A memorial to thousands of Zulus who died during one of the British army's worst defeats is to be unveiled today in South Africa.

The ceremony will take place during a re-enactment of the Battle of Isandhlwana which took place in Kwa-Zulu Natal province exactly one-hundred-and-twenty years ago.

The Zulus virtually wiped out a British force of nearly two-thousand troops.

Until now, the only memorial on the site has been to the British.

In a nearby engagement which began on the same day, a small force of British troops held off thousands of Zulus at the Rorke's Drift mission station -- an action immortalised in the cinema film, Zulu.