Mzinaythi crossing / Rorke's Ford

 low water crossing (bridge)  Add category

Mzinaythi (Waters of the Buffalo) was known to the British colonialists as the Buffalo River. It marked the boundary between the Zulu kingdom (kwaZulu) and the British colony of Natal to the south. At this spot the river is often shallow enough to wade across, and so after 1849 it came to be called Rorke's Drift ("drift" being the term in Southern Africa for a river ford.) At 04h30 of 11 January 1879 Lieut. General Sir Frederic Thesiger (aka Lord Chelmsford) crossed over at the head of the 4,000 man Column Three, the objective being King Cetshwayo's royal kraal at Ulundi. The Anglo-Zulu War was underway.
James Rorke, son of an Irish soldier in the Eastern Cape, acquired 4,000 acres on the Natal side of Mzinaythi in 1849 and went into business as a farmer and trader. He built a trading post at the foot of Shiyane ("Eyebrow") Hill. The Zulu called this trading post and the surrounding land kwaJimu, the "Place of Jim." Following the Langalibalele uprising, Rorke volunteered for the Buffalo Border Guard and was given the rank of First Lieutenant. Rorke died in 1875 and three years later the Rev. Otto Witt purchased the property on behalf of the Norwegian Missionary Society.
Long shot of the modern highway over Rorke's crossing on the Mzinaythi by Peter Critchley.
Close up photo of Rorke's ford at low water by Keith Matin.
Hand colored photo dated 1879 shows one of the two white painted ferry boats with the Oskarberg about one kilometer to the southeast.