Frances Colenso admired the gallantry of the men who defended the fort at Rorke’s Drift, and the restraint of the men who attacked it.
On January 22nd, 1879, some 150 British soldiers repelled an attack by several thousand Zulu warriors on a tiny garrison at Rorke’s Drift. It was a gallant action in an otherwise dubious war: the British colony of Natal had picked a quarrel with King Cetshwayo of the Zulus as an excuse to annex his realm. Frances Colenso, daughter of the Bishop of Natal, appreciated the Zulus’ restraint.
Frances Colenso warned that if the British did not learn to treat the Africans with respect, a higher Power would soon teach them some manners.
In the 1880s, competition for Africa’s resources drove European powers to a frenzy of colonial exploitation. Frances Colenso, daughter of the Bishop of Natal, acknowledged that Britain had brought technology and education to Africa; but if the average African was still a child in some matters, that did not mean that we should treat Africans as if they were children. If we continued to do so, she warned, there would soon be a reckoning.