Battle of Isandlwana

Transcript

Voiceover:

Now, in 'A small piece of history', Emma Mawdsley of the National Army Museum presents a favourite object from the Collection.

Emma Mawdsley:

This is the most popular painting in the National Army Museum Collection, which is actually rather surprising since it shows the defeat of the British Army by non-European troops. It was the first occasion when the British Army had been beaten so completely by non-European troops.

In 1879, the small garrison at Isandlwana was attacked by a force of 20,000 Zulu warriors and, though they fought valiantly, they were routed.

The artist, Charles Edwin Fripp, wasn't a witness to this scene but he did visit the battlefield with Chelmsford's force some four weeks later and the bodies were still lying unburied, rotting on the ground.

Fripp depicted the Zulu fighting technique very accurately. He shows how the Zulu uses his shield to attract the soldier who bayonets through the shield. He then lifts it up and almost disarms the soldier because his bayonet is through the shield so he can't retract it. And in the meantime the Zulu then attacks from underneath the shield and stabs the soldier in the stomach using his spear, called an iklwa.

Iklwa is an onomatopoeic word which describes the noise that the weapon makes as it's thrust into the body and then withdrawn - a sort of sucking noise.

Some elements were included for dramatic effect, such as this drummer boy here who looks 12 or 13, younger than any drummer boy present at the battle of Isandlwana. The average age of the drummer boys at Isandlwana was about 24.

Fripp's great achievement in this painting is transforming the chaos of battle into a heroic last stand.