Majuba - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

MAJUBA (properly Amajuba, Zulu for "the hill of doves"), mountain in northern Natal, part of the Drakensberg range, rising about 7000 ft. above the sea and over 2000 ft. above the level of the surrounding country. It overlooks the pass through the Drakensberg known as Laing's Nek, is 8 m. S. of the Transvaal border and 18 m. N. of the town of Newcastle. The railway from Durban to Johannesburg skirts the base of the mountain. During the Boer War of 1880-81 Majuba was occupied on the night of the 26th of February 1881 by some 600 British troops under Sir George Pomeroy Colley. On the following morning the hill was stormed by the Boers under Piet Joubert and the British routed, Colley being among the slain.