The Sunday News
LAST week we gave an account of funerary traditions of the Ndebele and noted in particular that royalty was a cut above the rest. They lived apart from the commoners in life and did so even in the afterlife. Their graves were attended by funerary items that pointed to their lofty social status. This was apparently not unique to the Ndebele people.
The Pharaohs of Egypt had colossal megalithic pyramids built as their final resting places. A Pharaoh’s embalmed corpse was placed in a chamber that had tunnels that seemed to point in the direction of some heavenly stars. Further, all the pyramids were located on the west side of Egypt’s life blood, the Nile River. The east and west are significant as discussed in last week’s article.
The west bank of the Nile River was where the sun set. The passing on of a king carried the metaphor of a setting sun. We see this even among the Ndebele. Some people that followed King Lobengula after his flight to the north were told not to continue with their journey as the sun had set. In another article we demonstrated why and how the king carried the metaphor of the sun.
The west bank of the Nile River was perceived as representing the end of an era, the end of a Pharaoh’s earthly life and the life of his kingdom. The burial was seen as marking both the end and the beginning at the same time. What ended was his rule and life on earth. The mighty Nile River represented the barrier between life in the material plane and life in the spiritual realm. The east, where the sun rose, represented life on earth while the west, where the sun set, represented the transition between life on earth and life in the spiritual realm – in the domain of stars, the highest transmigrational stage of the human soul.
The pharaohs were no different from the rest of Africa in cosmological terms. It was these considerations that saw them order the construction of the pyramids west of the Nile River. The sunset was thus important as a marker of the end of life on earth and the start of an eternal life in the spiritual realm.
The funerary items that were deposited in a Pharaoh’s chamber pointed to his royalty. Within the grave were pyramidal texts which were to be read by the Pharaoh’s soul. From the reading the soul would be guided in its long journey to eternal life. Themes embraced in the pyramidal texts were ideas of eternity as symbolised by the ankh as depicted on one of the pillars at Amagugu International Heritage Centre. Some funerary items were meant to serve as provisions for the Pharaoh’s soul in its journey towards its stellar destination.
We now turn to Mapungubwe, the ancient town between the Shashe and Limpopo Rivers which was the capital of the first organised state (known as Mapungubwe State) in southern Africa. Recent research, however, is pointing to Mapela as being older than Mapungubwe. Mapela, a Sebirwa word for dassies, is near the Shashane River before its confluence with the Shashe River. On the red sandstone hilltop at Mapungubwe were retrieved a gold-plated sceptre, a rhinoceros and a scalp cap (earlier thought to be a bowl).
The rhinoceros is a significant animal that symbolises power, strength and aggression. Significantly, while many animals were adopted as totemic animals the rhinoceros was left out. In this class it is together with the ant bear (isambane) and the honey badger (umantswane/ulinda). In addition to the above funerary items there were several golden beads. The metal gold was highly valued on the basis of its resistance to corrosion (oxidation) and exchange value.
The cave at Pashu had to look like a convincing royal grave. The funerary items were one such important consideration. Beyond Pupu the king is said to have abandoned his ox-wagons and used horses in order to move more swiftly. Indeed, some parts of a horse saddle were found in the cave. But there were more convincing items also found in the cave. These were diamonds and we shall turn to these in another article when we give the narrative of Nsele Hlabangana, one of the founders of Lions Football Club (later to become Matabeleland Highlanders and today known simply as Highlanders Football Club).
If the grave was to be a convincing decoy there had to be some account concerning some men who were sacrificed as King Lobengula together with some narrative concerning his aides in the afterlife. The man that is said to have acted as King Lobengula was Magwegwe Fuyana. As pointed out earlier, he was the induna yezinduna. Chief Magwegwe was expected to die with the king, or at least not to return if the king did not return. He would not have been part of the organising group. All he would see was the advancing tip of a spear aimed at his heart.
If Chief Magwegwe did indeed stand in for King Lobengula while the latter pushed further north there had to be one man who would serve as aide-in-death. Stories are told of a one Mhlanga man who seems to have been identified for that role. The said Mhlanga man seems to have belonged to the Khebesi section of the Mhlangas who came into the Ndebele State as part of the bridal party accompanying Princess Fulatha Tshabalala.
These particular Mhlangas seem to have been a part of Amangcamane who occupied the land now referred to as KwaNgwane (Swaziland). They apparently occupied the land prior to the arrival of the Swazi. They would thus belong to what would pass as Amakhandzambili (those who went ahead, of the Swazi).The party accompanying Princess Fulatha Tshabalala did not return to their homeland where they were expected to remove their bridal bands (ukuyakwethula imincwazi). Instead, they settled permanently within the Ndebele State. Some became part of Umncwazi Village under the leadership of Mtotobi Mlilo.
Following the demise of the Ndebele State the residents of Umncwazi Village, like others belonging to the villages in the southern part of the State, were pushed further south. Some ended up at Esizindeni and relocated to the Shashane Reserve and others even going as far as Kafusi.
It was one of these Mhlanga Khebesi men, apparently never mentioned during ritual gatherings, who is said to have been sacrificed and took the place of Chief Magwegwe. The story was to be deliberately “leaked” out to convince would-be pursuers that indeed the king had died and had his remains interred in a cave at Pashu.
Next week we turn to the fate of some of the funerary items and link them with Njube’s children and the establishment of Zimbabwe’s oldest soccer outfit.
