Blue plaque for Zulu who defied British

Cetshwayo kaMpande

A Zulu king whose men killed thousands of British soldiers has been honoured in London more than 120 years after his death.

King Cetshwayo kaMpande, depicted in the classic film Zulu, has now been commemorated by English Heritage with a blue plaque at the Kensington house where he stayed in 1882.

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Equipped only with shields and spears, his warriors inflicted some of Britain's heaviest colonial-era defeats after its 1879 invasion of Zululand.

But Cetshwayo was captured after a stand by 145 British men who were hugely outnumbered by Zulu raiders at the border post of Rorke's Drift.

In the film, Cetshwayo was played by Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, later leader of South Africa's mainly Zulu Inkatha Freedom Party.

Cetshwayo was held prisoner in Cape Town until rumours spread that he would be allowed to go to Britain to make a case for his return to the throne to prevent further wars.

After a fierce parliamentary debate, he arrived in August 1882 to meet Prime Minister William Gladstone and Queen Victoria, becoming the first Zulu to visit London.

Historian and author Ian Knight said his month long visit sparked extraordinary scenes. He said: "Everyone in London was curious to see this guy who had given the British such a bloody nose. As is often the case, the British secretly admired the pluckiness of an underdog.

"They lined the streets for a look, all expecting him to be a scowling savage in a loincloth, but he turned out to be impeccably dressed in European clothes.

"He apparently made a great impression on Queen Victoria and everyone else he met and ended up being cheered wherever he went."

Coming to London secured a startling political rehabilitation.

Cetshwayo was restored to power on his return and died in 1884. English Heritage has invited the current Zulu royal family to visit his plaque at the Victorian townhouse at 18 Melbury Road.

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