Of course we said yes as we couldn’t let him down. I was ecstatic about going to war and I was very excited. But Andrew wasn’t looking so forward maybe it was because he is older and wiser than I am but surely he must be looking forward to it. I asked him “Are you not excited about the battle, we will be fine we have rifles now, we can win this” he snarled at me and said “Don’t be so bloody foolish, have you not seen what these Zulu savages do to people. I guarantee you, we won’t see them coming. They will kill up to fifty people before we notice they are there” I was surprised by his answer I thought he would be as excited as I were, as he and I are excellent marksman we hunt every other day, we have experience and never miss what we are aiming for. I tell him this and he sighs and says, “I know”.
3
A week goes by and we have been training the Nimbi warriors and they are doing well. As we get nearer and nearer the invasion my confidence in this country winning increases. We have had news from a Zulu traitor that they are going to invade in a month and four days, they are said to invade during the early morning hours. Therefore we must get our newly trained troops to the borders and get them ready for battle in about a month. My father has taught us over the years that organisation is the key to success, so I gathered that with organisation and discipline we could win this battle.
After training that day I went down to the village to meet Osaka and to congratulate him on how well his warriors are doing. During the meeting we discussed tactics and how many men the Zulus have. Half way through the meeting and a big, broad shouldered man walked in carrying a rifle at his side and a pistol holstered at his side. He stood in the doorway, completely blocking it. I couldn’t see his face as he stood in the shadows. As he slowly walked forward into the light I saw his face, it was David Minnow, an old friend from five years ago when I was on a hunting trip in Zaire. He was a keen hunter and a wealthy businessman; he owned goldmines all over Africa. He must have heard about the trouble Botswana was about to face.
“Hi, what are you doing here? It’s been a long time”
“I heard about this war, which is about to kick off and thought I could be of a helping hand” he smiled at me.
“It’s good to see you again, how exactly are you going to help?”
“Well I was in Johannesburg on a business meeting, when I heard about the Zulu problem you were facing, its big news in South Africa you know. So I thought I could help you out by supplying horseback and sandbags etcetera.”
That night David stayed the night at our place and we had to get up at the crack of dawn to meet his contacts with the horses and various other supplies. We met and secured the horses and the equipment I can now call Osaka’s warriors soldiers and an army. They were fierce and strong. But now they are as skilled with weapons, as a butcher is with his blade. As battle crept closer and closer, the soldiers of Botswana became nervous for. Andrew and I had taught them well but they were worried about their lack of experience in battles in these recent years.
I was awoken Tuesday morning by Andrew. He said softly to me “were going hunting get ready”. It was late morning by the time we had reached crossed the river to the other side. This is where we always hunted as there was a guarantee you would find zebras and lions if you head half a mile away from the river. As we got to our hunting spot within half and hour of looking we came across a female lion. Andrew and I got of our horses and moved slowly through the long grass, the lion was aware we were stalking it as it suddenly took off through the grass and out into the open land we both had clear shots but Andrew called it. And with a bang, you heard the bullet thud into the lion’s side and you saw it slowly drop to the ground with a roar. We approached it cautiously with our guns pointing at it the whole time. The female was dead by the time we got there. Killing a lion was like killing a person it meant something to me it wasn’t just another antelope. It was the king of the jungle and when a lion goes down you know you have conquered the best of the best. It touched something inside you. We then tied the lion to the back of the horses and dragged it across the almost completely dried out riverbank and back to the village. You could see our house clearly from anywhere in the area, as it was the only house made out of bricks and the only house with two stories. When we first moved to Botswana from Africa the citizens along with Osaka were amazed at the building and luxuries we had in it, they still are. Anyway when we got back to the village with the lion all the children ran over and started shouting and screaming with excitement. The whole village saw us as heroic and courageous as killing a lion is something they never saw until we got to Botswana. But we aren’t as courageous as they think because we did it with rifles. But Osaka became leader of his tribe by killing a lion with his hands and a dagger that shows courage. Later that evening the villages all over Africa held a ritual ceremony to call on the gods to protect the children and women of the village and the warriors who were going to battle to save their country and their families.
4
Today is the day when our soldiers say goodbye to their families, as they may never return and the day we say goodbye to our father who has looked after me for 23 years and Andrew for 26 years. We spoke to him in the library of the house, which is his office. He said to us just before we had to mount our horses and ride to the border with the troops that had gathered waiting for us around the village. “I’m proud of you boys and so would you’re mother be, but please don’t put yourself in any more danger than you have to”. I simply replied “Ok father, ill see you soon”. Then Andrew and me got on our horses and rode off to meet the troops.
It was some site seeing 10, 000 men gathered from all the villages over Botswana. All I could see was these shiny black faces and a see of red loins. It was a magnificent site, they were carrying rifles on their backs, daggers in a holster a shield and a spear. We only got a total of 50 horses, and Andrew and I had two of these. The horses were strong mustangs that had been tamed. As we marched in front towards the border with 10, 000 men dressed in red following behind us. We looked fierce and organised.
Two hours later we arrived at the border. We have set up guard posts and the sandbags had already been laid down with the wooden spiked spears pointing diagonally towards the way the Zulus must come from it looked brilliant there are many huge wooden spiked spears pointing out and stretching for miles, ten metres behind that there are a line of sandbags stretching for miles and another ten metres behind there is another line of sandbags. Behind this line of sandbags is where we have our gunners and we have our better shooters up on wooden guard posts a bit further away. It looks as if we can’t loose. We’ve got men armed with spears, daggers and shields on the left and the right flanks, there are 2000 men on each flank waiting for the signal from me to tell them to charge. There is Andrew and I along with the other 48 horseback fighters armed with rifles and pistols and swords holstered and ready at our sides.
