The Sunday News
Pathisa Nyathi Cultural Heritage
IN the last article we focused the spotlight on Princess Sidambe in order to highlight those attributes that set royalty apart from the ordinary people. Before we seek to know more about her husband Siyatsha Fuyana, we shall look at some aspects of her royal attire.The head is a prominent part of the body and what it is adorned with will quickly reflect the status of an individual. Not only did it reveal the status of an individual, but it also reflected gender. Princess Sidambe wore a leather band around her forehead. The band, referred to as umcwatsho, was made from a strip of leather.
This was common among women and served a functional and decorative purpose such as during weddings. The women who constituted the bridal party, umthimba, wore umcwatsho known as umncwazi. When the band was worn further up the head it signified the widowed status of a woman. Queen Lozikeyi Dlodlo and other queens sported this type of band but this time referred to as isincwazi. That was after the supposed disappearance and presumed death of King Lobengula.
In the case of Princess Sidambe, her umcwatsho comprised a strip of leather from a springhare, umayelane. The hair was scraped off from the leather strip which was dyed through the use of roots from umangwe tree which gives some yellow colouration.
Alternatively, a piece of cloth could be used for the same purpose. Once again, a strip of cloth was dyed by boiling the cloth in water mixed with isibhuda (face dye which was either red or black). It was interesting to note that women, who participated in the recently held Painted Faces Project at Amagugu International Heritage Centre on Friday, 12 September adorned their heads with bark fibre and strings of plant seeds as beads.
The fading artistic tradition of painted faces, ukubhuda, used to happen at the time when ukucwatsha was common. Leather bands were being used and later glass beads replaced both the strings of seeds and bark fibre. The ladies, particularly the older ones, did come up with exquisitely executed designs.
For a brown colouration, umnyiyi bark was used. This is the same tree that is used to give the same colour to the Ndebele coiled baskets. The woven Tonga baskets also make use of the same tree. A plant called umqhathuva is also used when a yellowish colour is desired. Umqhathuva grows mostly on banks of rivers and its fruits are yellow when ripened. This is the plant whose stem, when its end is chewed slightly, serves as a tooth brush.
From her neck there hung pieces of wood called amabholohoqo. These, sometimes interlaced with bones of animals, stretched to her chest. Virtually all elderly women snuffed some powdered tobacco. This was the same with men too. There were some men, and royal women too such as Queen Lozikeyi who used smoking pipes. It was men only who smoked dagga using a device known as igudu. Tobacco smoke was bubbled through water so that tar and some nicotine could be removed from inhaled smoke.
During the days of the Ndebele State the best tobacco was supplied by the abaSankwe (the Shangwe) from Chief Nkokha’s area in Gokwe). The practice continued into the colonial era and the traders went to Princess Sidambe’s home to supply her with the expertly cured tobacco. The abaSankwe prepared their tobacco into compacted loaves with a hole at the centre. A long wooden rod was then pushed through the loaves so that the load could be carried on shoulders — with some loaves in from and the rest balancing from behind the carrier’s shoulder.
Princess Sidambe would then make her pick and pay the traders for their product. She would then cut off a bit and grind it using a small stone, imbokojwana, till it was a fine powder which she then snuffed. A pot shard, udengezi was used as container for the tobacco being ground. The same implements were used to crush coarse salt into fine salt.
Let us now turn to Siyatsha the man who considered himself lucky to have married a royal princess, ukuwelwa liyezi. Generally, such marriages were arranged as no ordinary man could propose marriage to these socially highly placed women. Siyatsha, a man of short height, was unmarried at the time when his father Mantilingwane from eSizindeni lived at eNgagwini not far from the Mawala Hills. Mantilingwane had his brother Madobha who was a chief. The chiefly metal disc, icence, was passed on to Siyatsha who in turn passed it on to his son Wilson Lethizulu who was an agricultural demonstrator having attended Tiger Kloof Institute in South Africa.
The eNgagwini area, now in the Nyamandlovu District, is among the most fertile areas of Matabeleland. It was no wonder, therefore, that the white colonists targeted the area for land alienation. The Fuyanas moved further north to the upper reaches of the Bubi River at Goodwood. This was not far from Siganda and it was here that Siyatsha married Princess Sidambe who had been living with Queen Lozikeyi, her surrogate mother in the Nkosikazi area.
Siyatsha owned several guns and rifles. Among the types he possessed was a Martini Henry rifle which type was promised by the concessionaires during the Rudd Concession. Guns were easy to obtain from traders, as long as one had the means to purchase one. Siyatsha had his Maritini, as the Ndebele called the Martini Henry rifles, which was taken away by the native commissioner at Inyathi. The white colonists were keen to disarm the Ndebele who they regarded as warlike with a strong inclination to rebel as they had done in 1896.
The other gun that he had was called isifefe. This one was apparently taken away by Captain H H Phillips for whom he worked as farm foreman. Captain Phillips took the gun away ostensibly to have it repaired in England. Siyatsha never saw the gun again.
Siyatsha did have amadumbu/amabhetshu, the leather aprons but never wore them. Times had changed and the more wealthy members of society began to acquire items of western origin. Siyatsha wore long khaki trousers. He had a big broad-brimmed hat with a green ribbon. It was the type of hat akin to that worn by amagqokane soon after occupation. Amagqokane used to work in the native commissioners’ offices and their hats had red ribbons and were folded on one side — imipheqwa. He got his hat as a gift from Captain Phillips.
He was, however, still putting on sandals made from the skin from the forehead of an ox — isiphaqa senkabi. He also had tennis shoes. Being married to a royal princess Siyatsha had several captives that helped in the household. It is to these that we shall turn in the next instalment.
