The Sunday News
Pathisa Nyathi Cultural Heritage
ANCIENT Africans believed in seeking safe passage when embarking on a journey. This is even more so when the journey is fraught with potential dangers and pitfalls. The living dead had the responsibility to ensure the safety and protection of their progeny. The whole raison d’etre for the bringing home ceremony, umbuyiso, performed about 12 months following the death of a person, was precisely for that purpose.
Spiritual interventions were resorted to in order that the path be cleared, izindlela zibemhlophe. Incantations, prayers and the use of herbs, izintelezi were used for this purpose. King Lobengula and his surviving followers knew that they had barely escaped. In their thinking their escape was attributed to both military tactical and strategic manoeuvres and spiritual intervention. For people like them spirituality permeated all aspects of life.
Princess Sidambe Khumalo is said to have reported her father King Lobengula as resorting to spiritual measures to find out if his escape was going to be successful. He had a snuff container made from a dry ilala palm fruit. He dipped an usezi grass porcupine quill into the snuff and held it to the light breeze. The breeze blew the fine snuff and carried it away. The king knew his safe passage was guaranteed.
It was Princess Sidambe who later reported that they and the queens and two princes went as far as the Kana River. While there they were told to return home and sue for peace with the invading white forces. They did not immediately proceed straight to KoBulawayo where they used to live. Instead, they tarried for a while beyond the Shangani River where Sivalo Mahlangu was in charge of the returning royal party.
Sivalo Mahlangu was a trusted man who together with Sihuluhulu Mabhena attended to royal matters at the capital town of KoBulawayo. His father Mveleleni was among those of Chief Magodonga Mahlangu who were incorporated into King Mzilikazi’s migrant kingdom. Among other people incorporated at the same time were the following:
Sibindi, Skhosana, Mkhwananzi (uGawu, uMakhwentaba as distinct from uGagisa, uMpande yamadoda, Masuku (uPhenyane as distinct from uNqamakazi, uMlondo) Mgutshini, Msimanga, Mabhena, Masombuka and Mthombeni.
These were Sothoised Nguni people who had earlier on moved across the Drakensberg Mountains to live among the Sotho people on the plateau.
Mveleleni and other conscripts constituted a regiment known as Izimpangele which, following attack by the Boers of Andries Hendriek Potgieter (uNdaleka) travelled in the section that was led by Khondwane Ndiweni (the man that in some history books is recorded as Gundwane Ndiweni) and a brother to King Mzilikazi’s mother Cikose). Meanwhile, the king and Igabha likaMaqhekeni Sithole and Amhlophe kaGwabalanda Mathe struck a westerly route as far as the Magkadikgadi Salt Pans (utshani bude buseMahalihali, kabutshi nakutsha, and bothi nyakana butshayo buyokutsha lemitsha yamadoda).
During the two-year absence of the king Khondwane and his izinduna appointed Prince Nkulumane to take over the reins of power. When the king reunited with the Khondwane Ndiweni party he accused them of high treason (kalikho ilanga elaphuma elinye lingakatshoni, selingonele umntwana) and on the hill later known as Intabayezinduna, the king sentenced them to death. The executions took place at Emputshini. Killed along the treasonous chiefs were the queens Mwaka Nxumalo (Prince Nkulumane’s mother) and Fulatha Tshabalala (Prince Lobengula’s mother). It was at this time that Izimpangele escaped from the village of Gibixhegu (the main village among Amakhanda and Amnyama) where they lived and returned to South Africa. Mveleleni Mahlangu was among the escapees. He left behind a pregnant Mabhena wife. When the son was delivered, he was appropriately named Sivalo; he was set to be Mveleleni’s last son (isivalo) by Mabhena —isivalo sikaMveleleni.
In fact, we are told that Sivalo Mahlangu had been dispatched by King Lobengula to go back and torch his capital town. This was part of the idea of the king not to be captured by enemy forces. The king, according to African cosmology, is much more than his physical body. There are many representations of the king to be taken care of for his own safety and protection and that of the state which is intrinsically linked to that of the king. His footprints, hair, finger and toe nails, bath water, excreta and general body grease are extensions of the king. When malevolent enemies equipped with manipulative powers get hold of any of these representations of the king, the king may be harmed.
It was for these reasons that such representations of the king were carefully disposed of for his own protection.
Where the king lived there was a lot of these royal representations that had to be gotten rid of. That was the thinking behind the burning of Bulawayo which Sivalo Mahlangu was sent to undertake. In 1881 when King Lobengula relocated from ENyokeni/ENkiwaneni (Old Bulawayo) his capital was torched. This time the task fell on the hands of Magwegwe Fuyane who was in charge at KoBulawayo.
The royal party assembled across the Shangani River later moved southward and following allocation of some land where it was to settle, Queen Lozikeyi Dlodlo okaNgogo, the senior queen and other queens went to settle at KoNkosikazi, beyond Inyathi. Some of the queens got married to the senior chiefs. For example, Queen Mamfimfi Dlodlo okaMletshe, Queen Lozikeyi’s inhlanzi got married to Chief Mtshane Khumalo one time leader of Imbizo, (uBhiyoz’ ozibunu zibomvu, insuka litshone, intamo yenkunzi). Later the queens began to scatter but Princess Sidambe Khumalo remained at Nkosikazi till her marriage to Siyatsha Fuyane umfokaMantilingwane.
In the mid 1980s I interviewed one Ndlumbi Mahlangu who lived just north of Isiphongo Hill. He indicated to me that he was in the returning party following the ‘‘disappearance’’ of King Lobengula. According to Ndlumbi, they were told not to press on further as the ‘‘sun had set’’, ilanga selitshonile. Apparently, this was some euphemism for the death of the king. We should not take this to mean the king had literally died. As long as the king’s followers knew that the king was alive and pressing on towards Tongaland, they too were going to follow their king. They were not going to abandon their monarch at this, the darkest hour in his life. Some excuse had to be found to convince the followers to abandon their northward trek since ‘‘the sun had set’’. This is the same message that was communicated to the queens in order to convince them to return and face an uncertain future in the hands of white colonists.
The weary and crestfallen followers were familiar with the expression, ‘‘the sun has set’’. The Ndebele and indeed other African peoples perceived the king as the sun. The Ndebele like all other peoples of similar worldview realised the critical importance of the sun. It was the sun that ensured the continued existence of life on Planet Earth. The sun was important for the growth of plants which provided food for the rest of life on Earth. King Mzilikazi’s praises had a line that went like this, “Ilang’ eliphum’ endlebeni yendlovu, laphum’ amakhos’ abikelana.”
At the same time the sun has such a glare that one can’t gaze at it. So it is with the king. He ensures the sustenance of his followers but is so revered that his subjects fear even to look at him. The king, the cosmos and the kingdom were so interlinked as to sustain a universe in which ideals of respect, balance and continuity came first and foremost.
Balance and continuity were central to Ndebele cosmology and clearly this informed their political philosophy.
