A tribute to Chief Masuku: A fountain of knowledge

29 May, 2016 - 00:05 0 Views
A tribute to Chief Masuku: A fountain of knowledge Chief Malaki Nzula Masuku

The Sunday News

Chief Malaki Nzula Masuku

Chief Malaki Nzula Masuku

Pathisa Nyathi
CHIEF Malaki Nzula Masuku is no more. He passed on at a Bulawayo hospital where he was rushed to on Wednesday 25 May 2016 following an asthma attack.

The 81-year-old chief lived on his farm near the Rhodes Matopos Dam a few metres off the Bulawayo-Kezi Road. His area of jurisdiction covered the northern part of the Matobo District.

He was counted among the senior chiefs in Matabeleland who include chiefs Vezi Maduna Mafu of Filabusi, Madliwa Khumalo of Nkayi and Wasi Ndiweni of Mangwe.

I visited Chief Masuku in 2012 when I had been asked by Unesco to nominate a chief who would accompany me and the Reverend Paul Bayethe Damasane to King Mphezeni’s people in Zambia. He was ill-disposed to travel upon which I nominated Chief Gampu Sithole. We visited the chief at his homestead with Veronique Attala and Butholezwe Nyathi to inform him about our intention to visit him at his court to announce the commencement of the “My Beautiful Home — Comba Indlu Ngobuciko Project”. I would meet him again when we visited him to let him know about events taking place at Amagugu International Heritage Centre, a cultural facility within his chiefly jurisdiction.

However, it was when I was working on Nicholas Macala Dube’s biography that I had the opportunity to interview the late Chief Masuku on 28 May 2011. He gave a lucid account of the history of the Masuku chieftainship.

Here we give some excerpts in honour of the late Chief Masuku who has been chief since 1992 according to the District Administrator of Matobo District. In my interview he, however, said he became chief in 1991. The title of the biography in which the interview is captured is titled, “The Story of a ZPRA Cadre: Nicholas Macala Dube.”

Chief Malaki Nzula Masuku’s chieftainship is traceable to Chief Mkhokhi Masuku of Nyamayendlovu, a village that fell under Igabha likaMaqhekeni Sithole. Chief Mkhokhi Masuku was the son of Klibhi, son of Nyanda. The Masukus were prominent chiefs during the reign of King Mzilikazi Khumalo who married one of the Masuku daughters who became the mother of Qalingana Khumalo.

The Masukus provided three chieftainships within the Ndebele State: Chief Sifo Masuku of aMatshetshe (abathwali bophahla, the senior house of the Masukus, Chief Mkhanyeli Masuku of eNgwegweni on the Khoce River and Chief Mkhokhi himself.

There were other Masuku houses such as those of Sijeza, Xabanisa, Mpikayipheli, Fanavele, Masala and Mtotobi.

Chief Mkhokhi Masuku nearly came out in support of his relative and chief at Zwangendaba, Mbiko kaMadlenya Masuku who led opposition to the ascension of King Lobengula Khumalo who they were rejecting on the basis that his mother was of a low class, umntaneSwazi. Chief Mkhokhi Masuku was to survive the purge that followed and died at Pupu in on the 3rd of December 1893 in defence of King Lobengula Khumalo and the Ndebele State.

Chief Mkhokhi Masuku married MaMkhwananzi who did not conceive till the services of a Kalanga gynaecologist were solicited. In line with Ndebele naming traditions the son born after that intervention was named Hole who became a leading fighter in the Imfazo II in 1896, fighting alongside Bhabhayana Masuku one of the two Ndebele emissaries to the Queen of England and Dliso Mathema of eNqameni. It is not clear at what time Hole Masuku came to live near Bulawayo, where Hillside suburb stands today. Chief Hole Masuku married Princess Famona a daughter of King Lobengula Khumalo.

After the cessation of hostilities Ndebele fighters and their families who were holed out within the fastness of the Matobo Hills were persuaded by Cecil John Rhodes to come and settle in the open on an estate that he had bought. While some chiefs, notable among them being Chief Faku Ndiweni of eZinaleni, came to live on the promised land, Chief Hole Masuku crossed the Wovi River and settled at Mthangaleni where his senior wife Princess Famona Khumalo died and was buried.

When more land south of the Matobo Hills was alienated Chief Hole Masuku was forced to move down to Donkwe-Donkwe within the Tshatshane Reserve. There he died and was buried. His son by Princess Famona Khumalo, Nzula Masuku was attending school at the London Missionary Society’s Tiger Kloof institution in the Northern Cape.

Two men, Maqedigula Khumalo and Mhwabha Khumalo were dispatched to withdraw Nzula Masuku from school to succeed his late father.

Chief Nzula Masuku led his people back to the Matobo Hills where he settled near Domboshaba, not far from Natisa Business Centre. Chief Nzula Masuku bought a Bedford lorry named Ndizandiza which was driven by Maqedigula Khumalo. Chief Nzula’s senior wife was MaMthimkhulu and the oldest son was Gareth Masuku who from 1942 to 1949 worked in Johannesburg. Chief Nzula Masuku’s other children were Malaki, Mondi, Josephine, Michael and Violet who at one time lived at eNtumbane, where King Mzilikazi’s remains are to be found. The chief had two other wives, namely MaNdiweni, okaLolaka from eMakhandeni and MaDlodlo from eNqameni.

Gareth Masuku was chief from 1946 and married MaKhumalo okaMdubeki from Kafusi. The couple had three daughters; Sukoluhle, Daisy and Lillian. There was a son, one Muregerei by a Shona woman. The fact that there were three daughters and no eligible son meant, according to Ndebele succession rules, Chief Gareth Masuku had no successor. Daughters, referred to as amawabayi, did not succeed their fathers as chiefs. Muregerei could not succeed on the grounds of his Shona mother.

Chief Malaki Nzula Masuku did not indicate to this writer whether his mother was ever married to Chief Gareth Masuku.

In accordance with Ndebele succession rules the chieftainship moved laterally to a younger brother or his eldest qualifying son. A similar situation currently obtains within the Mvuthu chieftainship in Victoria Falls. This is how the Masuku chieftainship was assumed by Malaki Nzula Masuku in 1991/2. Chief Malaki Nzula Masuku married MaNkomo and they have the following children: Ndaba (Innocent), Nkulumane whom he identified as the heir, Lethuxolo, Silence and Sabelo.

The interview ended with Chief Malaki Nzula Masuku giving the praises of the Masukus (the Zikode — Nqamakazi branch):

Masuku
Zikode
Madlenya
Thabela
Wen’ owathabel’ izitha zizekubulala
Hlangu gwagwasa
Vundisa
Wavundis’ intaba zakoMhlabano
Waze wavundisa lezakoGombane
Khokhozela njengenqina lisiya ebuHalihali
Imbabazane ekaMadlenya
Hlangu gwagwasa njengezulu
Ingqungqul’ eyakhal’ iphezul’ izizwe zonke zayizw’ ukukhala kwayo
EThabela wen’ owathabel’ izinja
Mbombosh’ omnyama ungasisiba lomdwa
Impungutsh’ emnyama kaMadlenya
Umsunu wawungalotsholwa
Ulotsholwa ngezinkomo
Uthunda bathole abafokazana
Ilang’ elaphum’ endlebeni zendlovu
Amakhos’ abikelana
UMadlenya wathandel’ intaba zaseDlomodlomo
Waze wathandela lezasePhugeni kwaZulu
Ngemva kwekhanka kwabonakala isiqamu sobhedu
Injama kulila
Umakhwela wengwe
Lala ngokuthula Mbombosh’ omnyama njengomsun’ osempankeni!

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