The Sunday News
Pathisa Nyathi
For purposes of defence and security, the Ndebele State was, in geographical terms, so organised that there were villages that gathered intelligence to be used in the deployment of soldiers so as to secure the borders of the state. We have, in the past, made references to izihlabamkhosi or izikhuza, a reference to such peripheral villages that raised alarm whenever they spotted suspicious movements of enemies.
Beyond geographical locations of such villages, there were non-Ndebele chieftainships that were appointed to perform similar functions and reported to Ndebele chiefs within their geographical locations. Arguably the best known example is the chieftainship of Kgoatalala Makhure Nare who was appointed umswiliswili wenkosi, meaning an intelligence officer for the Ndebele king. Umswilisili is a bird that alerts animals to the presence of hunters in the bush. Kgoatalala, real name Makwati Nare of the Babirwa tribe, guarded the southern frontier beyond which there was greatest threat from the Afrikaners, the Sotho/Tswana tribes, the Zulus and Griqua.
Chief Kgoatalala’s story is told against the background of those chieftainships that were demoted to the status of headmanships in the early 1950s. In 1951 when the Kgoatalala chieftainship was demoted to a headmanship, the incumbent chief was Molayakgosi Nare also known as Mgodla who became chief following the death of his father and chief Mmbi the man who migrated from Konongwe, crossed the Shashane River and settled at Mbuso before re-crossing the same river and ending up at Sinkhamaswe prior to further migrating to Nkanini near the northern bank of the Kafusi River.
It was from here that he finally headed for Mawaza where he died in 1928, only to find the area that had been designated for him and his people’s settlement taken over by Chief Bolamba (actually Mbulutsi-Mabindizhuke, today represented by Chief Ketso Nare).
Not so long ago my relatives and I got to Maribeha, the mad mountain, following the death of our sister Greener who was married to Jubhe Dube, umfoka Tayi, abakoGubila, oGobambizi. I remembered an interview I conducted a few years back with Ernest Nkwate Motlokoa from Bovuma who informed me that the Babirwa initially settled at Maribeha. While conducting another interview in Bobonong, Botswana, a few years back, I came into contact with a Mshashambi or Sekoba man who also pointed to Maribeha as the place of initial settlement for the Babirwa whose chief Kgoatalala was demoted in 1951.The visit to Maribeha made me appreciate better shortcomings to a fuller understanding of the geographical distributions of the Babirwa. Though we undertook a lightning visit to the area, I was able to confirm the veracity of claims made by both Nkwate and Mshashambi/Sekoba.
The one name that still lingers in the area is that of Modimo, a name that is traceable to the first quarter of the 19th century when the Babirwa settled in south western Zimbabwe. Modimo Nare is remembered in connection with his ruins at Msetshane, the area that we visited and is close to Maribeha. The place is called Msetshane in reference to the sandy soils found in the area. Our host and brother-in-law, Jubhe Dube indicated there was a place called Mlimu, according to his pronunciation, nearby where there are ruins of an early settlement where he used to obtain cattle manure for his father Tayi’s vast crop fields. I immediately knew that the man he called Mlimu in the SiNdebele was Modimo in the Sebirwa language.
Modimo, who belonged to the Ligigo/Likiko house of the Nare Babirwa people, is associated with migrations of the Babirwa. Makwati or Chief Kgoatalala I, himself belonged to this particular section of the Nares, together with Mbulutsi (Pudipedi) and Magaya, all of them Chief Makhure’s junior houses. His senior houses included Bolamba, Silalajwaneng (Silalabyanying from whom Malema and Rantshasi are descended) and Sekoba, also referred to Ntundunohwa (the most senior son of Chief Makhure who was given land by Lozwi ruler, Mambo).
As is well known, Chief Kgoatalala was executed on the instructions of King Lobengula Khumalo the Ndebele ruler for allegedly reneging on his role as umswiliswili wenkosi. He was accused, together with other Babirwa chiefs for failing to report the presence of Prince Nkulumane Khumalo the heir apparent to King Mzilikazi Khumalo. From the geographically strategic Maribeha area I could see Beta Hill across the Mwewu River, a tributary of the Tuli River, itself a tributary of the Shashe River-tributary of the Limpopo River. I began to appreciate the solid but vast and extensive land that the Babirwa occupied on arrival in Zimbabwe. For example, this writer’s own people, a Serumola/Luphade section of the Babirwa under Maphodo, Malebegwa, Ntebele, Mbulayi and Magwada, inter alia, lived at the Zhomba-Nsetshe hills area. The hills are visible from Maribeha. They are close to the Tuli River. Even today the descendants of some of these people are found east of Tuli in Garanyemba (here are found the Mabusa people descended from Malebegwa).
