How the chief’s regalia sets him apart

Pathisa Nyathi

HAVING dealt with the roles and criteria for choosing chiefs we shall now look at those cultural features that marked a chief apart from other men. This was important so that the chief was accorded requisite respect and honour. At the same time, it exposed a chief to enemies. So it was with Chief Mgandane Dlodlo of Inxa Village. Chief Mgandane Dlodlo was sent by King Lobengula Khumalo to investigate the matter pertaining to royal cattle that had been confiscated by the whites living at Fort Victoria (now Masvingo) in July 1893.

The incident was brewed up in order to provoke the Ndebele and find an excuse to attack them and destroy their state. Chief Mgandane Dlodlo was told to get off and be on the other side of the “border.” It was a “border” that existed in the fertile imaginations of whites who were hell bent on attacking and destroying the Ndebele State within which they believed King Solomon’s mines were situated. It was these July Incidents that led to the outbreak of the Anglo-Ndebele War of 1893 (Imfazo I). It was not difficult for the white settlers to identify Chief Mgandane Dlodlo as leader of the investigating party.

Oral traditions point to the fact that Chief Mgandane Dlodlo was shot dead, his head severed and his private parts stuffed into his mouth. The head may have been taken away to England as a trophy just as happened to that of Chief Chingaira Makoni Maungwe people in Rusape. The trophies are yet to be repatriated back to Zimbabwe for proper burials.

Dress was used as a differentiating feature — one that set a chief apart from ordinary men. A chief epitomised the community that he led. For the continuation of peace, order and security the person of chief was protected. Fortification took no less than one dimension. Men accompanying a chief made sure he was properly guarded. He was not allowed to move ahead of all his men. A chief was flanked on all sides by men. However, this was not the only way a chief was protected.

Military traditions that sought to protect a chief were in line with what people believed in. As we know, Africans believed in the dual nature of human beings. There were twin realities: the material and spiritual realms. Spears and shields took care of the material component of a chief. This sort of physical protection was not deemed sufficient for total protection. The interactive nature of the two realities meant an exposed or vulnerable spiritual component led to the exposure and sickness of the material component and vice versa.

In order to take care of the spiritual component, a chief used toe nails of an eagle. These hung from his neck. It was symbolism at work. An eagle is perceived by Africans as a fierce fighter and defender of territory. When it swoops down on prey there is some sound akin to that of thunder. It attacks using its talons. The sharp and strong nails (inzipho) pierce the target which ultimately dies. Having eagle toe nails dangle from a chief’s neck protected the chief while at the same time symbolically attacking the enemy.

The same idea was extended to the use of a lion’s claws. A chief, just like a king, was supposed to show his bravery by leading a hunt during which he killed a lion. A lion is a fierce fighter that uses both its sharp and strong teeth and toe nails to attack prey. It is both an attacker and a defender. These are traits that are symbolically transferred to a chief. As pointed out in an earlier article, when a chief speaks his voice sounds like that of a lion — feared and held in awe. Ibhonga, a ball of hair, that we referred to earlier, complements the claws of a lion, an animal that in addition to being a fighter is dignified and majestic.

These are qualities that a chief sought after and were symbolically imparted to him through the use of claws of a lion. During excavations at Old Bulawayo in the 1990s, lion toe nails were retrieved.

The claws were drilled using a sharply pointed and hot metallic device (incukuthu). String was then threaded through and the claws made to hang from the neck for all and sundry to see and behave appropriately. The items hanging from a chief’s neck were referred to as izigqizo. While on the one hand these items protected and defended, in a symbolic sense the person of chief, they also served as identifying items of chiefly regalia.

Izigetsho were the other chiefly markers. Izigetsho were made from hairy goat skins and were worn below one’s elbows. As a general rule, izigetsho were obtained from white goats with long hair. The colour black was shunned. The counterparts to izigetsho were amadloli also from a white hairy goat. The difference was that these were worn below knees.

A leopard is both majestic and associated with awe, dignity and respect. At the same time, it is also an accomplished fighter. Chiefs wore leopard skins on their waists. Leopard skins were worn in conjunction with skins of other animals in particular genets (onkone). Pictures of Chiefs Gampu Sithole (son of Maqhekeni) of eMagogweni and Sindisa Mpofu of Empandeni show them donned in leopard skins. Only the king wore a leopard skin over shoulders.

Alternatively, chiefs wore imithika, some kind of skin kilt with strips dangling from the waist. Animals with colourful skins were chosen for the making of umthika (some refer to this as umthinsi) with twisted leather skins that ended just above the knees. To add beauty, imithika for chiefs were fashioned out of leopard skins.

Chief Mgandane Dlodlo would have easily been identified through his head gear. Men wore indlukula made from ostrich feathers. In addition to indlukula they also wore isigula, pompom, also made from ostrich feathers. Its appearance was rounded, and looked like a folded up hedgehog (inhloni). King Lobengula Khumalo’s famous drawing shows him donning isigula. On the first floor of the City Hall in Bulawayo there is a drawing that also depicts the king’s isigula. Isigula seems to have fallen into disuse during the colonial era while indlukula has persisted largely among izangoma, who are spirit mediums of men who used to be soldiers during the heyday of the Ndebele State. However, some specimens are held in British museums. There are also specimens held as private collections. I saw one good specimen in Harare not so long ago.

In the case of a chief his indlukula had a white feather sewn to its centre. This was an important marker for the chief — a cut above the rest. Chief Mgandane Dlodlo is said to have donned one such indlukula and was accordingly identified as leader of the party and subsequently shot dead. King Mzilikazi Khumalo wore a feather but not an ostrich one like chiefs. For him the feather was of a roller whose colours are beautiful — predominantly blue and lilac. The bird is known as ifefe in IsiNdebele.
Finally, a chief indeed like other Ndebele soldiers carried as part of his military paraphernalia a shield, isihlangu. For a chief the shield was generally from an animal (ox) whose colour scheme was described as intusi.