found and buried together. (Grave site now unknown.)
During this visit Wood would certainly have visited the graves of Campbell and Lloyd to ensure that it had not been disturbed by the abaQulusi seeking body parts for muti. The bodies of the Border Horse troopers would still be lying nearby and it is at this time that they were most likely interred. Being unknown troopers , it is possible that no one bothered to mention them specifically.
Another visit was made in September when it was incorrectly reported that the remains of Capt. Barton and Colonel Weatherley had been found and put to rest. Weatherley's body, as far as we know, was never found and that of Barton was not discovered until the following year by Wood, (who accompanied the Princess Eugenie on her pilgrimage.) It is interesting to hear what Cpl. Clarke NMP had to say.
' General Wood caused us to assemble in the fort afterwards ( Kambula) and told us the story of the battle and the events that took place at Hlobane.He told us that the troops buried 875 of the enemy dead in the immediate vicinity of the camp, and a large number who crawled away and died, in fact, our party found several skeletons when on the march ... we found skeletons of Zulus as far away as the White Umfolozi River which we crossed on the 18th May ( 1880).... The following day I was mounted on a packhorse, my horse being a little lame, and was sent with sixteen men to place a stone cross over the grave of Lieut. Cambell who was killed at Hlobane. His widow, a Mrs Campbell, who was a member of our party, had brought the stone out from England with her. The grave was about twelve miles from our camp and we had about 20 Zulus to carry the cross up the hill ...We travelled by way of Kopje Alleen and Fort Whitehead to Fort Warwick. Here I was sent with six men to dig up the box containing the entrails of the Prince Imperial, the body having been embalmed here by Dr. Scott who removed the heart, which I believe, was sent to Paris.
On the 27th May, a party of us, guided by a Zulu, went back towards Hlobane to search for the body of Captain Barton, of the Grenadier Guards, who was missing after the retreat from that mountain. The Zulus said they had followed that officer for a distance of twelve miles, until the officer's pony got into a donga from which he could not get out, when both were assagaied. We found the skeleton with a cap and a pocket book lying beside it. Another Zulu brought us a sword which was taken from the body. We buried the remains and erected a cairn of stones over the spot.'
It will be noted that Clarke does not mention any other bodies in the vicinity of Campbell and Lloyd's graves.It is not unreasonable to assume that these had been buried the previous year during Wood's earlier visit.
AMAFA have indicated that they would have no objection to these graves being examined under the supervision of a qualified archaeologist. It is of interest that Cpl. Clarke went on to become the Commanding Officer of the Natal Mounted Police and during the First World War saw service with the British Special Forces including active service with the White Russians.
A portion of Barton's note book, recovered as stated above, plus a segment of cloth cut from his uniform, are in the Wood Papers, Killie Cambell Library, Durban."
Ron Lock

Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2006 7:48 pm

Just a further thought. I have read that Campbell and Lloyds' graves have been subject to much "grave robbing" over the years to the point, I think, that there are probably no remains actually in the graves.
Did anyone notice any signs of similar disturbance at the other six graves? On reflection it would be unlikely that the graves, on not being Zulu, would remained untouched?

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 4:58 am

I have been tracking down the Zulu account of colonials having been thrown to their death from the eastern end of Hlobane and adjacent Ityentika; "In Zululand ..." by Charles Norris-Newman. Account related by Meshla Kwa Zulu (Mehlokazulu ka Sihayo) "There was row of white men thrown over the krantzes, their ammunition was done, they did not fire, and we killed them without their killing any of our men; a
great many were also killed on the top; they were killed by the people on the mountain (abaQWulusi).

About twelve years ago I met a retired manager of the Hlobane coal mine. He told me that during his time at the mine a number of relics and bones had been found at the base of some sliffs on the north side of Hlobane. These had been cleaned up and hung in the club bar as decorations. As far as he could remember they consisted of rifle parts, stirrup irons and bits. By the time he told me the story, the mine had been shut down and the whereabouts of the relics were unknown.

About the same time a newspaper article related a similar story. I have a copy of it somewhere but having recently moved house some things are not as easy to find as they once were. When it surfaces I'll let you know.

Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 9:18 am

Keith,

I was wondering if the extra graves could be Isivivane [ A sort of shrine made up of piled stones to honour local spirits]. There is a picture of one at :

http://www.warthog.co.za/dedt/tourism/culture/religion/superstitions.htm

Just a quick late-night thought.

Best

Michael

Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 11:23 pm

Michael

You may well be correct, although the graves looked more like graves than heaps of stones, that is, they were about six feet long and two or three wide. The stones were somewhat scattered, though, so it is difficult to tell what they really are/were.

KIS