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Cultural Heritage, Pathisa Nyathi
BRAVE fighters were an asset to the Ndebele State as they provided it with the necessary protection and capacity for economic provision, both of which were necessary for the continued existence of the state. However, such men posed real threat to the state as they could easily become alternative centres of power. King Mzilikazi Khumalo, the founder of the state, was ever alert to such an eventuality. He himself had become an alternative centre of power to King Tshaka. So, an astute leader like King Mzilikazi had to strike a delicate balance between the two considerations.
Was it an accident that brave men connected to the king became chiefs? Was it an accident that the non-royal Khumalos provided regency within the Ndebele State, with some of them ultimately becoming de jure chiefs over imizi, amabutho and amaxhiba? Was it an accident that the Ndiwenis provided the largest number of men that were appointed chiefs within the Ndebele State, in particular during King Mzilikazi Khumalo’s tenure? These appointments were cleverly arrived at in order to ensure power was concentrated and retained within the ruling house of the Khumalos and also in the person of King Mzilikazi Khumalo as founding king of the state.
Political, social and economic arrangements were manipulated in such a way as to concentrate and retain power within a particular centre. In the previous article we considered two goals that had a bearing on the choice of chiefs.
Today we look at the third one, namely the concentration and retention of power in its various manifestations in the person of king. In this regard King Mzilikazi Khumalo provided a master stroke. His state faced the most serious military threat to its existence when the Afrikaners under Andries Hendriek Potgieter (uNdaleka) and Piet Uys attacked the Ndebele as from 1836 to 1837. The king decided to split his people into two groups. The one group would comprise the more vulnerable group of queens, princes and princesses. Over this group he appointed his own uncle Khondwane (remember Gundwane in history books?) Ndiweni, brother to the king’s mother Cikose Ndiweni.
The king assumed his own uncle was going to safeguard the interests of his nephew.
Brave men such as Mhabahaba Mkhwananzi owaseNtunteni and Dambisamahubo Mafu owakoGodlwayo were in this group to provide the necessary protection. When the king and his group were separated from this particular group for two seasons Khondwane decided, with the complicity of the brave men and queens, to install Prince Nkulumane.
The incident provides a good example of the king’s rabid opposition to the idea of having alternative centres of power. “There are never two suns in the sky, you have spoilt my son,” “Selingonele umntwana. Kalikho elaphuma elinye lingakatshoni,” boomed the king and had the queens and treacherous chiefs executed. It is interesting to note that it was this section of brave men and ethnically pure sections of the Nguni group that provided stiff opposition to Prince Lobengula Khumalo’s rise to the Ndebele throne in 1870 following the demise of founder King Mzilikazi.
Be that as it may, the king did not stop appointing his Ndiweni “uncles” to be chiefs of imizi. His very uncle Khondwane provided two chieftainships: Izinala/Izisongo (now the Nyangazonke Chieftainship in Matobo District) and the Kwezimnyama Chieftainship (now the Wasi Chieftainship in Mangwe District). Both chieftainships are descended from Mabuyana the son of Khondwane.
This was not all.
Thambo Ndiweni from the Madanga section of the Ndiwenis was appointed chief over Inhlamabaloyi or Inhlambane. The Khayisa chieftainship at Ntabazinduna is descended from the founding Chief Thambo Ndiweni. As we shall see later, there were further links between the Ndiweni and Khumalo royalty. For example, King Lobengula married no less than three daughters of Chief Thambo.
He also married several other Ndiweni women including Mpoliyana Ndiweni, the mother of Prince Njube Khumalo and heir to King Lobengula. He also married Sitshwapha Ndiweni the mother of Nguboyenja and his sister Sixubhuzelo. He also married Mahwe (spelt Marwe in some sources) Ndiweni, a sister to Ojingeni Chief Mletshe Ndiweni.
More Ndiwenis were appointed chiefs by their nephew King Mzilikazi Khumalo. Mpukane Ndiweni became chief over Usaba, now referred to as Mphini Chieftainship in the Bulilima District. At Mhlahlandlela a Ndiweni man Qaqa was in charge over Kwesincinyane (Emadibeni). Today there is a Bafana Ndiweni headmanship in the Matobo District. As already pointed out above, Mletshe Ndiweni was appointed chief over Ujinga and the chieftainship today exists in Nkayi District as Nkalakatha Chieftainship. Nkalakatha was the son of Nkomo who was son of founding chief Mletshe.
There was also the Lanjwana umuzi, located at upper Insiza River, whose chief was an Ndiweni man. Manyoba Ndiweni was the man who led the village into the 1896 rising. Chief Manyoba Ndiweni married Queen Fakubi, widow of King Lobengula Khumalo. Chief Manyoba’s father was Nhlakuza, son of Njola, son of Gebuhla, the son of Amangwe chief Ndlovu Ndiweni whose daughter was Cikose Ndiweni referred to above.
Some wonder where the myth about Nompethu Nxumalo as being King Mzilikazi Khumalo’s mother comes from.
True, Matshobana (mother was a Hlabangana), King Mzilikazi’s father had a wife if not wives among from among the Nxumalos. One known son from an Nxumalo wife was Dwangubani Khumalo who was older and more royal than Prince Mzilikazi. Briefly installed to succeed his slain father Matshobana, Dwangubani was quickly dispatched as he was regarded incompetent to stand up against the rising star of the Zulus, King Tshaka kaSenzangakhona kaJama. It’s all to do with the ethnic origins of the Ndiwenis.
The Khumalos were right in their choice of the less royal Prince Mzilikazi who was living among the Amangwe. He stood against King Tshaka and managed to keep his migrant kingdom intact till its destruction by Cecil Rhodes’ British South Africa Company forces in 1893.
There were many Ndiweni men that were not appointed as chiefs. Bravery and leadership skills were important considerations in addition to close blood relationships. It was all part of a delicate balancing strategy to safeguard the kingship and keep it within the royal Khumalo house and at the same time have Ndiwenis that could ensure defence and the continued existence of the Ndebele State.
Ndiwenis as chiefs proved loyal as they stood to benefit when their own nephew was in charge. Intermarriages between the Ndiwenis and King Lobengula Khumalo further cemented the already existing ties. King Mzilikazi himself never married a single Ndiweni woman. How could he when they were his “mothers?” But he married a Nxumalo woman, Mwaka the mother of Prince Nkulumane Khumalo.
For King Lobengula Khumalo the Ndiwenis were his “grandmothers” and it was Ndebele custom to marry “grandmothers”. King Lobengula Khumalo obliged big time!
Bongani Ndlovu