Posted Jul 6, 2010, 10:38 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Wiltshire, England
Posts: 1,938
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X Cetshwayo kaMpande – King of the Zulus
The 1870s saw the notoriously bloody Zulu Wars, in which tribesmen armed largely with spears and cowhide shields faced the machine guns and cannons of the invading British Empire. The Zulus surprised the British with their courage and organisation, repelling the first invasion before succumbing to a second, much larger force.
The Zulu King, Cetshwayo kaMpande was captured and exiled to the well-healed London suburb of Kensington. Here, suited and booted, he fitted in quickly with high society, charming both Queen Victoria and the London public.
The British, finding the Zulus harder to rule than they expected, tried to reinstate Cetshwayo as King in the 1880s, with mixed success. He died, possibly of poisoning, in 1884.
On the house in Kensington where he once lived, behind cherry blossom and scaffolding, you can now see a Blue Plaque to the Zulu King – South Africa’s first prodigal son of London.
XI & XII Jan Smuts & Nelson Mandela
South Africa’s second unlikely hero came from a very different background to the Zulu King, but began his career in similar vein, fighting the British Empire in the Boer War of 1899-1902. Like Cetshwayo, he learned to charm the British, negotiating peace with them and playing a significant role in both World Wars. He was Prime Minister of South Africa between 1939 and 1948, and was also a leading figure in the drafting of the United Nations Covenant.
In Westminster, outside the Houses of Parliament, where this section of our travels began, a statue of Smuts was erected in 1956.
In many ways, as a statesman and war leader, Smuts was a kind of South African Washington. Yet, as a supporter of racial segregation, he is also seen as a white supremacist and part of the establishment that imposed apartheid. As Mandela put it, remembering an early trip to London:
"Oliver and I saw the sights of the city that had once commanded nearly two-thirds of the globe. Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament. While I gloried in the beauty of these buildings, I was ambivalent about what they represented. When we saw the statue of General Smuts near Westminster Abbey, Oliver and I joked that perhaps someday there would be a statue of us in its stead." It took a long time to happen. In the 1980s, Mandela was reviled by some MPs in the ruling British Conservative Party. Terry Dicks asked “How much longer will the Prime Minister allow herself to be kicked in the face by this black terrorist?” while Teddy Taylor simply said, “Nelson Mandela should be shot”. Thatcher herself said the ANC was a “typical terrorist organisation”. But in 2007, a statue of Mandela was erected in Parliament Square, just a few dozen yards from General Smuts.
Last edited by Bedhead; Jan 1, 2014 at 1:12 PM.
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