Online Reporter
King Cetshwayo of the Zulu kingdom was born in 1826 in KwaZulu, to Zulu King Mpande Ka-Senzangakhona and Queen Ngqumbazi. King Mpande was a half-brother of Kings Shaka, Sigujana and Dingane, who preceded him as Zulu kings. He came to power after he had overthrown King Dingane in 1840.
King Cetshwayo’s rise to power started in 1856, when he defeated and killed his brother Prince Mbuyazi and his army at the Battle of Ndondakusuka on the banks of Thukela River.
Around 20 000 of Prince Mbuyazi’s followers were massacred in the battle, including five of the then Prince Cetshwayo’s brothers.
Later in 1861, he drove his brother, uMthonga, out of the Zulu Kingdom and consolidated power in his hands.
To solidify his control of the kingdom, in the same year, he ordered the death of his father’s favourite wife, Queen Nomantshali, and her children.
Some have suggested that the then Prince Cetshwayo’s conflict with King Mpande’s second and favourite son Prince Mbuyazi, was because though Prince Cetshwayo was the oldest, he was not officially successor, as his mother had not been openly declared or officially recognised as the king’s Great Wife.
Thus, either brother could inherit if King Mpande chose their mother as his Great Wife.
It is said that Prince Cetshwayo felt that his father was favouring Prince Mbuyazi. Both princes thus developed factions of followers. King Mpande ceded territory to Prince Mbuyazi on the Thukela River, where he and his followers settled.
Prince Mbuyazi also cultivated support from European settlers led by John Dunn. Prince Cetshwayo, who was supported by most of the territorial sub-chiefs, without wasting time thus decided to settle the matter with his brother militarily. It was at the Battle of Ndondakusuka that he emerged victorious over his brother.
The identity of the father of Prince Mbuyazi has been the subject of debate in written history and oral tradition. Was it King Shaka or King Mpande ?
According to Vilakazi, Queen Monase Nxumalo, the mother of Prince Mbuyazi was originally one of the “attendants’ of King Shaka, who later got married to the then Prince Mpande at the facilitation of King
Shaka. Her palace was later established on the south banks of Black Umfolozi River at the Umfaba Hills when Prince Mpande became a king.
Others, however, state that Queen Monase was in fact a widow of King Shaka.
There is speculation that at the time Queen Monase got married to King Mpande she was already pregnant with King Shaka’s son, Prince Mbuyazi. It is for this reason that King Mpande preferred Prince Mbuyazi to be his successor despite having an older son, Prince Cetshwayo.
Others, however argue that King Mpande’s choice of Prince Mbuyazi was influenced by his mother’s association with King Shaka but Prince Mbuyazi was indeed his biological son.
Bongani Ndlovu