BOILING CAULDRON Utrecht District and the Anglo-Zulu War 1879

This history provides a comprehensive account of events that ultimately led to the clashes at Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift in January 1879. Here is the history of the area that became known as ‘The Disputed Territory’ and the complicated relationships between several African polities, Boers and British. As the war between the Zulu and the British was being fought in Natal, ongoing along the Transvaal border to the north was a series of local clashes between neighbours that culminated in the action at Hlobane on 28 March. For the first time with full references, The Boiling Cauldron describes that battle in which the local people out-manoeuvred a force of colonial horsemen, burghers and impressed African levies led by Lt-Col H.E. Wood.
Published for the first time are Lt-Col A.W. Durnford’s 1878 map of Zululand and the three maps that he prepared for the 1878 Boundary Commission, one of the maps drawn by Capt J. Alleyne for the Zululand Boundary Commission in September 1879, and five contemporary sketches drawn by Maj T. Fraser, RE, when travelling through the area with Wood in September 1881.