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Historical person
Cetshwayo kaMpande was king of the Zulu kingdom during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. He had strengthened royal authority and the regimental system before Britain issued demands designed to provoke conflict. Zulu forces destroyed a British column at Isandlwana, but the kingdom was defeated after further campaigning and the Battle of Ulundi. Cetshwayo was captured, later permitted to return to part of Zululand, and died amid continuing civil conflict.
Novels about the Anglo-Zulu War often place Cetshwayo behind the battlefield narrative as the ruler whose decisions are interpreted through British officers and soldiers. More balanced fiction treats him as a statesman facing an expansionist empire, internal divisions and limited diplomatic options. His presence is essential to stories of Isandlwana and Ulundi because it prevents the war from becoming merely a tale of British defeat and recovery.
Series
Blackwood of the Empire follows the fictional Welsh officer William Blackwood through two major campaigns of the late Victorian army. The first three novels place him in the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, from the disordered opening invasion through Hlobane, Kambula and the final advance on Ulundi. The later…
All books in this series
