The Battle of Gqokli Hill has been claimed by some to have occurred on or around April 1818, a part of the Ndwandwe-Zulu War between Shaka of the Zulu nation and Zwide of the Ndwandwe just south of present-day Ulundi ( 28° 22' 23" S 31° 21' 15.77" E).

[1] The Zulus were originally a close-knit ethnic group community that had migrated to the eastern plateau of present-day South Africa; they became a strong tribal nation largely due to the efforts of an ambitious chieftain named Shaka (c. 1787–1828, reigned 1816–1828).

Shaka revolutionized traditional ways of fighting by introducing the iklwa, a short stabbing spear, as a weapon and by organizing warriors into disciplined units that fought in close formation behind large cowhide shields.

The Ndwandwe general, thinking he was seeing the entire Zulu herd and half their army, obliged by sending four regiments (about 4,000 men) off to chase the cattle down.

In the first charge up the slopes, it quickly became apparent that the Ndwandwe superiority in numbers would actually be a hindrance, for the converging formations began to crowd into each other, making it difficult to throw their spears effectively.

He correctly reasoned that the problem presented by the Zulu's central hilltop position, and the congestion that caused in his own forces, needed more thoughtful, flexible tactics.

Shaka's men, by contrast and thanks to his foresight, had plenty of water, food and first aid supplies in the depression on top of the summit, so were not nearly so taxed by the weather.

Shaka had earlier arranged for the decoy force to the south to signal him with smoke when the 4,000 Ndwandwes on the cattle raiding expedition were heading back.

Both sides had suffered casualties during the day, the Ndwandwes in greater proportion than the Zulus (due, it has been claimed by Zulu oral tradition, to the superior weapons, discipline, and fighting techniques implemented by Shaka).

He moved 1,500 of his warriors, including his crack amaNkayia brigade, to the north of the hill in a gigantic attack column, about twenty men wide and seventy-five ranks deep.

This enveloping ploy on the part of Shaka was the first trial of a maneuver that would thereafter become the signature tactic of the Zulu army, the Impondo Zenkomo, or "beast's horns".

As the fighting on the northern slope wound down, Shaka ordered his remaining regiment on the south side, the Jubingwaqa, to attack the southern wing of the Ndwandwes.

[3] While Shaka's new tactics, his newly trained army, and his shrewd battle plan saved his people from extermination, he had by no means eliminated the Ndwandwe threat.

Zwide, for his part, was infuriated by the loss of his sons, by the blow to his arms, and, most of all by the temerity of the upstart usuper of the Zulu clan, and came back the following year with an even larger army and smarter generals.

[4] Dan Wylie, in his 1992 article “Textual Incest: Nathaniel Isaacs and the Development of the Shaka Myth” in the journal History in Africa, lays out how the story probably came to be:Gqokli hill, however, first appears in Bryant’s Olden Times, and then only as a landmark to the battle which occurred on the nearby Mhlatuze river.