There is long grass in front of us stretching for miles. This was what we have to be careful about. Andrew said we wouldn’t see them coming, but I want to prove him wrong. We are now going to have to wait four days at the most for the attack and we don’t know how many of them there are but we do know we are more organised and much better armed.
That night we have men on lookouts ready to sound the alarm, which was a gunshot into the air. Whilst everyone else slept in their, animal skin tents, Andrew’s and my tent was made out of the lion skins that we had caught over the past month. We slept well that night as we had travelled a large distance from our village to the border of our country. In the morning the atmosphere was cheerful and everyone was chatting away and singing happily. I think it was part excitement and part relief that the Zulu’s didn’t attack during the night.
It was late morning and I was patrolling the lines on my mustang, making sure everyone was in their places and everything was organised. It was a scorching hot day, the sun was burning the back of my neck and the soldier’s faces were black and shining in the light. I was proud of these men and had great pride in them keeping our country from the savage Zulu spears.
All of a sudden a gunshot went off and the birds from the trees and the plains fled high into the air. I rode to the nearest guard post. Scrambling up the ladder in a panic I reached the top and scanned the area like a hawk searching for its prey. I saw nothing there except the long grass, the few tall trees and, and… a man injured and crawling like the lion that Andrew had shot down. I asked the guard frantically what had happened. He said with his vague amount of English “I see man run, over grass shouting and signal to east” All of a sudden I heard Zulu cries from the distance. You could here it getting nearer and nearer. They were coming…
5
Andrew and I along with the other cavalry sat on our horses staring into the open field. Then the nerves hit me in the face, I thought back to the lion that had dropped. It was the king of all species apart from us humans and then the symbolism of it hit me. So many lions, kings of everything are going to drop today.
The battle cries of the Zulus approached ever nearer, then we saw them coming over the hill at the end of the colossal plain. They knew my army had rifles but still they came and again they showed why they were renowned for their courage and savageness in battle. They were now only 300 metres away and the fear struck into everyone.
As they reached 200m Andrew ordered the 6,000 men with rifles to fire. The rifles went off, many Zulus dropped to the ground. They began running at us chanting a war taunt at us. They were waving their spears in the air like maniacs. Then the rifles went off again and the second lot of Zulus dropped down to the grass. They were fifty metres away and I signalled to fix the bayonets to the rifles. As they ran past the wooden spiked spears, many man pierced themselves onto the spears, you heard screams of pain as again the rifles went off. I signalled for the side units to move in and surround the Zulus. The Zulus launched spears slicing straight through the skin of some of my men. The man on the horse next to me was knocked off his horse by a loud thud. The spear had just missed me and hit him in the side. The Zulus were over the sandbags and hacking away at the riflemen as they attempted to fend them off with the bayonets. The sound of war is awful, screams of pain, shouting, the sound of skin being punctured and the clash of weapons banging together like the noise of dropping a frying pan on the tiled floor.
The cavalry including Andrew and me rode through the hoards of the savages swinging away violently, slicing thorough them like a knife through butter. There was still a mass of Zulus killing off riflemen rapidly. The foot soldiers armed with their spears and shields ran over the mass or wounded and dead fighters when they got to the fighting they were in an organised formation, a box formation, which protected them from every angle. As they fought towards the heart of the battle our cavalry and the men on the guard posts sniped out the Zulus from a distance. The foot soldiers including the riflemen swiped away at the Zulus, Every minute, men from both the Zulus and us were falling to their knees in pain and their screams echoed around the battle scene like it would in an empty hall.
As the fighting continued we carried on sniping, I looked around and behind us approaching quickly was a group of over 100 men running at Andrew, the cavalry and me. I shouted turn and shoot. Our 50 cavalry wiped out around 40 men as they ran ever nearer we all reloaded as quickly as we can many people panicking and dropping their ammo. We let off another round of shots, which downed about another 20 men. We drew our swords jumped off the horses and ran towards them, with a pistol in my left hand and the sword in my right.
I fought threw them, a tall, very muscular man who had the tattoo of a leader, swung his sword at me, I narrowly dodged it. My pistol was knocked to the ground by the quick movement I made to dodge the sword. We swung swords at each other the swords clanged together. As he swung at my head with his sword I ducked under it and swung my battle-tired arm at him, my fist hit him square on the jaw, he fell backwards trying to stay on his feet. I lunged forward, the sword in my hand squelched into his stomach as blood emerged, pouring from his mouth. We looked eye to eye as he fell to his knees. I felt a slash across my back I turned around in pain and saw a Zulu had swiped across my back with a dagger.
I fell to my knees before he could behead me Andrew came to my rescue, he ran through the mass of fighters and jumped at the man and with a scurried frenzy the man was killed. Andrew helped me up and I flinched as he lifted my arm and put it around his shoulder as we walked away from the battle he drew his pistol and told me to sit and defend myself with it. He ran back into the field. Away from the battle I sat, I looked at the faces of the warriors and I saw the true reality that I had seen just before the battle started. The sadness brought a tear to my eye as I saw what war turned people into. The violence I saw on Andrews face was, as I had never seen him before it was as if he was possessed. As Zulus ran at me I could do nothing my hands froze, I didn’t want any more killing. As they reached me they plunged their spears and swords at me, I didn’t feel a thing, as I slowly drifted away I heard the screams of Andrew shouting, “No, please god no”. My people, my family won the battle. I was gone from this earth but I will watch over and protect my loved ones forever more.
Richard Demko
