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This is episode 149 and Mpande kaSenzangakhona and the Boers are going after Dingana.
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\nWe\u2019re entering the 1840s where momentous events would continue to shape South Africa\u2019s future.
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\nAfter Shaka\u2019s death in 1828 his half-brother and murderer, Dingana, was supposed to usher in stability. Instead, Dingana embroiled the AmaZulu in one war after another, trying to defeat Mzilikazi of the amaNdebele, fightign the baTlokwa, the amaSwazi, the Boers, and now, his own Royal line.
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\nBy ordering Mpande\u2019s assassination, he had set off a chain of events that was going to boomerang on him and the coming Zulu Civil War had been in the offing for some time.
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\nHe\u2019d also set off his own demise by failing to kill Mpande, who then fled across the Thukela River with over 17 000 adherents and about 35 000 cattle.
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\nMpande had met Voortrekker leader Andries Pretorius and negotiated with the Voortrekkers as the man they now called \u201cThe Reigning Prince of the Emigrant Zulus\u201d. A Boer deputation of 28 men under the leadership of F Roos had visited him at his homestead not far from Port Natal in October 1839, where he offered to pay them the cattle owed by Dingana, over 19 300, and ceded the bay of St Lucia to the Boers.
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\nMpande also promised not to undertake any military activity without Voortrekker leader Andries Pretorius\u2019 knowledge.
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\nThen as if to reinforce his power, he turned a blind eye to the killing of a much feared induna called Mpangazitha kaMncumbatha who was of the amaNdwandwe. Zwide\u2019s people.
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\nMpangazitha had become an influential and brutal induna operating alongside Dingana, and one day he was killed in full view of the trekkers.
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\nThis shocked the visiting Boers, who watched as the induna was dragged, then beaten by successive men armed with fighting sticks, his blue robe spattered with blood as he was bludgeoned to death.
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\nMpande later said he didn\u2019t order this killing, Mpangazitha had brought it on himself by his bullyboy tactics \u2014 the other induna just had enough of this egotistical man who\u2019d committed a long list of human rights abuses against other people\u2019s over the past decade.
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\nLive by the sword, die by the knobkerrie I guess.
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\nBy Christmas, however, the British were gone from the garrison at Port Natal, Captain Jervis had sailed away with the British administration now mistakenly of the belief that the violence in Natal had dissipated.
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\nThen Dingana sent a famous message to the Boers in Pietermaritzburg by the end of 1839, trying to discredit Mpande.
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\n\u201cHe is not a man\u2026\u201d the messengers said \u201c\u2026he has turned away his face, he is a woman. He was useless to Dingana his master, and he will be of no use to you. Do not trust him, for his face may turn again\u2026\u201d
\nComing from a man as pernicious as Dingana was rather hypocritical.
\nNdlela\u2019s impi on paper at least, looked the better of the two. Dingana had pulled together the top notch amabutho, the iziNyosi, the uDlambedlu, the imVoko which had remnants of the umKulutshane regiment. They\u2019d been joined by the uKhokhoti, who\u2019d also been at the Battle of Blood River/Ncome.
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\nMpande\u2019s general Nongalaza led amabutho like the imiHaye who\u2019d joined up with remnants of the imVoko who\u2019d switched sides as well as the uZwangendaba who were a bit like a mercenary division drawn from the homesteads called the umLambongwenya, uDukuza and isiKlebhe.
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\nMpande\u2019s army included the veterans iziMpohlo, formed during Shaka\u2019s time, these were older men, scarred in battle and seeking one more victory before they\u2019d retire to their imizi.
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\nNot only were Mpande\u2019s men feeling more optimistic, they knew that somewhere to their west the Voortrekkers were heading their way. Between these two organisations, most warriors fighting for Mpande were convinced they were going to win.
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\nThe canny Mpande had pulled off a diplomatic move of note. Had he waited for the Boers to arrive, he would have lost face \u2014 by striking first he was waging war without the muskets and the horses.