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Pathisa Nyathi
In last week’s instalment we made reference to Mgandane Dlodlo as the chief of Inxa, the oldest of Emakhandeni villages, who led a contingent of men to investigate the matter surrounding royal cattle in Fort Victoria (now Masvingo). Dlodlo was a chief and was appointed ahead of other men in his party. Chiefs played an important role in the administration of the Ndebele State. Whereas we shall investigate these roles in later instalments, we need to focus initially on the criteria used to appoint chiefs.
Once a chief had been appointed the chieftainship was retained within his qualifying male descendants. The thinking behind this was that the succeeding chief was a chip off the old block; udiwo lufuze imbiza, like father like son. What that meant was if the original chief was a Dlodlo that particular Dlodlo man earned the chieftainship and his chieftainship was, as a general rule, retained within his male lineage, given that the Ndebele were both patriarchal and patrilineal. It will be necessary to deal with the worldviews of the Ndebele in order to appreciate why the chieftainship excluded women descendants of the founding chief of a particular village.
Cultural practices were rooted and steeped in a given community’s worldviews and cosmologies. These underpinning pillars of cultural practices help to answer the “why” question. We become wiser and more objective in our analysis and explanations of why certain things were done the way they were done. This avoids subjective approaches grounded in shallow and limited understanding. We shall seek to answer the question “why?” when we deal with chieftainship issues. A fairly definitive book is in the offing which will deal with traditional Ndebele principles of succession applicable in the pre-colonial era. Before that is done, we have to grapple with the criteria for choosing a chief in the first instance.
It is critical to note that when Mzilikazi Khumalo left what is now known as KwaZulu-Natal he himself was not king.
That means there were no chiefs to talk about. Along the way he was elevated (ukwenyuswa) to the status of king who was addressed with the royal “Bayethe” chant. His new position had to be accompanied by relevant rituals and ceremonies in conformity with his new roles, obligations and responsibilities. At the metaphysical level he needed extra protection and fortification which entailed appointment of traditional doctors to exclusively attend to him and him alone.
His settlement too had to be fortified, together with his huts and livestock byres. His food had to be prepared in a special way and have “tasters” and “testers” to ensure his food was not laced with medicines that sought to diminish his power, medicines such as ikhothamo. Traditional doctors assigned to him were on the lookout for any such medicines. The Halimanas have an ancestor, one Mazwi, who was praised as “usophuya mithi iphekiwe” for his exploits in identifying dangerous medicines destined for the king. Indeed, we do know of one Khumalo house that attended to such requirements. The house known as aManyangana, or uNgwende.
The house is today represented by Chief Mabhikwa Khumalo in Lupane and Chief Madliwa Khumalo in Nkayi. In Matabeleland South at Mzinyathini there is the Gwebu chieftainship which, for some time, was ruled over by the Khumalos belonging to aManyangana house. Illustrious military genius and strategist Mkhaliphi Khumalo belonged to the house and it was his descendants that had a long running tussle with the Gwebus, Majijili’s descendants. We shall say more in forthcoming installments about the Mabhikwa and Majijili-Manxeba chieftainships. Manxeba Khumalo was the son of Mkhaliphi who fought the Afrikaners at Vegkop in 1836.
Already Mzilikazi the man (indoda) had many wives. MaDlodlo was one of them and she was mother of Mangwana.
There was MaSigola whose son was uMuntu later known as Tshukisa. Masuku was the mother of Qalingana the father of Sikhonkwane some of whose descendants are in Nkayi. The last that we know was MaFuyane whose son was Lopila.
But once Mzilikazi was raised to the status of king he had to marry a woman, Indlovukazi that qualified to bear an heir (ozathatha intonga). Further, such a woman had to have amalobolo cattle paid by the nation. This did become an issue when heir to King Lobengula, the exiled Princess Njube did not fulfill this requirement. Indeed, cattle paid by the nation were collected and exchanged for money to pay for his qualifying wife.
The said wife was one Mwaka Nxumalo whose oldest child was Princess Zinkabi and the eldest son was Prince Nkulumane. Such a son born of king was referred to as Umntwana which was not the case with sons born of man.
Umntwana qualified to be king hence such princes never acted as regents. We shall see much later that when Queen Mwaka and Queen Fulatha Tshabalala were executed for complicity in the installation of Prince Nkulumane, Loziba Thebe okaPhahlana assumed the status of Unina Womuzi at Emhlangeni. Her daughter was Bhitshi who married Mehlomakhulu the son of Linganisa Dlodlo. Mehlomakhulu’s son by Bhitshi was Manqikila who then preceded Damasane, and later Msindazi. The former son’s mother was a MaKhumalo who belonged to the Inzonda section.
The latter was son of Londlela King Lobengula’s brother’s daughter. Unfortunately, Mehlomakhulu’s heir Manqikila who fought under Inqobo commanded by Mthini Mphoko Ndlovu died at Gadade in November 1893 and his minor son Vungindaba had Msindazi act as regent on his behalf.
The new king was the only person authorised to order raids. It was important to maintain one centre of power. Imagine if all chiefs were at liberty to order raids from their villages the authority of the king was going be seriously compromised. Indeed, the daughters of the king used to brag that only their father was ikhuphampi, the only person authorised to order a raid. All booty was surrendered to the king at his royal town where distribution of captives and cattle took place.
Daughters of the king played a role in consolidating the king’s hold on power. The royal princesses took precedence over the sons of women that had been married earlier. As we shall see later, there was a hierarchy of Khumalo princesses and women in terms of who bore a chief. Other women’s ethnic identities also counted as we shall see later.
The king had an entourage of followers, ranging from providers of close security to those who attended to his ablution requirements, disposal of hair and nails. His metaphysical fortification was buttressed by physical protection. His royal town was surrounded by villages constituting isiphika.
There is a place west of Isiphongo Hill known as Esiphikeni. The name is a remnant from the time when King Mzilikazi lived at his capital town known as Amahlokohloko. The Reverend Dr Robert Moffat visited the king there in 1854.
Isiphika is the hood around the neck which supports the head — the king and his royal town.
One of the privileges that the king enjoyed was the appointment of chiefs and their deployment around villages that were created in response to people being incorporated or assimilated into the burgeoning Ndebele State.
As we shall see later there were criteria that the king applied and once a chief had been appointed succession was done in such a manner that chieftainship was retained within the qualifying male progeny of the founding chief. It is to these criteria that we turn in the next batch of articles.
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