South Africa: The Art of a Nation review – from the dawn of man to the violence of apartheid

British Museum, London
Bringing together Zulu spears, tribal cave paintings and 20th-century activist collages, this dazzling array is a brilliant tribute to one of art’s true centres

Can war be beautiful? It was undoubtedly an art of sublime elegance for the Zulu nation in the 19th century, when they used some of the most precise military manoeuvres ever planned to massacre an entire British army.

The Battle of Isandlwana in 1879 shocked and perplexed the Age of Empire. Warriors equipped mostly with spears and ox-hide shields should not have been able to destroy a European force armed with Martini-Henry rifles, it seemed to Victorians.

Related: Zanele Muholi’s best photograph: out and proud in South Africa

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