Battle of Ndondakusuka

Mbuyazi was defeated at the battle and was killed, leaving Cetshwayo in de facto control of the kingdom, though his father remained king.

[citation needed] With respect to the Zulu king, succession had been murky ever since 1816 when Shaka had supplanted his half-brother and presumptive heir Sigujana.

Previous kings had succeeded to the throne through bloody means, and Mpande's successor would face the same trial.

[5] In response to this mobilization, in mid-November 1856 Mbuyazi and his forces fled further south toward the Tugela River and Natal, with the hope that he would receive asylum there.

Dunn gathered a small group of thirty-five Natal Border Police with an additional force of about a hundred native hunters.

Mbuyuzi remembered that Mpande's general Nongalaza had overcome a superior force during the Battle of Maqongqo against Dingane.

Mbuyazi had his warriors burn a line in the grass which would serve as a marker of no further retreat as they pledged to win, and if not to die on the field.

In the aftermath of the battle the uSuthu faction slaughtered, with their assegais, every iziGqoza they could find, including the women and children.

It is estimated that 20,000 people were killed and the mouth of the Tugela river where the bodies washed up began to be referred to as the Mathambo ("place of bones")[8] John Dunn later negotiated with Cetshwayo for the return of settler property captured after the battle.