The Sunday News
LAST week we concluded the story of Kathleen Hawkins. In the main, it was a story that dealt with the history of the northern part of Matabeleland, in particular the Shangani Reserve today known as Nkayi/Lupane. We got to know about the workings of the London Missionary Society (LMS).
In the forthcoming articles we shall remain in the northern part of Matabeleland. We do this for a reason. In the past we have, in this column, written on the Babirwa, VaVhenda, BaKalanga and BaNyubi inter alia. Of late we dealt at length with the Matobo Hills, from its geological origins to its human settlements over the ages including the Njelele Shrine and related themes of African spirituality.
The north was populated by various ethnic groups such as the BaTonga, BaNambya, BaShangwe (aBaSankwe). Names of various places in Matabeleland North bear evidence of the presence of ethnic groups such as the Tonga who, prior to the arrival of the Ndebele evictees, were found in several places including those far to the south. Nkayi, Lupane, Dongamuzi, Panke and many other place names are of Tonga origin, in some cases corrupted by the new immigrants. There are place names that are of Kalanga origin— an indication of the spread of the language in the pre-colonial period.
The north was a densely forested area characterised by trees and plants with deep roots. The Kalahari sands, thought to derive from an inland lake whose remnants are the Okavango and the Nata river systems and the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans with no connection to the Atlantic Ocean. The resulting geological formation is thought to have resulted in coal formation, gas formation and possibly oil too.
The thick forests were an ideal habitat for marauding animals as borne out by Kathleen’s accounts about the Brown family working in Nkayi. In addition to the thick forests the area was characterised by a noxious weed called umkhawuzane. The weed wreaked havoc among the herds of cattle coming from the southern part of Matabeleland and areas north of Bulawayo from which the Ndebele were being evicted following land appropriation.
As one descends from the Highveld (watershed between the Zambezi and Limpopo river systems) temperatures increases. The resulting climate was ideal for the breeding of malaria-causing mosquitoes. The net result was that the north was not attractive for white settlement. The Ndebele who were evicted from their traditional lands were more or less cut off from the mainstream “civilising” influences of the south.
The south was invaded and partitioned or parceled out by the various Christian denominations such as the Wesleyan Methodist Church based at Thekwane Mission, the Salvation Army at Semokwe and Usher Institute, the Anglican Church at Cyrene Mission, Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) at Gobadema Mission, the Lutheran Church at Manama and Zezane missions and the Brethren In Christ Church (BICC) at Matopo, Mtshabezi and Wanezi missions. The evangelising mission coupled with the education thrust and health component had a telling effect on the worldview of the people of the south.
It was not to be with regard to the north. Fewer Christian denominations initially went into the “Dark Forests”. The dominant church to begin with was the LMS. We saw in earlier articles how the Browns had to withdraw from Nkayi due to the inhospitability of the area. The other church of note was the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland which had been established at Ingwenya Mission by the Reverend John Boyana Hadasi (Radasi). The Church ministered to the folk at Ntabazinduna, Induba and villages stretching to the Mbembesi River and its mining settlements. When time came for land alienation the people were moved to Nkayi and the Church followed their flock to places such as Zenka where a mission was established.
The well documented evictions of people from Emakhandeni (Fort Rixon) resulted in some people from the area going to various places including Gwatemba Native Purchase Area, Mwenezi, Nkayi and Tsholotsho, among other places. Both novelists Ndabezinhle Sigogo (Umhlaba Umangele) and Stephen Mpofu (Creatures at the Top) have vividly and exhaustively captured the painful story of forced evictions from Emakhandeni towards the end of the 1940s and early 1950s following the cessation of hostilities in World War II.
The affected areas were in the sphere of influence of the Brethren In Christ Church. When Chief Siphoso Dlodlo and his followers were shipped out to Tsholotsho the BICC followed its folk there and set up Pumula Mission and a cluster of outstations (See Nyathi, 2014 The Story of a ZPRA Cadre: Nicholas Macala Dube).
Clearly, the Christian missionary presence in the north was not the same as in the south. This inevitably had a bearing on the preservation of traditional cultures in the respective areas. The north was more insulated that the south which was more vulnerable. One only needs to read “Bantu BeHadlana” to get some idea of the impact of education and urbanisation on the rural communities.
In the forthcoming articles we shall deal with the story of one Antony Magagula, an unwavering nationalist and fountain of traditional knowledge. As we do so we need to keep at the back of our minds the themes that we have introduced in this article.
