It was a little sad to leave the game reserve after two days, but Greg had much more that he wanted us to experience. So we headed inland toward the “battlegrounds” area. After a long drive…

…we spent the night in a 100+ year old inn, with a nice bar and a good dinner and a delightful owner.

In the morning we drove to Rorke’s Drift. A “drift” is a place to ford a river, and Jim Rorke was a trader who had become an institution at this crossroads. I will attempt a little historical background before telling the story…

The British didn’t care a whole lot about southern Africa back in the 1800’s, except they wanted Cape Town as a stop-over for ships bound to/from India. They attacked the Dutch and took Cape Town by force, then later suffered some compunction and gave it back. And then they purchased it from the Dutch!

But around 1860 diamonds were discovered in the area, and suddenly Britain wanted to control South Africa. They suppressed most local tribes, but as you will recall from our previous history lesson, King Shaka had built an extremely powerful Zulu army. And so begins the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879.

The Brits marched toward the Zulu capital, didn’t get very far, and set up camp atop a large hill called Isandlwana, not far from Rorke’s place. An overly arrogant Lord Chelmsford believed the hill could be easily defended from the savages… Those “savages” then fooled a reconnaissance team into thinking that the Zulu force was to the SE, and Chelmsford marched half of his 3,000 men off in that direction. The Zulus then attacked from the NE. Of the 1750 men in camp, 1350 were killed. (Many of the rest ran.) It was such a crushing defeat of the all-powerful British forces, that many Brits went into denial about it, and made up various excuses and laid blame on officers that had been killed.

Just a few hours later, Zulus attacked what had been a Swedish mission, now a Brit military hospital, at Rorke’s Drift. There were only 139 men there, many of them sick or injured. The Zulu leader was apparently angry that his group had missed the action at Isandlwana, and he led his men in a direct assault of the hospital. In an ironic mirror-image of Lord Chelmsford’s misjudgment at Isandlwana, the Zulu leader did not follow the usual Zulu “horns of the buffalo” attack strategy, or any strategy other than go head on at the point where the defense was strongest. As a result a huge number of attackers were killed, and the small group of defenders held out until help arrived.

From the Zulu point of view what happened at Rorke’s Drift was of little consequence. But the Brits played it up as big as possible, to steer attention away from their debacle a few miles away.

Of course the Brits eventually prevailed in the war (only to then fight the Anglo-Boer War some years later).

Lots more driving, from the Battlefields area to the Midlands, and a night at a wonderful manor that seemed to belong in the heart of England.

A day doing nothing at Rawdon’s sounded appealing, but we had places to go. Next stop: the site where Nelson Mandela was captured (and then imprisoned for 27 years). Mandela himself wanted no memorial of significance at the spot, but more recently an evocative sculpture was done and a museum built. The museum is fascinating, telling the story of the man and the fight against apartheid.

Many students were there on field trips, which was nice to see. Many of them wanted their picture taken. A little like Indonesia but without the “Hey Mister!”

But the highlight was the walk to the sculpture. From a distance it is a bunch of funny-looking metal posts, but they morph as you approach…

And then more driving into the Drakensberg Mountains. It was misty/cloudy in the afternoon when we arrived, but wow…air so clean…silence so deep…the place had a wonderful and spiritual feeling. This area used to be home to the Bushmen, aka San People. There are rock paintings done by them, some 5000 years old, some from 150 years ago.

In the high distant mountains is the completely-surrounded-by-South-Africa country of Lesotho. When King Shaka vanquished his enemies and forced them to join his ranks, some chose instead to flee to the mountain tops. There they developed their own culture, and now their own high-altitude country.

And then we headed “home.” But we made a stop at the Ardmore ceramics center. Here Zulus are trained in techniques, but then they are free to make their own creations. Ardmore works have become world-renowned. They say they have no problem finding capable artists, but they have lost many to the AIDS epidemic. Those fallen artists are commemorated on a wall of ceramic works showing their faces. A happy sign is that none of the current artists have AIDS.

So. Our tour is done. I think we were incredibly lucky to connect with Greg, and that he was available and could put the whole itinerary together on almost-no-notice! Time now to turn our attention to the weather forecast, and hope for a favorable weather window for sailing around the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Town…

It took a couple days, even with our BPO rep’s help, to clear inTo Durban. We had it easy compared to Tahawus, though. They needed proof that their boys belonged with them…notarized birth certificates…divorce/custody papers…things you don’t expect to need while cruising! With various documents emailed from home, they were cleared, too.

