The Sunday News
Pahisa Nyathi
COLONISATION brought about many changes to the Ndebele society. The changes were wrought on many fronts including architecture of the huts and the design of the cattle byre. The murals on the walls at Amagugu International Heritage Centre at Whitewater do capture the development of the Ndebele hut from the initial bee-hive to the modern form.
At the level of the hut the entrances were low and for one to enter the hut he/she crawled on all fours. Stories are told of how adventurous and enterprising hyenas used to have a go at the buttocks of kneeling individuals trying to get into the huts. The low entrances were closed at night by using a specially made mat consisting of thin wooden sticks with grass plaited over it.
The artefact used for this purpose was called isihlandla. To keep it in place a stick was used to support it.
In days gone by the cattle byre was not permanently located at one place. From time to time it was relocated elsewhere, a move necessitated by the muddy conditions resulting from waterlogged cow dung. The muddy conditions presented challenges especially during milking sessions. Milkers waded through a thick murky mess (umunqumunqu). Sometimes an opening was made in the byre palisade through which the murky mess flowed out (ukuhova).
However, a more practical and expedient solution was to relocate the cattle byre to some place not too far away from the previous site. In those days application of cattle manure was not part of the agricultural practices of the Ndebele. It was only later that cattle manure was applied to the crop fields to enhance the nutritional content of the soil. Instead, what would happen then was to relocate the crop fields to some virgin land.
The village itself was relocated in response to dwindling environmental resources especially with regard to range grazing and also water resources. Depleted forest resources necessitated relocation to better resourced places. As a result, Ndebele settlements were never rooted at one place for all time. For example, the village of Zwangendaba was initially on the southern side of Mbembesi River towards Queen’s Mine. Later it relocated to the northern side, Engcekezeni towards Turk Mine. Even the capital towns were relocated from time to time. At the time of the demise of the Ndebele State King Lobengula had already moved the site of his capital once: from Enyokeni to Emahlabathini.
In the case of King Mzilikazi he had moved his capital no less than three times. His first settlement was at Emahlokohlokweni not far from present day Esiphikeni west of Isiphongo Hill along the road from Bulawayo to Inyathi Mission. Retaining the name Amahlokohloko, King Mzilikazi relocated to the north-east and settled not far from present day Gloag Mission’s Half Ration Ranch. The next move was to Emhlangeni where the village of Inyathi was established. Here, for the third time in Matabeleland, the king was visited by the London Missionary Society’s Reverend Doctor Robert Moffat in 1859 that set up the first mission station in the same year.
When the senior Queen Loziba, okaPhahlana died in 1861 King Mzilikazi relocated his royal town once again. We are not very certain where he was between 1861 and 1863, but was probably still within Bubi District. By 1863 we know he was at Mhlahlandlela within the Mgadla belt. That turned out to be his last move as the “mountain fell” on 5 September 1868 at Enqameni, on the headwaters of the Tuli River along the Old Gwanda Road. Relocations were enduring themes in those early days.
Accumulated cow dung manure, when old, changed from a brown to a white colour. A type of grass called umnyankomo grew in the phosphate rich grounds. A plant called ijoyi also preferred growing on abandoned cattle byres. For the archaeologists working on old settlements the position of a cattle byre or byres was fairly easy to identify. Colour of the soil and the type of grass are pointers to the position of the byre and it’s shifting positions.
Once cattle manure was adopted as crop fertiliser manure from an abandoned cattle byre was piled up into a big heap. This was a way of countering weeds that would emerge when manure was applied in the fields. The idea behind piling manure into a gigantic heap was therefore to kill the weed seeds such as those of umnyankomo. The amount of heat generated within a heap was high enough to kill the seeds of would-be weeds.
In addition to the spiritual and wealth attributes of a cattle kraal, it also was a storage site for emergency grain when the grass grain bins (izilulu) within the village were torched by raiders. Big holes were dug within the central area of the cattle byre. The grain pit (umlindi), was plastered with clay (ukubhada) after which a finer layer of watery clay was applied (ukusinda lokugudula). Grain was then poured into the pit which was then covered with big wooden logs. Thinner wooden logs were then applied on top of the bigger ones to prevent soil and dung powder from slipping into the pit.
The reserve grain known as umncatsha was resorted to when for some reason or other the people were not able to plant new crops or there was a crippling drought which militated against substantial harvests to sustain the population. The cattle were then driven out and not brought back for a number of days. The bin entrance was open and left like that to allow for aeration.
Premature entry into the pit to obtain grain led to certain death through asphyxia as a result of the presence of carbon monoxide resulting from incomplete combustion.
