Online Reporter
Zwide kaLanga was the king of the Ndwandwe (Nxumalo) nation from about 1802 to around 1820. He was the son of Langa KaXaba, a Nxumalo king.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries three great leaders emerged in present day South Africa and Eswatini who brought large numbers of clans under their control. These leaders were King Sobhuza of AmaNgwane, King Zwide of the AmaNxumalo and King Dingiswayo of the Mthethwa. As these kings rose to prominence, wars became frequent.
Due to his military strength King Zwide eventually rose to prominence and became a defacto ruler of all the Nguni nations in that region. If any king resisted his control, he would launch an attack and bring that king’s clan under his control using brutal force and times he used deception and witchcraft. King Zwide’s methods of witchcraft are fascinating.
Together with his mother, Queen Ntombazi, a great inyanga-mthakathi, traditional healer-cum-witch, King Zwide would send his sister, Princess Maqinase, to befriend the izintombi, maidens, of the clan whose inkosi King Zwide was targeting with the aim to subdue and bring his territory under Ndwandwe control.
Queen Ntombazi used imithi, medicines, with which Princess Maqinase would be treated before embarking on her missions to entice the particular king. Princess Maqinase would gain entry to the royal household by befriending the king’s daughters and would wait for an opportunity to lock her eyes with the king. Once her eyes were locked with those of the king, the targeted king would become enticed and mesmerised by Maqinase’s eyes.
Thereafter, the inkosi would under the spell invite Princess Maqinase to have sexual intercourse. As a result of the spell the king would not know that he is not penetrating but doing ukuhlobonga , having “thigh sex” or non-penetrative sex. After the king ejaculated, Princess Maqinase would then collect his semen in a snuffbox.
Queen Ntombazi’s bat called Balande would then collect the snuffbox and deliver it to her. The queen would then mix the king’s semen with other concoctions to immobilise and bring the king under their full control.
After ‘“sex” Princess Maqinase would invite the king to King Zwide’s residence to watch a parade of the Ndwandwe maidens. Like a zombi the immobilised king would lose his guard and attend the ‘parade’’.
When the soldiers, escorting the king arrived kwaNongoma, they would sit outside, and their king would go to meet King Zwide inside his royal quarters.
Once the king joined King Zwide in the palace, the Ndwandwe generals would grab him, cut his head off and hang it onto the roof of Queen Ntombazi’s ritual room. The king’s body would be taken and thrown into one of Queen Ntombazi’s rooms where she kept her hyenas. The hyenas would feast on the body of the king.
King Zwide’s assigned chief would then take over the leadership of the dead inkosi’s clan and incorporate the clan’s soldiers into the growing Ndwandwe army.
After killing King Dingiswayo of the Mthethwa, in 1820, King Zwide led his army into battle against the Zulu at the Battle of Mhlatuze River. King Shaka, a protege of King Dingiswayo made the Ndwandwe uneasy, hence their decision to eliminate him.
King Shaka with the help of King Mzilikazi and General Noluju attacked and defeated the Ndwandwe army as they were halfway across the Mhlatuze River. The Ndwandwe army was scattered.
King Zwide escaped with a remnant of his clan across the Pongola River.
After King Zwide and his clansmen escaped, the Zulu attacked the rest of his people, killing many and takin over his capital, KwaNongoma. King Shaka personally killed Queen Ntombazi and burnt down her hut filled with skulls of dead kings.
King Zwide and a large group of the scattered Ndwandwe survivors regrouped and travelled northwards.
By 1825 they had settled amongst the Pedi in what is today the eastern Transvaal. There they waited for a chance to regain their homeland. It is said that King Zwide died of a mysterious illness in the Steelpoort River valley. His death was caused by diviners who cast a spell on a string of beads sent to him by a rival monarch.
Zwide’s son, Sikhunyana, then took his father’s body back to northern Zululand where he was buried on the southern slopes of Magudu Mountain in a forest considered sacred by the Ndwandwe, where other Ndwandwe leaders are also buried.
Another version states that King Zwide fled northwards with some of his followers to the upper reaches of the Komati River, where he was killed by King Shaka’s soldiers in 1825.
