Cetshwayo was the last king of an independent Zulu nation. His warriors defeated the British at Isandlwana, only to be later subdued at oNdini. Cetshwayo returned to Zululand after a short exile to rule briefly before defeat by his rival Zibhebhu.

"An assegai has been thrust into the belly of the nation, there are not enough tears to mourn for the dead."

King Cetshwayo, after his victory at the Battle of Isandlwana, 1879, describing the terrible cost of the victory – a large number of wounded did not make it to Ulundi for purification ceremonies which would normally follow a battle.

"He who caused people to swim against their will."

From a praise-poem about Cetswayo's defeat of Mbuyazi's forces at the Thugela River in November 1856. T Copeand D Malcolm, "Izibongo: Zulu Praise-Poems Collected by James Stuart", 1968.

When the British ultimatum delivered to King Cetshwayo's representatives at the Lower Thukela Drift (on 11 December) expired – it required King Cetshwayo to dismantle the Zulu military system, a demand that the British High Commissioner, Sir Bartle Frere, knew would be impossible to accept – war broke out. British troops had already crossed into Zululand (No 4 column under Colonel Henry Evelyn Wood, crossed the Ncome river on 6 January 1879). But on this day the No 3 column, under Colonel Richard Glyn, crossed at Rorke's Drift. The next day, the first engagement between British troops and Zulu warriors occurred in the Batshe valley to the east of Rorke's Drift.

Now better known as the ANC or African National Congress, the South African Natives National congress was formed in 1912 in Bloemfontein with the intention of uniting "all tribes and races" against a growing tide of segregation in South Africa. It was specifically aimed at fighting a racially exclusive application of the franchise which came with the Union of South Africa in 1910, and the burgeoning legislation which would ultimately become the Natives Land Act of 1913 - which stopped the purchase or lease of land by Black Africans outside designated reserves. The name of the movement was changed to the African National Congress in 1923.