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Pathisa Nyathi, Cultural Heritage
“ON turning around, I saw him. There he sat — how changed! — the vigorous, active and nimble monarch of the Matabele, now aged, sitting on a skin with feet lame, unable to walk or even to stand. I entered and when he grasped my hands, gave one warmest look, drew his mantle over (his) face. It would have been an awful sight to see the hero of a hundred battles wipe from his eye the falling tear.”
This is an excerpt from an entry in the Matabele Journals of Reverend Dr Robert Moffat of the London Missionary Society (LMS) during his third visit to the Ndebele monarch King Mzilikazi kaMatshobana. The two had last met during the former’s second visit in 1835. Nearly twenty years later King Mzilikazi kaMatshobana was a sickly man who was afflicted by dropsy. Two of his wives attended to him and assisted him move from place to place.
The Ndebele people had since settled down just north of present day Bulawayo, near a hill called Umfazimithi not far from the Koce River. The area being referred to here was settled by those Ndebele that had moved from Marico under the leadership of King Mzilikazi kaMatshobana. In fact, the king himself had set up a new capital town at Emahlokohlokweni just west of Isiphongo Hill off the Bualawayo-Inyathi Road. Today, in the vicinity of Amahlokohloko, there is a place known as Esiphikeni. The name refers to the hood worn around the neck which carries the head —the metaphor for the king who is the head of state and nation.
Ihlokohloko (singular) refers to a bird that makes some noisy chirping and prefers to live in trees that fringe pools of water. The chief of Amahlokohloko was Mbambelele Hlabangana and young Prince Lobengula kaMzilikazi, when he reached the age for military conscription, joined Amahlokohloko together with Mtshane kaSinanga Khumalo who would later command Imbizo Regiment, King Lobengula kaMzilikazi’s crack regiment.
As narrated in the last three articles, King Mzilikazi kaMatshobana had managed to weld a single united nation out of three disparate nations that included the one that was then under the leadership of Prince Nkulumane kaMzilikazi. In practical terms, it was primarily Khondwane Ndiweni, King Mzilikazi kaMatshobana’s maternal uncle who ran the new state. The treasonable act of installing Prince Nkulumane kaMzilikazi took place when Khondwane Ndiweni’s party thought the king and his people had been wiped out by the Griqua.
Reverend Dr Robert Moffat undertook the trip in order to take a deserved break after translating and getting printed the Bible in Setswana. Two hunters and traders were passing through Kuruman on their way to Matabeleland. James Chapman and Sam Edwards, the son of an LMS missionary, arrived at Kuruman in May 1854. Mary Moffat, the wife of the LMS missionary remained behind although she did accompany her husband and the party as far as Motito. She advised her husband to do minimal reading and to carry only a handful of books. For recreation, he was to write the journal.
All the three trips to the Ndebele monarch had been captured in his daily diaries that came to constitute the Matabele Journals. However, in this recuperative trip he was going to concentrate on geological variations, the lie of the land, trees and fauna and native habits and customs. The Ndebele had been cut off from literate people since their hurried flight from Marico in 1837. To westerners, it was as if there was no history till the LMS missionary came into contact with the illiterate Ndebele people.
It was their misplaced thinking, it was only Reverend Dr Robert Moffat who rendered the account of the 1847 Andries Hendriek Potgieter-led Boer attack on the Ndebele in the Fumugwe area near the Shashane River. For Africans, history was documented in their own numerous ways. For example, the said 1847 attack is immortalised through Chief Mbiko kaMadlenya’s praise poem. It was Chief Mbiko kaMadlenya’s forces that managed to repulse the attackers. All captured Ndebele cattle being herded by Sotho collaborators were recovered.
There is also a song that used to be sung whose lyrics referred to “ukhalo lukaNdaleka,” Potgieter’s pass. There are surviving oral traditions in the Fumugwe area which relate to the 1847 attack. For the Kalanga people in the area, the Boers were the first they saw riding on horses. They had never seen horses and they thought there were animals bearing humans — mhuka dzakazwala bana!
It is further falsely claimed that the Reverend Dr Robert Moffat had the sole knowledge of what happened when the king was reunited with the party that had settled in Matabeleland before he did. The few articles that we wrote bear testimony to the goings on in the period after the coming together of the two sections that had been separated for two years. The retribution was so severe it endured in Ndebele memories to this day. If anything, the incidents contributed immensely to the political philosophy of the Ndebele with regard to succession. History, it seems, is no history till it is told by westerners who are literate. This is racial bigotry of mammoth proportions.
Reverend Dr Robert Moffat chose to become some emissary of sorts for both the Ngwato and the Griquas. Peter David’s daughter Troey, uToloyi, was still living among the Ndebele. It was also true of her cousin William who had since been appointed chief over some villages. He dressed like a Ndebele man and spoke IsiNdebele. In fact, he spoke very little of Afrikaans. To the LMS missionary, a member of the white race had degenerated to unimaginable levels and took it upon himself to secure the release of the two Ndebelised Griqua.
The other person who lived among the Ndebele was Macheng, a Ngwato royal who had been captured at a tender age by Ndebele soldiers. Reverend Dr Robert Moffat sought to secure his release and take him back to his Ngwato kinsmen. Reverend Moffat does give some indication of the route they followed from Kuruman till they got to Emahlokokweni. He does give the names of places that they travelled through, some ethnic groups that they came across and some rivers that they crossed: Motloutse, Shashe, Tati (Dadi), Ramakwebane, Shashane, Ngwizi, Mangwe and Semokwe, inter alia.
After a long and arduous journey, the party arrived in July 1854, leading to some emotional reunion between Reverend Dr Robert Moffat and King Mzilikazi kaMatshobana.
Online Reporter