The Sunday News
Pathisa Nyathi
AS intimated a short while ago, we are now entering the more pedestrian and mundane episode in our rendition of names and naming. All along we have been concentrating on the philosophy and expressions of worldview resident in names. It became clear that names provide an important panoramic vista into the African world. As a result, some communities on the African continent arranged elaborate rituals as part of the naming ritual. For the baby, this was the beginning of the process of transforming her from a biological entity into a cultural individual who is organically linked to the community of which she is a part.
Even as we render the more mundane aspects of names and naming, we are not able to completely distance ourselves from the worldview expressed in names. This will become apparent as we deal, in particular, with African names in the City of Bulawayo. There are two layers that we need to peel off in order to deal with Ndebele names as found in the names of townships, schools, roads and other social facilities and amenities within the precincts of Bulawayo. The first layer gives the origin of the name. For example, Mzilikazi Township is named after Ndebele King Mzilikazi. Who, for example, is the township named after? There is scope, where knowledge is accessible, to explain and interpret the name. Why was the name given to the person that a township is named after? Why was the name Mzilikazi given to a baby boy born to Matshobana and Cikose Ndiweni? This is the second layer that does not readily submit itself to interpretation.
We shall start with the oldest African township in Bulawayo, namely Makokoba. The very spelling of the names presents challenges which expose our “we don’t care attitude.” Without an ‘‘h’’ the name of the township is not readily appreciated. If we had cared to abide by the current IsiNdebele orthography, we would know the verb from which the noun and name derive. To ‘‘khokhoba’’ means to walk with a stoop, usually as a result of old age. Very often we listen to birthday messages on Skyz Metro FM where a wisher says, ‘‘ukhule uze ukhokhobe.” This is a wish that one should grow to a mature age where they assume a stooping gait. But once the verb is spelt as ‘‘kokoba’’ those familiar with the current IsiNdebele orthography may get lost. More so if they come across the name in written and not verbalised form.
Makokoba is Bulawayo’s oldest township for blacks. It came into being soon after colonisation and occupation of King Lobengula’s KoBulawayo, the seat of power for the Ndebele State. In the beginning, it was popularly referred to as the Location which the Ndebele rendered as eLokitshini. Those with a Zulu inclination would pronounce the name as eLokishini. Indeed, the Ndebele used to render “tsh” as “sh” till they incorporated abeNhla along their trek from KwaZulu-Natal to Zimbabwe. They knew the Zulu King as uShaka, rather than uTshaka as they do today.
Incorporation of abeNhla resulted in the change. Linguists point to and pinned down the change to the aManala and aManzuza and the other peoples they were incorporated together with at eNdubazi. Remember, these abeNtungwa people lived close to the BaPedi whose language is held responsible for the change from Shaka to Tshaka. The BaPedi were domiciled, at the time King Mzilikazi and his people were moving northwards, close to the Steelpoort River, known in SeSotho/SeTswana as Tubatse. The abeNtungwa were further downstream with the BaPedi upstream. Back then the “sh” sound was spelt as in TjiKalanga. “Sh” became “tsh” and was in the SePedi spelt as “tj.”
The name eLokitshini has survived to this day, alongside the official name, Makokoba, albeit wrongly spelt. Interviewing Reverend Enock Musa at his Luveve home several years ago, I got to know about a white man who was the township’s superintendent who used to walk with a stoop. He tip-toed to the houses to peer inside and see who were inside. Given the racist policies of central government then, local authorities equally embraced racism in allocating houses among the races. Whites or Europeans, Indians, Coloureds and Africans were housed separately. The black man was tolerated purely and exclusively for the labour that he provided. The labourers were men. Women were not expected to come and live with their husbands, or even as unmarried persons, in the townships. Be that as it may, women provided domestic service to whites and were, in the main, housed in the ‘‘boys’ khaya’’ the back of the white man’s residence. Gertrude Hospital later housed some of them.
Racial separation, or the Colour Bar, was enforced and buttressed by legal statutes. The township superintendent accordingly tip-toed to peer into the houses to see if there weren’t any women inside. “Yena khona lomfazi phakathi?” he would yell and scream when his eyes landed inside the small and poorly ventilated houses that Makokoba township was associated with. I later came to know the white superintendent was known as Fallon, who overzealously enforced city council’s racially segregated accommodation housing.
The township had two distinct areas of residence, the Bulawayo Municipal Compound (BMC) closer to the white Bulawayo to the east. That is the Vundu section which is characterised by tiny windows which do not open. They did admit air, but just a bit of light. In the days of the coronavirus which knows no respect for the sacrosanct human life, the houses would have become the epicentre for the infectiously transmitted virus. BMC housed City Council employees, mostly recruited from the north-western part of the country. The Lozi, Tonga and Chewa (aMatshawa) were the dominant component of the labour force. The Ndebele were in the habit of abandoning employment during the agricultural season. They considered Bulawayo a place of temporary sojourn, eNkomponi (a place similar to a mining compound).
The other section, to the west, housed other workers and people who were part of the residents of Ndebele KoBulawayo. Among these were the Nguni women who built houses on the stands that they had bought. These were omasitanda that artistes such as Khuxxman Bethule still sing about. Some lived in rural areas and came into town to collect rentals from their lodgers. The women made money through brewing traditional beer. At the time, City Council had not ventured into the lucrative traditional beer brewing industry. However, the City Council got into the business of brewing traditional beer and constructed their first brewery in 1912 close to present day MaKhumalo Beer Garden in Makokoba. The women were elbowed out. Later the brewery was relocated to Steeldale where it still is today. I was, in 2012, engaged to research when the brewery was set up.
Of course, we should not lose sight of the fact that at that time many African workers were housed at their workplaces. Later, their industrial accommodation was phased out and all workers were housed in the townships. For the Rhodesia Railways (RR) Matshobana (Mashobana in KZN) and Sizinda townships were constructed. For the Europeans there was Raylton.
Makokoba was characterised by squalid conditions, overcrowding and high unemployment rates. Diseases were rampant and the little clinic could not cope and had few beds anyway. Expecting mothers delivered at their houses. Mpilo Native Maternity Hospital only came into operation in 1950 when it hived off the Memorial Hospital where whites, Coloureds and Indians remained till the United Bulawayo Hospitals was built. Before African maternity section was closed down there were separate sections for the different racial groups within the same hospital. The general wards for blacks continued at the Memorial Hospital till the patients were transferred in army trucks to the new Mpilo General Hospital which in 2018 celebrated its 60 years of existence. For that, I was engaged to research and pen a commemorative book.
It is not our intention to give the historical background to Makokoba. We are however, doing that in recognition of the fact that the township is the cradle of many facets of township life in Bulawayo. It all began in Makokoba, be it nationalist politics, trade unionism, youthful political radicalism, Zhanda, Christian worship and education, music and sport. The next article will continue with the theme of Makokoba before we move on to the next township, Mzilikazi although we should bear in mind that there was an African village bearing the name Luveve which was located at a very long distance from Bulawayo. It was the counterpart of Highfield Township in Salisbury (now Harare).
