Well, the battles weren't carbon copies, if that's what you're saying - battles are like snowflakes, no two are ever the same <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> - but there were more similarities than simply "arrogant white men understand natives".

In both cases, the white soldiers had superior weapons, but were vastly outnumbered.

In both cases, the black soldiers were prepared to use their huge numerical advantage to compensate for the lack of firepower.

In both cases, this willingness to spend lives like loose change was something the white soldiers - or at least their leaders - were not expecting.

My understanding was the the soldiers at Rourke's Drift had ample time to retreat, but that would have meant abandoning the river crossing to the Zulu army and exposing the white settlements to attack. Instead, they used the time to shore up their defenses as much as possible.