There is a very welcoming Point Yacht Club here at the Durban Marina, with food and wifi and hot showers. But it was getting frustrating to be in Africa and see nothing but a yacht club, and do nothing but check email and wait to meet with authorities. Yesterday when all three boats were cleared in, we finally got out for a local lunch of “bunny chow.” No one seems to know for sure where this term originated, but it is Indian curry in a hollowed out loaf of bread, and it is a Durban specialty. I’m told ours was rather mild, but it was at my limit — I don’t think I could have tolerated a more powerful curry. Liam is hungering for more, though.

For today we had arranged a day tour of notable sites within driving distance. Greg is our tour guide, and he loves this country and seems to know everything about it, and he loves to talk. Our tour had a drinking from the firehose quality at times, but it was great. We went to four sites linked to four important historical figures, and the miles in between were filled with historical tales. First up was the gravesite of the Zulu chief Shaka, who in the early 1800’s built the Zulus from a collection of small tribes to a powerful warrior nation. His personal story, and the Zulu story, are very interesting, but it is too much for me to retell, and I would get 50% wrong anyway. Although Shaka eventually went a bit off the deep end and was killed by his brothers, the Zulus remain a major force in this area. At Shaka’s gravesite there is a western style monument and a small museum, but there is also a single stone to mark the grave in the Zulu tradition. There were no other visitors there today, but we are told in two weeks on the anniversary of his death, there will be throngs filling the streets of the town.

Stop 2 was the home of Chief Albert Luthuli. Luthuli was president of the African National Congress, and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1960. The (white, apartheid) government refused to issue him a passport to travel to receive the prize. An outpouring of foreign support led to Luthuli being allowed to go to Oslo the following year (for 10 days only) to receive his award and receive the accolades of most of the world. In 1966 (with the US in the midst of its own racial/social upheaval), Robert and Ethyl Kennedy flew by helicopter from Durban to Luthuli’s home. The photos of Kennedy with Luthuli, in this simple remote place, without entourage, seem very “real.” Real as in two men committed to common ideals, speaking with each other, not to reporters.

Each stop seemed to hit “closer to home.” Number 3 was the home of Gandhi. I’ll attempt a little background here. The Brits decided that this area was ideal for growing sugar cane — warm sunny weather (despite today’s pouring rain), availability of water, and availability of cheap/black labor. Except they found that the Zulus would not work for them. They needed slaves, but they had abolished slavery. The solution was to bring indentured servants (not-quite-slaves) from India. LOTS of them. Hence the very large Indian population in the Durban area (largest Indian expat community in the world, at least until very recently). But they of course were not treated well, and Gandhi came as a young lawyer to help with some of their legal issues. Though the plan was for him to come for 6 months, he remained in South Africa for 21 years. Although he was a wealthy and well educated man, in SA he was “colored,” and thus second class. This experience changed him, forming his views about overcoming oppression through nonviolent action.

Gandhi’s house is in the middle of the second largest “dormitory township” in SA. That is, where the non-whites were to sleep, even though they came to Durban to work for the whites. This remains an area that most tourists shy away from. We were the only ones on this rainy day. Being there hits a nerve, and the absence of tourists deepens the impact. We were standing in Gandhi’s little house! This is where his beliefs took root. What an honor to stand here and read about the man! To sign the guest book. To compare his day to our day. What stand would he take against injustice today…?

And then we went to the site where Nelson Mandela, at age 75, after a lifetime of struggle against oppression, cast his vote in SA’s first democratic election. In his words: I voted at Ohlange High School in Inanda, a green and hilly township just north of Durban, for it was there that John Dube, the first president of the ANC, was buried. This African patriot had helped found the organization in 1912, and casting my vote near his graveside brought history full circle, for the mission he began eighty-two years before was about to be achieved.

After voting Mandela is said to have walked to Dube’s grave and said: Mr President, I have come to report to you that South Africa is now free.

South Africa remains a complex tangle of competing interests, of course, still in flux. As at home, the economic injustice remains, despite the end of apartheid. Land ownership by blacks is disproportionately small. Unemployment overall is at 24%, but for young blacks it is 50%. Still, so much has changed in a few decades. I used to think that “history” was old news and had little to do with “now.” Somehow my education failed to instill the idea that history is an ongoing process, happening today; that the events of the past have set a direction to the flow of events to come, and it is by collectively taking a stand that we have some ability to redirect the course of those events.