Zulu realisation of human cost ?

Guest

Hi all

The Zulu king was astonished, by the lost of his impis, after their return from the fighting of the 22 and 23 January 1879 ...

How Could he know since the Zulus did not count their warriors, one by one?

Although this type of accounting is not a Zulu custom, I think they did, out of curiosity ...

Dailleurs after the war, I bet Zulu survivor gave figures of their losses to strengthen their winners who questioned ...

Cheers

Pascal

Guest

Perhaps the Zulu at that time did not know the arithmetic Wink

Subject: Re: Zulu realisation of human cost ? Mon Nov 11, 2013 2:16 pm

Pascal
I think that the ibutho commanders and Cetshwayo himself would have an awareness of the size of each ibutho. They would also have an awareness of the physical size of an iviyo - it would be obvious as it passed by if was fewer in numbers.
I don't believe they counted them in and counted them out. Losses would be assessed as the result of a general overall viewing.

Posts : 2308 Join date : 2010-07-02 Age : 44

Possibly only known, when the men returned to thier homes. All women with sons and husbands ok. Those without sons and husbands. KIA.

Subject: Re: Zulu realisation of human cost ? Mon Nov 11, 2013 3:25 pm

But then with no means of cumulative accounting which would get back to the ibutho/king??

Posts : 2308 Join date : 2010-07-02 Age : 44

I expect the Widows pension, must have give some calculation.

Posts : 249 Join date : 2013-06-01

I am not sure if impi's point about a widow's pension was a serious one or not.
But, was there any provision or help for families of Zulu men who were killed?

Posts : 1862 Join date : 2009-03-25

I would have thought some provision under British rule would have been in place. Good question!

But then again, I don't think the British War widows were given much. I believe a Zulu War Widows fund was established.

Subject: Re: Zulu realisation of human cost ? Tue Nov 12, 2013 8:21 am

There was no 'state' provision for Zulu war widows, but then it wasn't a state in the conventional sense.
There was no provision under British rule either because Zululand post-1879 was not under British rule.

Subject: Re: Zulu realisation of human cost ? Tue Nov 12, 2013 9:00 pm

Various funds were set-up mainly for those widowed as a result of those Killed at Isandlwana and Rorkes Drift.

Here a newspaper artical I posted sometime ago.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

» Human or animal Blood
» Did he take part in the Zulu War. William 'Zulu' Smith, was a veteran of the Zulu War of 1879
» OFFICIAL HISTORY OF THE ZULU WAR. NARRATIVE OF THE FIELD OPERATIONS CONNECTED WITH THE ZULU WAR OF 1879