Not far from here at Tshoboyo are the descendants of Ntebele, a brother to Malebegwa, both of whom were sons of Ntshenje who did not participate in the migration to Zimbabwe. Here, in the company of Magodi Nyathi (uSekaNditshi, umfoka Matele, okaTibangana uMkwenyapalo) who was chairman of the Luphade Cultural Association (LCA) came in the 1980s to interview Mangisi Nyathi. Other descendants of Ntebele had since been pushed further south to Makarabha and Mkomana, and later still, to Pikinini Kafusi where Sibulawa, Albert Nyathi’s father still lives. I was thus able to locate and see Ratanyane(Riretenyana), Sinkhamaswi, Gobadema, Shape, Mkomana Mawaza(one in the north and another in the south near Gungwe), Garanyemba, Zhomba, Nsetshe, Magwe, Lushongwe, Konongwe, Mahetshe, Khezi, Mbuso, Tshelanyemba, Sankonjana, Mandihongola, Nyambi, Nkanini and Ndabankulu all of them as part of the broader area of Babirwa settlement.
Chief Kgoatalala himself lived at Konongwe while his relatives who included his brother Deri (Chief Kgoatalala inherited his wife when he died and fathered Mathaba) lived in the present Gwanda town.
Even that area, and extending to Mpindangwa near Colleen Bawn that Nkwate had told me about are one continuous area of settlements by the Babirwa who came in waves from the Limpopo Province of South Africa in response to the northward migration of the Nguni groups following Mfecane-induced displacements. Areas to the south extending to and beyond the Shashe River were reserved as meraka, winter grazing areas for the Babirwa pastoralists, fames as Bakaka for their large cattle herds which produced plenty of milk, nkaka. The practice of winter grazing in places far from settled areas still continues to this day. A recent visit to Sankonjana revealed that the cattle from that area had been relocated to areas along the Shashane and Shashe rivers. However, in the Maribeha area large herds of cattle were observed to be present and in good condition with water generally available in two dams that we saw.
The history of this area of Babirwa settlement is well preserved in local names. The names are dominated by the Jawunda language. The Jawunda people, a section of broader generic Bakalanga, were the earliest settlers (after the San) and their language predominates in the names of rivers e.g. Lukwizha, Mwewu, Shape and the mountains such as Dombolakakolomoka (a section from the hill hived off and is still bare) Magwe, Konongwe and Garanyemba, Tjibale (tjinonanayila tjinamakumbo) and Beta.
Then came the Babirwa, actually retracing their footsteps back into Zimbabwe where they had been domiciled several centuries earlier as an integral part of the generic Bakalanga. Their relatives, the BaPedi (the Mota/Motla people) did precisely the same, retraced their footsteps back into Zimbabwe and Botswana and recaptured their lost Kalanga identity. Names such as Maribeha, Ratanyane, Sinkhamaswe, Mawaza, Kgetsi (Kezi) Mahetshe (Moekeji) bear testimony to the presence of the Sebirwa language that was brought into the area by the Babirwa.
Of course there are names, few as they might be, that are of Ndebele origin. Maphisa is one good example. Maphisa is the name of the fast growing business township whose development hinges on the nearby irrigation project. The township derives its name from Chief Maphisa Fuyane of Esizindeni whose people, then under his son Chief Mdilizelwa Fuyane settled nearby in 1912. Their arrival brought in names of Ndebele origin. Ndabankulu is of Ndebele origin and stands as testimony of the Ndebele people who arrived there following evictions from further north. The Marko Mabhena headmanship area covers Maribeha.
Tayi Dube, father of our host Jubhe Dube, was coming from Zadobhe in the Malunde River area while some relatives of his went to Hadlana (under Ngubo Nyathi) and Mangala(Mankala). Some Serumolas/Luphade, notably those of Magwada, settled at Tshoboyo were coming from Nkonyane Farm, also near Zadobhe, close to the confluence of the Malunde and Wovi rivers. My father, Menyezwa being a Serumola was free to marry a Nyathi woman from the Ligigo/Likiko section descended from Modimo. Our sister Greener was from that union.
