The Sunday News
Pathisa Nyathi, Culture Heritage
WE are slowly but surely getting closer to the core of the archaeological research that was undertaken at Old Bulawayo in the 1990s.
Two themes have been under the spotlight.
The two are siting and locating the royal town and these do provide some useful background when it comes to analysing and interpreting the research findings.
The requisite and contextual background facilitate interpretation and immensely add to the knowledge about Ndebele ways of life in the 19t h Century.
Some rudimentary information was provided with regard to some of the research findings.
However, information and knowledge were largely confined to historical and ethnographic studies.
It is clear there is need for a more robust and comprehensive focus on the two themes.
Further, the two themes, largely informed the unfolding history of Matabeleland then, in particular that which impinged upon the areas close to the royal town.
Archaeological research solidified knowledge that already existed concerning Old Bulawayo which originally started off in 1870 as Gibixhegu and later, in 1872 changing name to koBulawayo on the prompting of King Lobengula himself following the bloody civil war that erupted and was driven by motives to do with the rejection of King Lobengula’s ascendancy of the royal throne.
“You are killing and persecuting me on the grounds of my mother’s ethnicity. I will accordingly change the name of the town to koBulawayo to immortalise that resistance to my accession to the throne.”
However, before we deal more exhaustively with the research work at Old Bulawayo and its findings, we need to exhaust two themes that will serve as useful background when it comes to analysis and interpretation of the research that was undertaken by archaeologists, both local and international.
As alluded to above, the two themes are site and location.
Location in this particular case will relate to relatedness. KoBulawayo stood in relation to other built environments but also to the natural features, the environment.
On the other hand, site will be unpacked in relation to the exact place where the royal town was built.
There were quite a number of factors that influenced both site and location.
This article deals with the two themes and their emerging historical implications.
We start with the manner in which Ndebele society was structured and expressed in terms of political, social, economic, cultural and spiritual ways.
That structure was consciously mirrored and expressed at the physical or topographical plane.
Inevitably, if society was to be reflected, mirrored and expressed on the physical plane, there had to be some individuals who were adequately equipped with knowledge of how that society was structured and how that structure was to be mirrored and expressed on the physical plane.
Further, the individuals needed to translate the peculiarities to a geographical plane.
Let us now show how the choice of site related to the manner in which society was structured. Ndebele society, like other African societies, was socially and politically stratified, with the King at the pinnacle of that society.
Some sort of hierarchy emerged, one that was then transferred to and mirrored on the physical plane.
That society had to be reflected in topographical or physical terms.
The settlement pattern had to mirror that particular society.
In order to meet that requirement, there had to be landscape surveyors who were skilled and knowledgeable to relate matters social and political to those concrete and physical.
They looked for a site that would embrace, in physical terms, the way society was stratified.
The King’s residence had to be the highest in geographical terms.
Not all sites met this requirement.
The requirement was looked at in conjunction with other factors. Overall, the site should be sloping. This was in line with architectural dictates.
Ndebele huts at the time were of the beehive type like those of the Zulu.
There were also some hut structures that displayed the mediated uplifted mushroom type.
In both instances, the huts were less structurally developed, meaning the roof and wall were not distinctly differentiated, as was the case with the cone-on-cylinder huts of the Kalanga, Shona, Venda.
In the absence of a gently sloping land, water would pile up around a hut and end up seeping into the hut floor.
A slope ensured that when it rained water quickly flowed away, thus reducing percolation and seepage.
Local huts were provided with fringing clay platforms that served to deflect water away from the flimsy “walls.”
A flat terrain would have resulted in water logging with disastrous consequences on the make-up of the floor, particularly with regard to its strength and durability.
Land surveyors were always alert to ensure the choice of site met the two demands.
Choice of site required balancing and mediating with location.
Water supply for both livestock and domestic use must be available.
Streams and rivers were the major sources for water availed through rain.
Some of the streams and rivers had to be perennial. It is clear the environment has been getting drier over the years.
Today there is no perennial stream close to Old Bulawayo.
Back then, what now are dry river beds used to supply the settlement with water throughout the year.
Adequate land for crop cultivation must be available.
The Ndebele were known to prefer red (izibomvu) and black (izidaka) soils.
For cultivation of sorghum and other food crops, they used the hand hoe and that meant smaller acreage came under cultivation in comparison with the later period when the ox-drawn plough was introduced.
Food security was more guaranteed.
As cattle ranchers, Ndebele people knew the type of grass that was suitable for their large herds.
For example, when they were given directions regarding where they were to settle in their trek from the south, the final destination had a special nutritive grass known as imbanjana.
In addition to the identifying grass, the chosen location was identifiable through the presence of a flat-topped hill.
The waters in the identified location flowed in different directions.
Some rivers were part of the Zambezi River system while others took their waters to the Limpopo River system.
Both migration and settlement were influenced by the availability of water sources.
The course of migration from the south, for example, was influenced by the drainage systems.
Temporary shelters along the journey were located where there was water.
Movement too followed rivers and streams such as Umzingwane River.
They provided life-giving corridors between dry areas between the Matobo Hills to the north and the Soutpansberg Hills to the south.
Upon arrival in Zimbabwe, Ndebele settlement patterns were influenced and closely related to the network of river systems.
For example, there were settlements close to rivers such as Insiza, Umzingwane, Incema, Inyozane, Khami, uMhlonyane, Khoce, Nkenyane, Mbembesi and their tributaries. KoBulawayo was no exception in this regard.
The site and location met the requisites cited above.
It is pertinent that we look at the results of both location and site as given above.
The capital town, as the seat of government and the State influenced the location and siting of certain activities of a varying nature.
For example, the Christian mission stations located themselves close to the royal town of koBulawayo.
The Jesuit Mission and the LMS Hope Fountain Mission are two examples.
However, their proselytising thrusts did not, in the initial stages of their development, meet with success until after the destruction of the Ndebele State in 1893.
Numerous stone-built trading stores were set up near the royal towns of koBulawayo and indigenous tastes for exotic goods were whetted in and around the towns.
Material culture, in particular, underwent change from the same sites.
The changes were wrought on several aspects of Ndebele culture, particularly the material aspects. Beliefs and spiritual ideas changed but slowly.
Architectural changes began in the capital town itself when fired clay bricks were moulded and used in house construction.
Ninety-degree angle rectangular structures emerged and replaced the circular structures in some instances.
Wood was replaced earlier than grass, which was, replaced much later by iron sheets. Ox-drawn wagons were seen in the capital town where King Lobengula possessed some.
He inherited some from his late father King Mzilikazi and bought his own too.
The road infrastructure, the little that existed, led to the capital town as the nodal centre. Travellers from the south passed through Old Bulawayo.
There was some noticeable shift when the capital town relocated in 1881.
The road from the south shifted and passed through the new koBulwayo (Emahlabathini).
The shift was also noticeable north of the two sites, when the road proceeding to Inyathi Mission was re-aligned.
That was the road that later came to be known as the Hunters Road.
Many of the whites who lived near Old Bulawayo or passed through it were single men.
Some of the young men had amorous affairs with Ndebele girls.
What emerged out of that was the coloured population but also the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis and gonorrhea.
It is clear that the location and siting of the capital town, koBulawayo had more implications than we often imagine.
Subsequent cultural erosion had its epicentre as the new colonial Bulawayo that sucked in some of the Ndebele people into the cold and heartless commercial, industrial and mining orbits of a new Western culture that was imposing itself.
