Online Reporter
“The gift was a massive 1887 British Gold £5 Jubilee Head Coin supported by large links – one of which opened to allow it to be hung around the neck of the recipient.
It is said that when King Lobhengula received the red box, which contained the neck chain, he was very distrustful.
The box was red in colour and the colour red was considered unlucky by the Ndebele people .
When he opened the box and saw the neck chain. He threw it and the box aside. The chain links suggested slavery to him and although he said nothing at the time, it took some time before he recovered his usual good temper…the colonial office had unintentionally insulted him. An account states that the neck chain lay on a rubbish heap all day until it was retrieved by one of the queens.
It is not clear who was in possession of the neck chain between 1889 and 1912, most likely, one of the queens, although Johan Colenbrander’s name crops up after 1896. In 1912, the neck chain was acquired by the South African Museum, although even their records of the acquisition are scant. From 1912 to 1933, the neck chain was in Cape Town, until it was sent to Bulawayo for the fortieth anniversary of the Matabeleland occupation, when it was loaned to the Natural History Museum of Rhodesia in Bulawayo.”
