The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Reporter
A CENTURY after her life was claimed by the Spanish Flu, the militant Queen regent Lozikeyi Dlodlo is once again threatened by another global epidemic, with an event set to celebrate her life hanging in the balance because of the coronavirus that is currently sweeping across the globe.
Organised by various Ndebele cultural groups and the Dlodlo Trust in the UK, the inaugural Queen Lozikeyi Fashion Show is set to be a creative expression of the life and times of the woman known as “the last Ndebele king” through fashion.
The event is set for Jessie Duffett Tenants Hall in London on 30 May. However, like all events that are likely to see a mass gathering of people in that country, it will now likely be under threat because of the corona epidemic.
Last week, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced unprecedented peacetime measures in the UK, encouraging people to stay away from theatres and restaurants among other places of public meeting.
On Thursday, media reports suggested that British authorities were contemplating a shutdown of London due to an increase in the number of deaths and infections which suggested that people were not adhering to health and safety advice.
In an ironic twist of fate, the blanket ban and possibility of even more stringent measures in future have put in doubt an event that is set to honour a woman who met her end at the hands of a virus with similar characteristics in 1919.
The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, the deadliest in history, infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide — about one-third of the planet’s population — and killed an estimated 20 million to 50 million victims.
The 1918 flu was first observed in Europe, the United States and parts of Asia before swiftly spreading around the world. At the time, there were no effective drugs or vaccines to treat this killer flu strain. Citizens were ordered to wear masks, schools, theatres and businesses were shuttered and bodies piled up in makeshift morgues before the virus ended its deadly global march.
The fashion show to celebrate Lozikeyi, one of the wives of King Lobengula, was set to be graced by academic and her biographer Marieke Clarke.
“This event celebrates a great woman, Queen Lozikeyi Dlodlo the last Queen of the Ndebele (Matabele) warrior nation in present day Zimbabwe. Organised and hosted through a collaboration of Ndebele groups in the UK and the Dlodlo trust, this will be a fun, entertaining experience of Ndebele themed haute couture. There will be artistic performances and insight into this remarkable woman told by her biographer Oxford academic Marieke Clark (aka MaDlodlo),” organisers of the event said in a press release.
The event was set to be a fine exhibition of Ndebele fashion, the organisers said.
“This will be an uplifting cultural experience open to all. It will showcase African fashion designs, Ndebele Cultural designs, fusion designs and clothing design portfolios by international fashion designers. The event will see the presentation of cultural awards to Ndebele historians, cultural activists and artistes.”
Described as beautiful, powerful in stature and a shrewd master of intrigue, Queen Lozikeyi was the inspiration and sponsor of the 1896 Anglo Ndebele war often called the first uprising against the British colonialists.
She distributed guns, blessed the troops and was consulted by the commanders of the uprising including Nyamande son of King Lobengula and Hawana Mayisa.
Queen Lozikeyi has been dubbed a forward-thinking leader who held the nation together after the cataclysmic Anglo Ndebele wars of 1893 and 1896.
Queen Lozikeyi died of influenza at present day Nkosikazi, a place named after her, in Bubi district in 1919.
