adminPathisa Nyathi
IT certainly was a long journey for us to get to this place. So it must have been equally so for the last Ndebele monarch King Lobengula whose fate is still shrouded in mystery and conjecture. Before undertaking the return journey we were honoured with a guided tour to the place where the Ndebele King Lobengula lived, albeit for a very short period. This was to be the icing on the cake towards which we looked forward.
While I was writing one of the instalments on the fate of the king I got some text message on 5 July 2015 from one avid reader and follower of this column. The message read as follows: “It would be worthwhile some day, funds permitting, to travel to Chief Mpezeni’s area in Zambia. Some years ago I worked with a Jele Khumalo who told me (King) Lobengula’s grave was there by a hill.”
Much later, while on a return trip from Harare, I met another fanatical follower of this column, in particular the articles pertaining to the last Ndebele king’s final days in Zambia. The informant told me he had been told about the burial place being a hill not far from Luwangeni where Chief Mpezeni lived after relocating from Mtenguleni. He cited the white birds that he was told used to live on the same hill. It was interesting to get these accounts which seemed to tally with what we were about to be told by the man, George Zulu who was assigned to guide us to the supposed final resting place of the Ndebele king.
George Zulu whose surname bore testimony to his links to the Zulu of KwaZulu-Natal drove ahead of us. We followed behind him in Reverend Paul Bayethe Damasane’s car. To our right was a chain of hills running parallel to the road along which we were driving. I gazed at the hills and discovered they were not rocky. This is to say they did not have rocks among which there could be caves where a Ndebele king would possibly have been buried.
I knew the tradition regarding royal burials among the Ndebele. The soil must never touch the remains of a Ndebele king. As a result, the king was buried in a cave so that rock boulders would constitute some cover above him. I was becoming a little concerned and jittery that we were being led to a place that did not qualify as a burial place that passed as such for Ndebele royalty. In due course my fears were dispelled. There, at the very end of the line of hills, was one that was rocky. That was what I expected. As we drove closer and closer the hill loomed large and I was convinced that this is the hill that was our target.
I pointed out to Reverend Damasane that the emerging hill was the only one among the several that were in full view that was a likely candidate as a burial place for King Lobengula. We turned off the main road towards the last set of hills. George Zulu led the way until we got to where we could not navigate the cars any longer. The hill that was the focus of my attention was still a short distance away. We parked our cars at some village where we were going to interview some people.
In 1893 Chief Mpezeni II was already living at Luwangeni. He had moved from the original site at Mtenguleni where he still returns every year for the Ncwala ceremony. It was here that King Lobengula is said to have arrived with his contingent among whom was a coloured man. They set up a village close to Chief Mpezeni’s royal town. Proximity to the royal residence offered protection and safety to the Ndebele king and his entourage. Initial briefing came from George Zulu who seemed au feit with the history and fate of both the king and his people.
According to George Zulu, King Lobengula did not live long after he arrived at Luwangeni. The date of his demise is given as 1897. The king would have arrived early in 1894 following a long trek from the Zambezi River. If indeed he died in 1897 it means he was in Luwangeni for just three years. However, what is critical is not the year of his death but the fact that he did get there and lived there but soon died and his remains were interred in the land of the Ngoni. The Ngoni knew the burial practices of the Ndebele. If they did not, the surviving members of the royal party would have advised them accordingly.
Sources indicated to us that King Lobengula’s settlement is still recognisable and is referred to as Mashanga, apparently a corruption of Mahlanga. The people there including the descendants of the Ndebele spoke and still speak Chewa. Perhaps the timing of his death, having taken place prior to attack by the British coming from Nyasaland, makes sense. The British overran the land of the Ngoni and certainly if the Ndebele king was still a refugee there they would have taken a keen interest in his fate.
However, the invasion by the British took place in 1897 which is most likely after the demise of the Ndebele king in the same year. The army marched from Mchinji (Fort Manning) and was led by the German spy Wieze (Makalinto). Chief Mpezeni’s son and heir apparent Princess Nsingo (meaning sharp like a razor blade) who had earlier beaten the German spy faced a 10-day war. The prince was captured and shot dead by Lt-Colonel Poole who later became the District Commissioner for Petauke.
Since then there have been numerous accounts relating to the fate of King Lobengula. In 1980 Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda reinstated the celebration of the hitherto banned Ngoni Ncwala. A committee was set up to organise the event. Its first chairman was one Blackson Matshakazi Lukhelo from the University of Zambia. He came from the Feni Village. Lukhelo wrote about the burial place of the Ndebele king on Nsanjika Hill and how he and Chief Mpezeni II had met as far back as 1894 when the Ndebele monarch sought refuge among the Ngoni.
District Commissioner Lt-Colonel Poole also wrote some articles on the fate of the king in the land of the Ngoni. However, more insightful accounts came from Kafelamali Ndlovu who was born on 31 May 1932. He made reference to stones on Nsanjika Hill before the 1970s. One day he discovered that the stones were missing. He and his brother went to investigate.
The stones were nowhere to be found, nor were the nkhunda, the white birds that were a common feature on the hill where the Ndebele king’s remains were said to have been interred. Ndlovu claimed that some white treasure seekers came and took away the stones.
Newton Ndlovu, another informant, left his village in 1952. At the time he says the stone was in place together with the nkhunda birds. Mashanga was at the foothill of Nsanjika Hill. There were strangers who arrived on the scene and made efforts to domesticate the nkhunda. The strangers, however, failed to capture and bring back the birds. Apparently, the birds had been living on Nsanjika Hill long before the arrival of King Lobengula. Even the Ngoni found the birds living on the hill.
Whenever there was a drought a black bull was sacrificed on the hill in order for the rains to fall and break the drought spell.
A surviving brother of Chief Mpezeni II said King Lobengula died “here.” But “this” is not his burial place. While we were interviewing some people, one woman freely volunteered her own side of the story. “People came here to remove King Lobengula’s remains and reburied them at a secret site.” What is common with all the accounts is that the king’s remains are somewhere in Chief Mpezeni’s country. On that there is unanimity. And yet even there, the exact location where his remains are interred remains a vexatious issue.
Wayangaphi Bhengula wamaWaba?
Sitshele silo sikaMabindela,
Size sidelis’ eyethu imimoya,
Sikudlel’ inkubalo sidele,
Saz’ ukukubuyisa,
Imimoya yeth’ ibuye,
Buze buphele lobunzulane,
Ngenxa yowakh’ umoy’ ozula lamazwe!
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