The Sunday News
TODAY we commence the narrative of the BaTonga people but more specifically those whose history impacted on King Lobengula’s fate. The said BaTonga people are those belonging to the Pashu chieftainship in Binga. Apparently one of these BaTonga chiefs left with King Lobengula and his whereabouts were not known since then.
But before we come to that let us furnish one piece of information given by Hudson Halimana Ndlovu concerning his father, the one Mathelekana who belonged to the iHlathi regiment which saw battle at Gadade on the 2nd of November 1893. IHlathi was one of several Ndebele regiments that engaged the invading forces under the command of Major Patrick Forbes. The Maxim gun invented by Engineer Hiram Maxim of the United States of America came to their salvation. INgubo under Fusi Khanye, uMcijo, iNsukamini under Manondwane Tshabalala, iSiziba and others were among the Ndebele regiments that saw battle at Gadade on that fateful day.
Mathelekana lived to tell the story of how he and others followed the king beyond Pupu where a pursuing party under Major Allan Wilson was decimated. They together with several other Ndebele soldiers pushed further on all the time behind the king to provide cover for the fleeing monarch. The Ndebele soldiers were aware there was a party under the command of Major Patrick Forbes which remained on the southern bank of the Shangani River.
The royal defence guard had every reason to believe the white soldiers would pursue the king beyond Pupu. While many people and soldiers that went north with the king returned home some soldiers did not return till long after the cessation of hostilities, long after Imfazo II in 1896. The question that we may ask is where were they and more importantly what were they doing for that long period? According to Halimana’s informant they were providing cover for the king.
That may not explain the fate of the king sufficiently. If the king had died and was buried in a cave somewhere in Tongaland some soldiers would have been called upon to guard over the royal corpse. As we know the corpse of King Mzilikazi was kept at his royal capital of Mhlahlandlela for two months from September to November when his remains were interred at Entumbane, an outlying hill in the Matobo Hills.
The underlying belief was that the king’s flesh contained protective medicines administered through incisions. If people of malevolent intents got hold of the king’s flesh they could harm the next king and by extension the state. So it was important that the flesh was completely destroyed through decay prior to interment. Even as the bones were interred soldiers were placed on guard over the grave. In the case of the fleeing King Lobengula there are two possibilities; one being the king died and was buried in a cave as per traditional custom.
As was the case with the Egyptian pharaohs, Ndebele monarchs were not to be covered with earth when they were buried. In order to achieve that, a cave, equivalent to a pyramid, was used as a burial place. Firstly, rock was perceived to be enduring and therefore ideal for imparting permanency and infinity which were desired goals. The soul of the king was prepared for a journey into eternity. Pursuing whites were not to get to the site and get hold of the monarch’s body or parts thereof.
Alternatively the king, safe after being defended successfully at Pupu, decided to cross the Zambezi River and join his Nguni relatives who then were under King Mphezeni. Apparently King Lobengula had a son named Mphezeni who together with Njube and Nguboyenja were whisked out of the country ostensibly to receive western education in the Cape. Mphezeni’s people were the so-called Angoni people who under Zwangendaba left KwaZulu-Natal passed through Zimbabwe on their way to the north. They crossed the Zambezi River on their march through Zambia and finally got to Tanzania. They retraced their footsteps back and settled near what later became the border between Zambia and Malawi.
The safe passage of the king had to be secured. Halimana’s father and others would have to keep guard for long to ensure the king got away safely. The BaTonga accounts will shed some light on the matter as they were inevitably involved in the king’s fate. The relevant BaTonga people that lay on the chosen route for the king were originally not in the area. We shall trace their movements till they got to where King Lobengula found them in December 1893.
The BaTonga arrived in Zimbabwe a long time ago, certainly before the arrival of the BaKalanga and the Shona. They occupied large swathes of Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, South Africa and Botswana. Records indicate that the BaTonga alongside the Khoisan were involved in the construction of Great Zimbabwe. They provided the necessary labour. When the BaKalanga arrived the BaTonga were already occupying Zimbabwe.
A few years ago we did allude to a BaTonga group that left the Zambezi Valley and trekked south to join the VhaVenda who by that time were living south of the Vhembe River (Limpopo). These people of Venda extraction were the Baleya (surname Muleya). They pushed further west from Vendaland and got to Mapungubwe in their march to the west. They entered what is today Botswana and continued in a westerly direction till they got to Honabaleya, a mountain named after them on the fringes of the Kalahari Desert. From there their westward drift, probably halted by unfriendly arid conditions, they went north-eastwards and finally settled at Dombodema in Zimbabwe where some of them remain to this day as Nleya people.
George Nyathi, who is the incumbent Chief Pashu, traced the origins of his ancestors to Mhandamabwe in Chivi within the province of Masvingo, this should not come as a surprise. Many people today tend to associate BaTonga settlement with the remote and arid Zambezi Valley. We need to appreciate that there was a time when they occupied Zimbabwe’s central plateau. It was later historical events that pushed them to the more remote parts of Zimbabwe, in particular the Zambezi Valley.
Chief Pashu traces the history of his ancestors to one Ziyambo who lived at Mhandamabwe where he lived and later died. His remains are at Mhandamabwe in Chivi. The BaTonga, being a matrilineal people had descent reckoned on the mother side. Ziyambo’s mother was a Mudenda. Before Ziyambo died he asked his sister to bring along her son who was destined to take over from Ziyambo. In the case where there was no nephew, that is a sister’s son, the chieftainship was passed on to a younger brother of the deceased chief.
In the case of Ziyambo his sister had a son by the name of Siabantu or just Sabantu. It was this man who led his people in a westerly drift till they got to Lupane where he died. His grave is near St Paul’s Mission. Chief Siabantu had a sister whose son was Sianganza or just Nganza. As we shall see later, this is the man who got involved with King Lobengula. In the meantime we shall trace the migrations of the other BaTonga people who too, like Siabantu, left Mhandamabwe and trekked westwards. Altogether there were three such groups who were involved in the trek. One of these three groups was destined to settle in the very area that lay in the path of the fleeing Ndebele king. After disposing of the two other BaTonga groups we shall come back to Sianganza’s group which gave rise to the present Pashu chieftaincy whose incumbent is George Nyathi.
