Zulu people of 1878, envoys of the British crown delivered an ultimatum to 11 chiefs representing the then-current king of the Zulu empire, Cetshwayo. Under the British terms delivered to the Zulu, Cetshwayo would have been required to disband his army and accept British sovereignty. Cetshwayo refused, and war between the Zulus and African contingents of the British crown began on January 12th, 1879. Despite an early victory for the Zulus at the Battle of Isandlwana on the 22nd of January, the British fought back and won the Battle at Rorke's Drift, and definitively defeated the Zulu army by July at the
Ntshingwayo Khoza Ntshingwayo Khoza Ntshingwayo kaMahole of the Khoza (c. 1809 – 21 July 1883) was the commanding general ("inDuna") of King Cetshwayo's Zulu Army during the first Anglo-Zulu War. He became known as Ntshingwayo kaMahole after being taken into foster care by Mahole of the Xhosa. Ntshingwayo was given overall field command of the Zulu impi against the Centre Column of the first British invasion of Zululand in the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. He was given conflicting orders. Publicly, he was told to meet the British Army's Centre Column in open battle "and eat them up" [kill them], but privately he