Johan Wilhelm Colenbrander CB (1 November 1855 – 10 February 1918) was a Natal-born soldier and colonial official in Southern Africa. Colenbrander served with the Natal Mounted Police and the Stanger Mounted Rifles, seeing action in the 1879 Anglo-Zulu War. During the war Colenbrander negotiated the surrender of Zulu Inkosi (chief) Zibhebhu kaMaphitha and afterwards worked for him as a secretary and gunrunner. He fought for Zibhebhu during the 1883–1884 Third Zulu Civil War but lost all his trade goods and cattle when Zibhebhu was defeated.
Colenbrander worked as a trader in Swaziland for a period before moving to Mashonaland by 1889, where he worked closely with the British South Africa Company (BSAC). He won the trust of Ndebele King Lobengula but worked against him to set up the 1893–1894 First Matabele War, to the benefit of BSAC. After the war he was appointed head of a land commission that confined the Ndebele to a reserve of land much smaller than their pre-war territory. Colenbrander led a mercenary unit fighting for BSAC in the subsequent 1896 Second Matabele War. He raised another unit which served under British command in the 1899–1902 Second Boer War with Colenbrander leading a column against the Boer Commando of Christiaan Frederik Beyers. Colenbrander died in 1918 during filming of a movie about the Zulu War.
Early life
The National Archives of Rhodesia and a publication by the University of Natal give Colenbrander's birth date as 1 November 1855, though other sources give the year as 1856 or 1857. He was born in Pinetown in the British Colony of Natal, the fourth son of Dutch-born parents Theodorus Christiaan Colenbrander and Geraldine Nicolene van Groll. Colenbrander's parents had emigrated from Java in the Dutch East Indies to Natal in 1854 after their indigo plantation had failed. They established an indigo plantation at Pine Town and in 1857 established another and a coffee plantation near Unhlali, which grew into the settlement of New Guelderland. Colenbrander grew up in New Guelderland, looked after by a Zulu nurse from whom he became fluent in the Zulu language. In his youth became recognised as one of the best marksmen and horsemen in Southern Africa.
Zululand
Colenbrander joined the Natal Mounted Police, an all-white militarised colonial police force, in 1870. When the Stanger Mounted Rifles, a colonial volunteer military unit, was founded in 1875 he transferred to that unit. During the 1879 Anglo-Zulu War he saw action at the 22 January Battle of Inyezane and the 2 April Battle of Gingindlovu. At the latter battle he met John Robert Dunn, a British settler in Zululand who had been made a chief by Cetshwayo, the king of the Zulu.
Colenbrander became Dunn's secretary in the later stages of the war and negotiated the surrender of Zulu Inkosi (chief) Zibhebhu kaMaphitha. Colenbrander won Zibhebhu's trust and stayed on with him in Zululand as a secretary, trader and gunrunner. In 1911 he recounted to a Washington Post correspondent an account of his service for Zibhebhu in defeating a raid from a neighbouring Zulu chief in 1879. Colenbrander said that he led a force of 17 mounted Zulu, that he had personally trained, against a force of 300 warriors. He stated that he killed 17 Zulu that day and while alone riding down the survivors was attacked by a single warrior. He was struck on the head by a war axe and, falling from his horse, broke his rifle. Colenbrander said he suffered another wound to his hands in warding of an assegai thrust and was struck three or four times again on the head, leaving the weapon embedded in his skull. He then struck the Zulu with the spur on his boot, bringing him to the ground, and releasing the assegai which he used to stab the warrior. Colenbrander then tried to mount his horse when the Zulu, who had survived, leapt to his feat and struck Colenbrander on the back of the head as he dived from the horse. Grappling together on the ground Colenbrander said he was able to use the bent assegai blade to kill the Zulu. He treated the wounds with disinfectant from his store and said that eight days later was in action again against another raid. The encounter left him with a long scar down his left temple and cheek.