History of South Africa podcast · Desmond Latham

Episode 266: The Wakkerstroom Boer-Zulu Alliance and the death of Prince Napoleon

March 15, 2026·21 min·1 clip

At 3.35 p.m., Louis Bonaparte delayed departure and the Zulu fired as the men mounted.

Des Latham begins in 1879. He opens with Albert Einstein's birth in Ulm, then turns that compass back toward the South African frontier and the tightening war against the Zulu. The Wackensturm district comes across as less steady than British Army hopes suggested, with Boer presence and local violence never quite settling even after Mbilini has been killed, and the blame drifting toward horses, commanders, and anything else that can take the heat. The mood stays uneasy. By May 1879, Louis is in Utrecht with Chelmsford, waiting for the second invasion and sharing the scene with Paul Delage of La Figaro, who is surprised and impressed by the prince. Scouting becomes the real work. Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Harrison gets the surveying job, Lieutenant Jalil Brenton Carey serves as his deputy, and Carey, with his French education and broad colonial experience, helps shape the reconnaissance effort. Louis Bonaparte is along for the ride. The party surveys the area around Utrecht, then moves past Telazeni Hill toward the Ngutu Range, where the landscape itself seems to set the pace of the campaign. A small Zulu party appears. Raw and the 6th Pursuit of Horsemen are sent after them, but the warriors slip away before anything decisive can happen, which is its own kind of answer. The prince does not stay disciplined. He keeps spotting distant figures, breaking ranks, and charging after them with sword in hand, dragging horsemen and servants into pursuits that make the whole column look more chaotic than heroic. Buller loses patience. Back in Utrecht, he tells Chelmsford that the prince is no longer to come on reconnaissance missions, because one more impulsive ride could turn a routine survey into a disaster. The episode keeps the military frame clear. It also lets the smaller human details do a lot of the work, from the French correspondent's eye for character to the dry jokes about blame, horses, and vanity. The closing movement points toward Ulundi. From there, the series is heading into the end of the Anglo-Zulu War, the year 1880, and the wider scramble for Africa that follows.

As heard by us

Frontier warfare, bad judgment, and one prince who treats reconnaissance like a dare.

This episode stays close to the uneasy frontier around Wackensturm and the second British push into Zululand, where local knowledge, scouting, and Zulu movement keep changing the shape of the advance.

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Why you'd press play

You want a frontier war story where Louis Bonaparte keeps turning reconnaissance into a near-disaster.

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