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Pathisa Nyathi
LAST week we concluded the story on King Lobengula’s fate following in the aftermath of a vicious onslaught on the Ndebele State. Before moving on to other themes in this column we shall this week revisit the king and look at what remains of his last settlements near present day Bulawayo. The articles will serve as bridging narratives before we deal with other issues.
I remember with a sense of both guilt and nostalgia a trip that we undertook to the Mambo Hills (Intaba ZikaMambo in 2012). The trip was undertaken by Barbara Nkala, Doris Dube, Jeremiah Macelegwana Khabo, Lonke Nyoni and I. The person who led us to the famed hills was Marieke Clarke from Oxford in England. Marieke had, through the assistance of archaeologist Lonke Nyoni, developed some devoted interest in the hills and related historical sites. She also developed a keen interest in a lady called Tenkela, Mkwati’s wife and sister to Whinya Ncube whose stronghold was at Banyula near the Vungu River. Scout Baden Powell later stormed the mountain fortress and had Whinya Ncube shot in cold blood.
On our way there we passed through the historic Inyathi Mission and had the opportunity to have a look a Queen Loziba’s grave. Loziba, okaPhahlana Thebe, was King Mzilikazi’s senior queen following the execution of queens Mwaka Nxumalo and Fulatha Tshabalala for their complicity in the treacherous installation of Prince Nkulumane who was King Mzilikazi’s heir apparent. We were alarmed at the state of the senior Queen’s grave. However, for Barbara, Doris and I what bothered us most was what all this reflected on us as a people who seem not to care about knowing about let alone preserving our cultural heritage. We were all seeing the royal grave, albeit in a total state of neglect, for the first time. Crest fallen and ashamed, we proceeded to the Mambo Hills. We were going to see the hills, a royal settlement for the Lozwi Mambo who was a Moyo like Barbara and her younger sister Doris. There we were, being guided by a white lady from far away England to see our own heritage passed down to us by our ancestors. Nothing could give us greater shame!
I mention this as an introduction to yet another embarrassment, this time on my part alone. This time, once again, Marieke Clarke was around. She arranged with archaeologist Paul Hubbard to organise a learning trip to the Matobo Hills. However, Paul had a busy schedule and suggested he take Marieke and me to historical sites near Bulawayo. Immediately I realised how little I knew about the places he was going to introduce to us. Yes, I knew the names of places and characters associated with the places but I simply had never been to those places.
Last Friday we dressed ourselves appropriately for a trip that would take us to King Lobengula’s royal settlements. Having been writing about the fate of the king beyond the Zambezi River this was a welcome tour of settlements that are fading out physically and in terms of memory. Our first port of call was Johan Colenbrander’s trading store in North End. That provided me with my first shock. There, right below my nose and hardly 10 metres from the road to the airport, was a stone structure that once carried a Museums plaque that located the position of the trader’s store in North End. The enemies of our heritage had vandalised the structure and stolen the metallic plaque. It is the same story at many historical sites; plaques have disappeared into thin area.
Paul gave us a brief lecture about the place that I had not seen before though I had on several previous occasions driven past it. This was part of the White Man’s Camp. Colenbrander ran a trading store and certainly had many at other places such as the Shangani Reserve (Nkayi). We were told Colenbrander owned several ox-wagons and had a tent linking the ox-wagons to a tree that still stands today — an umbola tree. Stones around the tree are still in position. Colenbrander is infamous for leading a delegation to the north and west to identify two reserves where the evicted Ndebele people would be resettled.
Shangani (Nkayi and Lupane) and Gwaai (Tsholotsho) were the identified reserves where the Ndebele were to be offloaded. Our attention was drawn to the deep red soils where some people grow sweet potatoes. We knew that the king’s headquarters, referred to as Emahlabathini, was not far from here. Emahlabathini is characterised by the sandy soils derived from granite.
We were keen to see the transition in geology and hence the changing pedological character of the intervening area.
The White Man’s Camp was a burgeoning and sprawling settlement around the seat of power. All manner of whites, sometimes with conflicting interests, settled there. There were traders, hunters, concession seekers and other adventurous elements waiting on the king to get permission for their pursuits or to get the king’s signature to some spurious concession.
There were among the whites resident at White Man’s Camp settlers who had stayed there for extended periods. Among the whites in this category was James Dawson, the man who went to locate the remains of the Allan Wilson’s Patrol who were killed to a man by the Ndebele as they tried to lay an ambush on the king at Pupu one early morning in December 1893. The others were James Fairbairn and William Usher who married Mzondwase Khumalo, a daughter of an Ndebele induna. These whites had become fluent in SiNdebele and, in fact, were being serviced by Ndebele maidens who doubled up as intelligence officers for the king.
In any case, these whites practiced Ndebele culture as the beautiful maidens prepared food for them and generally attended to their other needs and conveniences. That was the period before the defeat of the Ndebele and the whites then recognised the king as powerful and that their lives were in his hands. They spoke the language of the Ndebele as that unlocked a few opportunities that they sought. Where a language opens doors, it is taken seriously. The SiNdebele language was just like that on the eve of colonisation. This is an important issue relating to language, political power and wealth.
Driving beyond Colenbrander’s store we stopped at the Athlone Cemetery which has a so-called Pioneer section. This is where the whites who played a part in destroying the Ndebele State and the politics of the subsequent state are buried. We got to the Garden of Rest next to the cemetery. Here there are pigeon holes where the ashes of cremated white men and white women are deposited. This is the fate of ashes of those persons whose relatives would not have come forward to collect their ashes. Engraved brass plates seal the pigeon holes and tell whose ashes are in the hole. Here again we came face to face with heartless vandalism. The brass plates have been stolen and in one hole we could see an exposed metal box containing ashes. If we can’t respect the dear departed who shall we respect?
Paul seemed to know quite a lot about the graves. He has assisted many families identify the graves of their loved ones where the brass plates have been removed. One impressive grave was that of Alick Stuart who had a shop in Fort Street. The shop sold various makes of bicycles: Humber, BSA, Philips, and Raleigh, inter alia. Of interest to me was the fact that my father worked for Alick Stuart in the 1920s before he left for Gwanda where he worked at the government hospital before proceeding to Johannesburg in 1931 when the Great Depression led to a depressed economy. Stuart’s massive grave was in the so-called Pioneer section of the cemetery. Beyond that section we drove past the Jewish section which clearly was the best spruced up section of the cemetery. “Jews take good care of their dead,” says Paul looking at the clean and well-looked after section of Athlone Cemetery.
We then drove past the cemetery towards Sauerstown. In the meantime our eyes are glued on the ground. We are keen to see the transition from the red soils. Yes, the red soils have disappeared, and yet it is not yet amahlabathi the type of soil that gives the name to King Lobengula’s settlement known as KoBulawayo. These soils are derived from schist. My rudimentary knowledge of geology, gleaned from the days I was doing Geography at degree level, comes in handy. Now we can see the fence which demarcates State House. Cheeky Cecil John Rhodes built his house just where King Lobengula had lived. We shall scrutinise the soils — but only next week.
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