The Sunday News
NJENJEMA’S story generated a lot of interest among some followers of this column. More information was volunteered on the prominent wosana. At the same time there were other people who wanted us to furnish more historical information in order to locate Njenjema in a historical context, but also to indicate the historical episodes prior to his being called into the service of Mwali.
So great were the spiritual exploits of Njenjema that following his demise there was a big void which nobody could fill. The void was on two fronts. As a spiritual man he did not have an immediate successor. At the family there seems to have been some disintegration. From the words of lamentation that were uttered after his demise one gets the impression that some of his children became persons of no fixed aboard.
The above sentiments and insinuations are captured in the following text rendered in Tjikalanga. “Yaba phalale phade bana baNjenjema. Batanhawu benda bakasenga makukutu.”(Interview with Watson Khupe 12 May 2014, Bulawayo).
In the last installment we gave the name of Njenjema’s father as Tjabulula. More information was volunteered on his lineage. Apparently, his earliest known ancestor was Ndangandilele whose son was Nanange (Nhanange). Nhanange’s son was Mahwila, the father of Pagiwa. It was Pagiwa who was the father of Tjabulula the man we said was the father of Njenjema. Tjibende was Njenjema’s brother, though not born of the same mother.
It should be apparent that Njenjema was called to the service of Mwali at the time when the Lozwi State was on the verge of collapse. In last week’s installment we made reference to his flight in response to the arrival of the Swazi who had been victims of Mfecane. Shortly after the departure of the Swazi, the Ndebele under King Mzilikazi appeared on the scene.
Njenjema lived through the year when the Ndebele took up arms to resist British rule. Courtesy of Reverend Cullen Reed his life was spared. The lamentation given above was uttered after Imfazo II of 1896. Njenjema’s life spanned many political epochs.
However, the period of interest is that which precedes his birth. I have on several occasions lamented the fact that Zimbabwean history has tended to sidestep Kalanga history. I will not, for the purposes of this article, dwell on the reasons for this very unfortunate phenomenon, save it to say we are worse off in terms of national historiography when we choose to ignore the history of the BaKalanga.
Let us take it from the time of the demise of the Zimbabwe State which was headquartered on Great Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe State had come into being in about AD 1300 and collapsed two centuries later in AD 1500 (Burrett, and Hubbard, 2013).We are not very certain of the reasons that led to the collapse of that once flourishing state. It could have been the decline in trade with the East Coast or environmental degradation following continuous occupation for two hundred years. It has been suggested that one possible reason for the fall out was succession wrangles.
What is more certain is that there was conflict among the ruling class of Zimbabwe which led to a fall out, the result of which was movement away from the seat of power in two directions. One group under the leadership of Togwa struck westwards and finally settled at present day Khami. The resulting state was named after Togwa, hence Togwa State.
The language spoken in Zimbabwe then seems to have been more akin to Tjikalanga than present ChiShona which gives the name as Torwa. The Togwa State centred on Khami had a number of known councillors. One of them, Nkami gave the name of the place where Togwa ruled from. Councillor Nkami, so named because he was the milker of cows without calves, “nkami wepfumba dzisina mhulu.” He must have lived at what was later and is still known as Khami.
Khami is now the name of the monument which is a world heritage site and a prison complex adjacent to the monument. The nearby river and dam are also named after Togwa’s councillor Nkami. The other councillors were Tjimbe Ntunululu, Ninhale and Ninhembe. Another group later came and destroyed the Togwa State. At the time Togwa’s son was in power. His name was Tjibundule. Apparently this was not his childhood name. It was common then for people, rulers included to give themselves nicknames which became their adulthood names.
Where one did not give himself a nickname, one was thrust upon him by the people with whom he lived. Tjibundule of the Ndlovu totem was born Madabhane, his childhood name. At mature age he chose to call himself Tjibundule, “Ndobundula,” he would say.
There is a place in Wenlock (eNqameni) called Bundule. I still remember when one uncle of mine, on the Nyathi side, claimed many years ago that his ancestors were given a place where to settle by Tjibundule. That, if correct, may suggest arrival of some Nyathis just before the collapse of the Togwa State, on the eve of the Lozwi State.
Oral traditions have it that a group of people known as BaNyayi moved north from the area of VaVhenda. Their leader was Madlazogwendo.
The very name Madlazogwendo suggests one who was trekking. The movement of the BaNyayi led them in the direction where the Togwa sate had been established by Togwa. A clash was inevitable. Indeed, it was these BaNyayi who destroyed the Togwa State and instituted the Lozwi State.
The raiding BaNyayi only became BaLozwi after destroying the Togwa State, “BaLozwi bakalozwa hango yaTjibundule”. Tjibundule had been long dead, but the territory was still recognised as his since it was he who tamed the land and established a state centred at Khami. The people that he had quarreled with also left Great Zimbabwe and went north where they established the Mutapa State.
Madlazogwendo’s was succeeded by Maluzapi who in turn was succeeded by Mambo Netjasike. Netjasike was succeeded by a man with an ominous name, Lukwangwaliba. The name refers to drought. True to his name, Lukwangwaliba witnessed a severe drought during his tenure. His followers, reeling under the grip of a devastating drought conspired and killed the man whose name they surmised had caused the drought.
Lukwangwaliba was succeeded by Mambo Tjigadzike. In line with the tradition cited above Tjigadzike nicknamed himself Tjilisamhulu and this happens to be his better known name. Tjigadzike, keen to entrench himself in power, married off his sister Bagedze to Madabhane (Tjibundule). While the story of the arranged marriage seems to suffer temporal grounding; the practice itself was common not only among the BaLozwi but indeed many other African communities. He apparently was to be the last Mambo. Njenjema was possibly born during his reign. Soon thereafter the Lozwi State was destroyed by the Swazi.
