Later that night, upon arrival at the horrific aftermath of the battle scene, regrettably once more in a case of, too little too late, Lord Chelmsford was heard to say; “I can’t understand it, I left a thousand men here.”
Suddenly, when the dancing, singing, warriors were virtually on top of the line of Trekkers, the treacherous Dingane leapt to his feet screaming these words; “Babulaleni abathakathi!!!” (Kill the wizards) this command he repeated several times, throwing his arms wide and turning his face skyward.
The Voortrekkers’ Great Trek, if viewed as an epic adventure, could be compared in many ways with the opening up of the western United States of America.
Shaka drilled his Impi in long distance marches, on the run, carrying only their weapons, so that in the end they could cover distances of 60 miles in a day over almost any terrain and then still fight a pitched battle. It is doubtful if any army in the world at that time, before it or since, possessed such a physical capability.
In Africa, nature’s predators are at once beautiful and terrifically savage. Among the several which come easily to mind are the Lion, the Leopard, the Cheetah, the Hyena, and the African Wild dog. In many respects man has similar instinctive predatory predilections.
At a time, nearly a millennium before Christianity and about seventeen hundred years before Mohammed and Buddha, several large tribes of BaNtu (Bantu) people were migrating across equatorial Africa.