Qualla: Battle of Majuba Hill https://qualla.com/battle-of-majuba-hill en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:25 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Battle of Majuba Hill https://qualla.com/battle-of-majuba-hill Battle of Majuba Hill: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-majuba-hill/ Photo credit Melton Prior (1845-1910)., Public domain. The Zulu named this place amajuba — the hill of doves — long before it became a byword for military disaster. It is a flat-topped mountain rising some 2,000 feet above the high border country between Natal and the old Transvaal, and on the night of 26 February 1881 a British general led his men to the top of it convinced he had won simply by standing there. Major General Sir George Pomeroy Colley believed the summit was unassailable. By the following afternoon he was dead on its slopes, his force shattered, and the First Boer War effectively over. Few battles have so completely overturned the certainties of the men who marched into them.

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Image: Melton Prior (1845-1910). | Public domain

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/e/j/5/battle-of-majuba-hill-wp/kej5-battle-of-majuba-hill-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Majuba Hill: The General on the Summit https://qualla.com/battle-of-majuba-hill/ Photo credit Vberger, Public domain. Colley climbed Majuba in the dark with around 400 men, worried the Boers were edging trenches toward the hill and meaning to seize the high ground first. He may also have hoped the mere sight of British troops looking down on the Boer camp at Laing's Nek would break their nerve. ...

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Image: Vberger | Public domain

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/e/j/5/battle-of-majuba-hill-wp/kej5-battle-of-majuba-hill-the-general-on-the-summit.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Majuba Hill: The Climb Through the Dead Ground https://qualla.com/battle-of-majuba-hill/ Photo credit Vberger, Public domain. The Boers did not consider the hill scalable for war. Then they tried. Storming parties of volunteers, at least 450 strong, gathered under commanders including Nicolaas Smit, Stephanus Roos and Joachim Ferreira. Their method was patient and lethal. Older, experienced marksmen sta...

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Image: Vberger | Public domain

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/e/j/5/battle-of-majuba-hill-wp/kej5-battle-of-majuba-hill-the-climb-through-the-dead-ground.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Majuba Hill: When the Refuge Became a Trap https://qualla.com/battle-of-majuba-hill/ Photo credit Melton Prior, Public domain. The collapse came fast. The British general Piet Joubert later noted a cruel detail: British rifles had been sighted for 400 to 600 yards, but the fighting was happening at fifty to a hundred, so the soldiers fired downhill straight over the heads of the Boers climbing toward the...

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Image: Melton Prior | Public domain

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/e/j/5/battle-of-majuba-hill-wp/kej5-battle-of-majuba-hill-when-the-refuge-became-a-trap.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Majuba Hill: Remember Majuba https://qualla.com/battle-of-majuba-hill/ Photo credit Fidodog14, CC BY-SA 4.0. The arithmetic of the day was staggering. The British counted 285 killed, wounded or taken — among the dead, Captain Cornwallis Maude, son of a government minister — while the Boers lost barely a handful, a single man killed and a few wounded. These were not statistics to the fam...

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Image: Fidodog14 | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/e/j/5/battle-of-majuba-hill-wp/kej5-battle-of-majuba-hill-remember-majuba.mp3 0:06 5 full