Cetshwayo kaMpande

Cetshwayo kaMpande (; ; 1826 – 8 February 1884) was the king of the Zulu Kingdom from 1873 to 1884 and its Commander in Chief during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. His name has been rendered as Cetywayo, Cetewayo or Cetshwayo. Cetshwayo consistently opposed the war and sought fruitlessly to make peace with the British and was defeated and exiled following the Zulu defeat in the war. He was later allowed to return to Zululand, where he died in 1884.

Early life Cetshwayo kaMpande was born in 1826, the son of future Zulu king Mpande kaSenzangakhona and Queen Ngqumbazi. Cetshwayo succeeded in defeating Mbuyazi, annihilating most of his Gqoza followers, including five of his own brothers, and the capture of nearly one thousand head of cattle from white traders who had congregated nearby. Cetshwayo restricted access to firearms to the Usuthu in the period before his Coronation due to fear of usurpation. Shepstone helped bring about the annexation of the Transvaal, making it a British colony. As a result, a complex Boer-Zulu border dispute became a British-Zulu issue, affecting the previously positive British-Zulu relations.

An 1878 Boundary Commission established by Sir Harry Bulwer, then Lieutenant-Governor of Natal, investigated the boundary dispute with the cooperation of Cetshwayo. The commission established that the Boers had no right to be in Zulu land, maintaining a peaceful British-Zulu relationship. Such a finding disappointed High Commissioner to Native Affairs and Governor of Cape Colony Sir Henry Bartle-Frere, who withheld the findings of the Commission, believing incidents would occur that could justify the annexation of Zululand.

Anglo-Zulu War

As early as August 1878 High Commissioner for Native Affairs and Governor of the Cape Colony Sir Henry Bartle Frere sought to subjugate Zululand, believing the Zulu to be an significant obstacle to the federation of South African colonies.

After pleas from the Resident Commissioner, Sir Melmoth Osborne, Cetshwayo moved to Eshowe, where he died a few months later on 8 February 1884, presumably from a heart attack, although there are some theories that he may have been poisoned.

There is a brief allusion made to Cetshwayo in the novel Age of Iron by J. M. Coetzee in the line "The new Africans, pot-bellied, heavy-jowled men on their stools of office: Cetshwayo, Dingane in white skins."

A character in the opera Leo, the Royal Cadet by Oscar Ferdinand Telgmann and George Frederick Cameron was named in his honour in 1889.

In Film Mangosuthu Buthelezi.In the 1964 film Zulu which depicted the Battle of Rorke's Drift, Cetshwayo was played by Mangosuthu Buthelezi, his maternal great-grandson and the future leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party. In the 1979 film Zulu Dawn depicting the Battle of Isandlwana, he was played by Simon Sabela.

In the 1986 miniseries Shaka Zulu, he was played by Sokesimbone Kubheka.

Civilization V: Brave New World features Cetshwayo as the leader of the Zulus in the Scramble for Africa scenario.