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Pathisa Nyathi
LAST week we introduced regiments or villages as the basic units of both social and military organisation within the Ndebele State. The tendency sometimes is to give undue emphasis to the military roles of regiments at the expense of their social roles. Colonists who sought to justify the destruction of the Ndebele State chose to go along with the military thrust. On the one hand, it was to demonstrate their own military prowess by defeating what had been regarded a very strong military state. More praise was due to them than to the Ndebele State. Secondly, the aim was to justify their very covert intentions to destroy the state and remain with a clear conscience.
However, our intention is to seek for principles that underpinned the choice of names that were given to new regiments. True, the names that were given became cardinal identity tags for the various places. These were names of settlements such as Engutsheni in reference to a settlement that was part of the defensive circle around the royal capital town of KoBulawayo II. The regiment, later a village, was named Ingubo, the blanket. The village was referred to in the locative form as was the case with all other settlements such as KoBulawayo, Enqameni, Egabheni, Enqotsheni, Emncwazini and Emazizini, inter alia.
Where the name was in reference to a person the locative formative was Ko- rather than E-. The royal capital town for King Lobengula was KoBulawayo and not EBulawayo because the name referred to the residence of one man, King Lobengula kaMzilikazi. It was not so with Ingubo. One would not say KoNgutsheni, as the name was in reference to a regimental settlement and not to an individual, either directly or indirectly. This is the name whose corruption a post-independence Bulawayo City Council has retained as Ingutsheni. One hopes that sooner than later our city fathers, given their fighting spirit and prowess, will fight the name and take us back to historical and lingual authenticity and accuracy.
Engutsheni was under the chieftainship of Fusi Khanye. Fusi is a name given to one born after twins. It will also refer to an abandoned crop field. Indeed, there is a place in Makokoba that is named Efusini which used to be a famous watering hole. The office of the Township Native Superintendent was located in the same area. Given that what is Bulawayo today used to be a settled area where there were crop fields, Efusini in this case referred to what had previously been a cultivated crop field, but since abandoned. This is unlikely to have been the name as given to the man who would later in life become the chief of Ingubo.
Prince Nyamande KaLobengula is said to have lived at Engutsheni, the regiment that was associated with the Zwangendaba Regiment under the command of Mbiko KaMadlenya Masuku whose senior wife was Princess Zinkabi kaMzilikazi, who was sister to Prince Nkulumane kaMzilikazi whose mother was Queen Mwaka Nxumalo. When Zwangendaba rejected Prince Lobengula as the next king, following the demise of King Mzilikazi, at the instigation of Princess Zinkabi, Ingubo seemed to come out in support of the defiant Mbiko kaMadlenya Masuku.
Why would Ingubo be given such a name? We need to know about the military arrangements regarding settlements around the royal capital town. The royal town was the epicentre for the State. It was where the King and Head of State lived. Where the King lived thus epitomised the Head settlement in a figurative sense. The head, as an anatomical component of the body, was supported by the neck. The cloak that surrounds the neck is a hood, known in IsiNdebele as isiphika. Wherever the name isiphika appears one should know that nearby there used to be the head settlement, that is isigodlo, the royal town. Indeed, today there is a place just off the Bulawayo-Inyathi road, close to Esiphongweni Hill known as Esiphikeni. Nearby there used to be the royal town Amahlokohloko or Emahlokohlokweni, King Mzilikazi kaMatshobana’s first capital town north of the Limpopo River. Reverend Dr Robert Moffat, uMtshede, found the King at this settlement in 1854 during his third visit to the monarch.
Isiphika thus surrounded the royal town and comprised several fringing settlements around the royal town. The citing and location of the settlements was calculated to provide defence and security to the head town, that is where the King lived. An enemy force marching on the royal town would have to pass through isiphika where the regiments would offer resistance and render defence and security to the King and the rest of isigodlo.
Ingubo was one such part of isiphika at the time when the royal town was at Emahlabathini/Esagogwaneni/KoBulawayo II where Northlea High School is located today. Further, ingubo is a protective garment and a barrier against the elements. Ingubo gives cover and shelter and this is in line with the overall theme of security and defence as expressed through the location and citing of isiphika settlements. When the capital town relocated to another place isiphika settlements accordingly readjusted their positions so that they continued to render defence and security to the royal town. A good example is Inhlambabaloyi or Inhlambane under Chief Mhlambezi Ndiweni, okaThambo. The settlement was where Hope Fountain is today. It was part of isiphika around KoBulawayo I when the royal town was then at Enyokeni/Entenjaneni. When KoBulawayo relocated in 1881, Inhlambane readjusted its position and relocated where Woodville and Mahatshula, a suburb named after a Ndiweni man, stand today.
Our conclusion is that some settlements were named with defence and security in mind. The meanings of their names are to be found in the roles that they played; and so it was with Ingubo whose name lives on in the name of a mental health institution located where Ingubo was once located. The numerous secondary vegetation comprising acacia species bears testimony to where the settlement was located. In fact, this is true of other former settlements. Their locations are today marked off by acacia vegetation which takes root when the settlement has been abandoned. You only need to drive along Bulawayo-Inyathi road. The following are among the numerous settlements marked out by diverse acacia species: Imbizo, Ingwegwe, KoBabambeni, KoZwangendaba, inter alia.
Regiments were expected to provide defence and security to the citizens of the state. Their names were given with that in mind. The names were those that inspired courage, valour, audacity, bravery and daring. A name that fits well into this category and its expectations was Insukamini, those so daring they left on raiding missions in broad daylight, emini. This may suggest that under normal circumstances regiments concealed their missions and left under the cloak of darkness. It was not so with Insukamini under the command of Manondwane Tshabalala. Insukamini engaged the invading forces of the British South Africa Company at Bhonko where the Bulawayo-Harare road crosses the Shangani River.
Their encounter was on the 25th of October 1893. The maxim gun decided the outcome of the war after which, on 1 November the decisive Battle of Gadade (Goddard) was fought by the crack regiment Imbizo under the command of Mtshane Khumalo. Insukamini is famed for facing the wrath of Malaba’s isathiyane, a food dish comprising rapoko meal and milk. Insukamini was on a raiding mission to the land of the Ngwato when, feeling the prangs of hunger, helped themselves to isathiyane. They then proceeded on their ill-fated journey and isathiyane sikaMalaba harangued and molested them. Some sought refuge in water but to no avail for as soon as they emerged out of water isathiyane scalded them. Towards the end of the State Insukamini relocated to the Gweru area where its name lives through the name of an irrigation project. When Assembly Points were established ZPRA’s women Brigade from Mkushi in Zambia was based at Insukamini.
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