THIS BOOK IS BASED ON THE LIFE of a real horse, named Zulu, that lived and died in Africa.
I first encountered Zulu on a safari with Steven Rufus in the Northern Tuli Game Reserve in 1997. On that occasion a needy woman (who in the safari industry have the generic name Ms Schwartz from the Hamptons) was among the party and was riding Zulu. True to form, she was X-ray thin and all the other people on the ride were more focused on her moods than noticing much about her horse.
Staying in touch with Steven over the years I learned about the “great storm” of 2000. The next I heard of Zulu was when a colleague of mine went riding there, recounted here as “the chase”. Stephen was very excited about it and suggested I join him to try to search for and recapture the black stallion. For various reasons, I could not.
However, artist Gavin Doyle was at Mashatu around the time he was recaptured and was able to capture sketches of Zulu in the wild, which he later turned into outstanding paintings of the horse in his element. Subsequent to this I visited Mashatu about a dozen times, delving deeply into the facts and spirit of the place.
Parts of Zulu’s life are documented. For example, it is known that Zulu was born on a farm and then taken from Onderstepoort as part of the start-up herd for Limpopo Valley Horse Safaris (LVHS). There is circumstantial evidence he was sired by a Namibian stallion and a Boereperd dam.
During the first few years at LVHS, Zulu was used as a safari horse, not particularly favoured over any other, although his mild temperament was appreciated. After his recapture, however, he emerged as something unique: a domesticated horse with the survival knowledge of a wild zebra. He passed this on to both the horses (pitses) as well as the humans of Mashatu.
Almost nothing is known about those “lost years” while Zulu was running wild with the zebras (pitse-ya-nagas). However, there were certain other avenues of investigation to pursue. First was the work done by the various researchers at Mashatu, which gives great insight into conditions at the game reserve during that time.
Another, and this was most intriguing of all perhaps, is why Zulu did not succumb to either predators – of which there is no shortage in the area – or African horse sickness, to which horses in Africa are highly susceptible. There are no facts to be shared but the incident with Zulu and the African foxglove was observed.
Various people offered insights into the how and maybe, which has been used as the foundation for those chapters in the book. Perhaps the biggest gap in our knowledge is whether or not Zulu bred successfully with any of the zebras in his harem, although there are unsubstantiated reports that he did.
Then there is the ending. Even here, where we have a report from the person who was closest to Zulu where his days ended, with the passage of time and much debate, several versions have emerged as to what happened, or might have happened. They do not all tie together neatly.
When Herman Melville set out to write his classic Moby Dick, based on the terrible saga of the whaling ship Essex that was sunk by a giant sperm whale, he noted that it would be based on the facts, but “we do not have to include all the facts”. Such is the case with the story of Zulu. All the rest is Africa.