The Sunday News
Cultural Heritage with Pathisa Nyathi
BORN in 1936 on what then was an African reserve under Chief Nzula Masuku the son of Chief Hole and Princess Famona, daughter of King Lobengula, Dr David Mhabhinyani Ngwenya had a lot of experiences that add, in no small measure, to our history.
He experienced several evictions when whites were taking over African land. He experienced the development of education for blacks in Bulawayo, attended Luveve Technical College and became a train driver with the Rhodesia Railways (now the National Railways of Zimbabwe, NRZ).
Now retired and running a cultural centre at Lushumbe in the Matobo Cultural Landscape, Dr Ngwenya lives in Luveve, Bulawayo.
His great grandfather Mathumo came up to Zimbabwe with King Mzilikazi in the 19th Century. His grandfather was Mhabhinyani who grew up at Zimnyama under the Ndiweni chieftainship and the incumbent chief is Wasi. Some of his Ngwenya relatives are found in Dombodema, the likes of the late W T Ngwenya and Gideon Ngwenya. He is the son of Dokotela Thomas Ngwenya and Chithekile Donga.
Each time I have a conversation with Dr Ngwenya he is quick to mention the name of Velemhlangeni Ndebele his grand maternal uncle who was in King Mzilikazi’s group when they travelled to Zimbabwe. When they were at Mahalihali, Velemhlangeni contracted malaria.
The area has vast water bodies into which rivers such as Manzamnyama pour their waters. Poor drainage encourages the breeding of malaria-causing mosquitoes. When Velemhlangeni was incapacitated as a result of having contracted malaria, he asked his colleagues to abandon him.
They declined his request. He then advised them to take his spears and shield and deposit them on the King’s feet so he could believe that Velemhlangeni his famous warrior was no more.
What is now Luma ranch where Ngwenya was born was an African reserve under Chief Nzula Masuku. The area was cleared off of Africans to create a farm for a white man.
Chief Nzula, son of Hole, son of Mkhokhi kaMadlenya Masuku (chief of Inyamayendlovu), had moved back to the Matobo Hills following the death of his father. The area known as UYengo, west of Kezi, was taken over by the Ndiwenis as chiefs of IZinala/EZisongweni who today are represented by incumbent Chief Nyangazonke, the son of Caedmon Hlathi kaTapi, the son of Nyangazonke, son of Faku kaMabuyana kaKhondwane (formerly known as Gundwane). When Ngwenya’s parents were evicted from Luma they went to settle briefly at Hope Fountain.
From Hope Fountain they went to settle at ESiphaziphazi west of Bulawayo in 1942. The place where they settled was called EZiqalabeni where late Dr Dumiso Dabengwa’s farm is located within the Pumula Estate. The area, then not incorporated into Greater Bulawayo, was under traditional leadership.
The chief was Menyezwa Gumede the son of Mazwi. They were evicted and resettled in Lupane but eventually ended up at Dongamuzi within the same district. The area then known as Mpopoma was under the jurisdiction of Menyezwa.
The school in the area was the (Wesleyan) Methodist School. Ngwenya’s sisters attended that school which is still in existence.
The year 1945 marked the cessation of World War II hostilities. Whites from Southern Rhodesia were returning home to try their hand at agriculture. The Land Apportionment Act (1930) had been promulgated in line with the recommendations of the Carter Commission of 1925.
Evictions were heightened from then onwards. From places such as Fort Rixon (EMakhandeni) the residents were relocated to various locations such as the Shangani Reserve (Nkayi and Lupane districts) which was created in 1894 to be settled by the defeated Ndebele people. Others went to places such as Tsholotsho (Chief Siphoso Dlodlo led his people to Pumula), Ngungumbane and Mashumba (now a Marko headmanship) south of Maphisa.
The Ngwenyas did not live long at EZiqalabeni. Once again, they were on the move as Africans were being evicted to more marginal lands, far away from transport communications and produce markets. Rainfall was both little and erratic. In some cases the land they occupied was infested with umkhawuzane, an obnoxious weed that killed several Ndebele cattle.
The Ngwenyas went to Mpindo in Tsholotsho, also set aside in 1894 as the Gwaai (Gwayi, now Tsholotsho) Reserve. Their area of settlement was under Chief Mathuphula Khumalo the son of Sibhamubhamu (so named after Mambo Chibhamubhamu), okaMzilikazi Khumalo.
Prince Sibhamubhamu is thought to have fled in a northerly direction and probably crossed the Zambezi River to live in Zambia with other Ndebele people such as the Masukus.
It was here where Ngwenya went to school for the first time in 1947, the year of a very serious drought when yellow maize was imported from Kenya. Kapane Primary School was headed by a Mr. Mandipedza from Fort Victoria (now Masvingo).
The school was run by the Wesleyan Methodists. The name of the school, Kapane, was of a San language meaning a water pan. Pans with stagnant water encouraged the breeding of anopheles mosquitoes. In the 1940s malaria forced Tsholotsho Industrial Government School to relocate to Umzingwane. Some pupils attending Kapane came from Mlevu further to the west. Some San children did attend the school whose neighbouring schools were Regina Mundi for the Roman Catholic Church across the Gwayi River, Janiza, Mpindo for the Seventh Day Adventist Church (SDA) and Mvana. The school offered education to the level of Standard 6.
Donga was pastor at the SDA’s Mpindo Primary School. His children attended Solusi Mission, the first SDA mission in Southern Rhodesia which was established in 1894. One of his children attending Solusi Mission was Fahlelwana.
Ngwenya did not gather much moss at the places he went to. In 1949 he left Kapane Primary School to live in Bulawayo where he continued with his primary education.
In Bulawayo African education was run by various Christian denominations. The government only cared to provide education for white children. In Makokoba Township the Roman Catholic Church established St Patrick’s Primary School while the Anglican Church set up and ran St Columba’s.
The reformed churches were so arranged as to form some kind of cordon sanitaire, separating the blacks living in Makokoba Township from whites. It was a string of churches with some bush of indigenous trees such as umphafa. Beyond that lived Indians, regarded as better than Africans but poorer that the whites of Caucasian stock.
When Ngwenya arrived in Bulawayo he attended what was known as United Churches School.
A number of churches constituting the cordon sanitaire came together to establish their own school. In actual fact individual schools provided classroom spaces within their church premises. The schools that came together were the Presbyterian Church (iHabe), African Methodist Church (iTopia) the Wesleyan Methodists and the Salvation Army.
The school head was Mrs Lewis. The SDA stayed outside the arrangement.
Ngwenya will never forget the year 1953 which he refers to as the Coronation Year. It was Cecil John Rhodes’ centenary, having been born in 1853 at Stratford, in England. Ngwenya enrolled at the United Churches School in 1950. In 1953 they went to be the pioneering pupils at Lobengula Primary School whose school head was Mrs. Lewis who had moved to the new school with her pupils from the previous school.
In the meantime, the churches continued to offer educational facilities which later became Lotshe Primary School with a Mr. Bell as head of school. Mzilikazi Primary School was already in existence and started at Standard 2 up to Standard 6. It was regarded as a very prestigious school. Both Tshinga Dube and former Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko attended the institution.
Ngwenya attended Lotshe Primary School for just one year-1956. In the following, 1957, they transferred to Gampu Primary School in Mpopoma Township. He was at Gampu (named after Gampu chief at EGabheni likaMaqhekeni Sithole) Primary School for one year and a Mr Bell was school head.
(To be continued)
