History of South Africa podcast · Desmond Latham

Episode 258 - Rorke’s Drift, Part Two: Dabulamanzi’s Gamble and Chard’s Night of Horrors

January 18, 2026·22 min

The episode opens at Rorke’s Drift at 4pm on January 22, 1879. The defenders are still building barricades. About 330 British and Natal Native Contingent troops are marooned at the drift, with sacks of mealie, boxes of bully beef, and biscuits still helping shape the position. Across the river, roughly 4,000 Zulu warriors are closing in. Prince Dabulamanzi leads the reserve Amabuta into Natal. He is framed as proud, brave, loyal to his king, and a little more impulsive than the politics of restraint allow. His crossing of the Imzinyati is both a literal move and a clear act of defiance. Zulu oral tradition remembers the battle under the names Shihani or Kwajimu, tied to Jim Rourke’s store. Lieutenant Henderson and Hlubi Molife arrive with mounted men while the defence is still taking shape. Lieutenant John Chard is trying to organise the position with the buildings already described in the previous episode. The first assaults probe the weakest points in the British line. Zulu fighters use shields, trade guns, and close rushes, while the British answer with fire and bayonets. The approaches to the buildings quickly fill with bodies. More Zulu regiments come forward, including the Itulwana, Glondlo, and the Gloko. Older men climb the Shi'ani ledges and fire down from distance. The Ndlu Yengwe pushes toward the hospital and along the mealie-bag wall, but it is repulsed. Hand-to-hand fighting becomes constant and costly. The Itulwana take the worst of the casualties. As daylight fades, the battle turns into the first and only night battle of the Anglo-Zulu War. The episode closes by setting Rorke’s Drift beside Isandlwana and showing how both battles reshaped British, Zulu, and imperial memory.

As heard by us

A terrain-focused account of Rourke's Drift that ties the fighting to its wider political consequences.

This episode carries the Rourke's Drift story forward with Dabulamanzi leading the Zulu reserve across the Imzinyati River, a move that feels both defiant and dangerous.

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Why you'd press play

If you want the Rorke's Drift fight mapped from river crossing to hospital line, start here.

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