The Dust Rose Like Smoke: The Subjugation of the Zulu and the Sioux

by James Oliver Gump

In 1876 Sioux and Cheyenne warriors annihilated Custer’s Seventh Cavalry on the Little Bighorn. Three years later and half a world away, a British force was wiped out by Zulu warriors at Isandhlwana in South Africa. In both cases the total defeat of regular army troops by forces regarded as undisciplined barbarian tribesmen stunned an imperial nation.

 

The similarities between the two frontier encounters have long been noted, but James O. Gump is the first to scrutinize them in a comparative context. “This study issues a challenge to American exceptionalism,” he writes. Viewing both episodes as part of a global pattern of intensified conflict in the latter 1800s resulting from Western domination over a vast portion of the globe, he persuasively traces the comparisons in their origins and aftermath.

Genres: History, Military History

178 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Claire Baxter · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. It had potential, and I found the last 2 chapters interesting, but a lot of the rest just didn't hold my attention. Possibly my fault for skimming over the introduction, which, on second reading, makes the purpose of the book a lot clearer. Basically the author's contention is that American exceptionalism isn't as exceptional as some would like to think, and that there are many similarities between American conquest of the West and British colonialism. It's just that the British were more experienced at colonialism and were better at exploiting and subjugating foreign people (not saying this was a good thing!)

[Jeff Pollock · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very nice, brief, comparative study. The Zulu and Lakota and their relationships with the British/US empires offers a number of intriguing and enlightening parallels that Gump highlights in a workmanlike style. An expanded examination of their enduring images in the popular culture of the English speaking world would have most likely attained the fifth star for this work.

[David Nichols · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a recent example of the kind of comparative history that used to be fashionable, one which builds on – and usefully departs from – earlier studies (e.g. George Fredrickson, John Cell) of white supremacy in the United States and South Africa. The foci of Gump's book are two of the most powerful indigenous nations within the U.S.A. and South Africa, namely the Sioux and the Zulus. Gump calls these nations “subimperial” because, in signing treaties with Britain and the Americans while making war on their own indigenous neighbors, these two peoples unwittingly “collaborated” with their future imperial antagonists. This collaboration, combined with the Anglo-Americans' growing technological superiority, helped ensure both indigenous nations' defeat in the long run, though they were occasionally able to inflict heavy casualties on imperial armies (at Little Big Horn and Isandlwana).

Both the Sioux and the Zulus rose to power thanks to revolutionary changes in their social or economic organization, namely the Sioux horse-and-bison economy and the Zulu age-group regiments (amabutha) instituted by Chaka. Both peoples benefited from natural disasters that decimated their indigenous neighbors and rivals, and warriors from both nations defeated or expelled their surviving indigenous neighbors in the first half of the nineteenth century. Concurrently, both the Zulus and Sioux signed peace treaties with the local hegemon (Britain or the U.S.), which turned on them once the two “subimperial” powers suffered internal conflict and economic decline in the 1860s and '70s. Zulu and Sioux warriors won some initial victories but both then suffered decisive defeat: the Zulus saw their capital burned, their king Ceteswayo imprisoned, and their homeland partitioned, and the “hostile” Sioux were confined to reservations and subjected to the U.S. government's assimilation program. Journalists and writers from Britain and the United States subsequently enacted a kind of literary conquest, turning Zulu and Sioux warriors into doomed “savage” heroes whose defeat proved the cultural fitness of their conquerors. The mechanics of imperialism, Gump concludes, were much the same on both continents, but they were accompanied by some surprising (and surprisingly similar) twists.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

My professor at the the University of San Diego wrote this book... I studied in South Africa with a class he was co-teaching and his book proved to be a great historical reference in terms of the history of the interactions between the Zulu/other native South African tribes and the British. Gump makes an interesting comparison study by using the Zulu and the Sioux as parallel colonialism/expansionism narratives. As mentioned below, the depiction of the Battle of Little Big Horn and that of Isandlwana, is fascinating. Read this book if you visit the South African battlefields!

[Jessie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating and eerie comparison of the similarities between the British subjugation of the Zulu in Africa and the American government's parallel subjugation of the Sioux in the US as a result of those respective governments' policies of imperial expansion and manifest destiny. It's very interesting to see how similar the Battle of Little Big Horn was to that at Isandhlwana even though they took part in very different parts of the world though only separated by three years' time.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was assigned reading for a college history class this spring. Well researched and well written. I had no idea of the similarities to both stories in this book. Without spoiling anything, it is very enlightening to read and at the same time very sad. It is recommended reading for anyone whether you are a history buff, or want to get a different perspective of "how the west was won", or how the Engish empire expanded.