The Intriguing Mystery of Isilo uCetshwayo’s Death
On 8 February 1884, Isilo uCetshwayo kaMpande collapsed and died near Eshowe and the manner in which he died remained an intriguing mystery. The following day, on 9 February 1884, the medical examiner gave a report that he initially suspected poisoning, but no post-mortem was allowed by the late King’s retainers when Isilo uCetshwayo’s corpse was examined.
The “official” cause of death was eventually attributed to a heart attack, even though physicians from Cape Town and London, who had both previously examined Isilo uCetshwayo, differed in their opinions as to whether he had suffered from a congenital heart ailment or had died of other than natural causes. Many Zulus to this day believe that the last King to rule an independent Zulu kingdom was poisoned by his enemies and died a martyr.
Cetshwayo kaMpande was the king of the Zulu Kingdom from 1873 to 1879 and the Commander-in-Chief of the Zulu forces during the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. Cetshwayo’s place of birth was his father’s kraal of Mlambongwenya, near Eshowe. He was born in 1826, during a very troubled period in the history of the Zulu kingdom. At time of his birth, Isilo uShaka kaSenzangakhona was wielding a very powerful command of the Zulu nation, with Cetshwayo’s father, Mpande kaSenzangakhona, being Shaka’s younger brother.
At that time, Isilo uShaka was in conflict with Soshangane, a leader of the Ndwandwe breakaway faction that had f
