The Sunday News
Pathisa Nyathi
A CHIEF is born of a chief. On the basis of criteria enumerated earlier on, once a man was appointed chief by the king, thereafter his chieftainship was confined to his lineage.
Given that a chief had several wives, there had to be a coterie of principles of succession to assist the family and community in determining which, among several sons, qualified to inherit the chiefly mantle.
The seniority of a chief’s wives was an important qualification to take into consideration. At the highest level it was the royal Khumalo wives who took precedence over other Khumalo wives and indeed, other non-Khumalo but Nguni wives. “Hole” (indigenous) and Enhla (Sotho and Tswana) wives were never considered in succession matters. In fact, no chief was expected to marry from the two groups for reasons given earlier on.
There was a working hierarchy of Khumalo wives which was taken into consideration when working out the succession pecking order. While that was not an insurmountable task, it is more important to understand the rationale behind such criteria.
The king sought to entrench his hold on political power. The daughters of kings superseded all other Khumalo daughters.
In practical terms therefore, the daughters of King Mzilikazi Khumalo ruled the roost. It did not matter when they got married to a chief; they immediately became umdlunkulu which produced the next chief.
It is important to realise that it was not the order of marriage of a chief’s wives, but their seniority which was determined by the socio-political standing of their fathers.
Within the Ndebele State there was no man more senior than the incumbent king. The first and more senior of the two Ndebele kings, Mzilikazi and Lobengula was the former. It was on that basis that King Mzilikazi’s daughters took precedence over all Khumalo daughters including those of King Lobengula: okaNkosi kalamlingani.
The next Khumalo daughters in the pecking order were the daughters of King Lobengula. The daughters of King Mzilikazi’s sons ranked below those of King Lobengula, on account of the fact that Prince Lobengula became king after King Mzilikazi.
They certainly were ranked higher than those of non-royal Khumalos. The daughters of King Lobengula also took precedence over the daughters of his brothers such as Qalingana, Lopila, Muntu (Tshukisa), Mangwana, Mabele, Sibhamubhamu, Mahlahleni, Ngubongubo, Makhulambila and Nyanda, inter alia. Unfortunately, the Ndebele State was destroyed by the British before many of King Lobengula’s daughters got married to chiefs.
Below the royal Khumalos came the non-royal Khumalos whose daughters were the next in the pecking order. Their daughters were superseded only by the daughters of Kings Mzilikazi and Lobengula. The daughters, if any, of Matshobana, King Mzilikazi’s father, would have ranked above these as did the daughters of King Mzilikazi’s brothers such as Gqugqu, Bheje and Jojwana.
The question now is who are these less royal Khumalos? It was these Khumalos who could sometimes be appointed as regents for the qualifying sons before they attained the age of majority in the various villages.
The said houses included iNzonda kaMatshitshi, ekaLugebhe. Mazwi Khumalo of eNyandeni, a village situated just a few kilometres from Bulawayo along the Bulawayo-Kezi/Maphisa Road, was an example of one who belonged to iNzonda.
Mtshane Khumalo also belonged to the same house, as did Jahana Khumalo of eNsindeni, within the Amakhanda section.
Another Khumalo house was amaNyangana or uNgwende who included Mkhaliphi Khumalo, Nkone, Manxeba and other Khumalos of uMzinyathi. Thulwana Khumalo and son Mlonyeni also belonged to the amaNyangana house. There was also uDunga(e) kaMamba kaKlekekleke to which Bhozongwana Khumalo belonged.
Each house had specific roles to play within the Khumalo clan.We should also mention Mncumbatha kaKholo kaManzamnyama who was the king’s confidante and advisor, umqamelo wenkosi. He became regent following the death of King Mzilikazi Khumalo in September 1868.
As a result, the abeNtungwa clan consolidated their hold on power. Many chiefs considered it an honour and privilege to be married to a Khumalo daughter. Their own chieftainships were consolidated in that way. For a chief so lucky as to be chosen by the king to marry his daughter, he referred to this phenomenon as ukuwelwa liyezi, a cloud (with blessings) landed on him.
We should point out that these marriages were not about love between two partners. How could, for example, King Lobengula loved Princess Xhwalile Nxumalo who he had never met before she was delivered on her doorstep by Induba chief Lotshe Hlabangana, uMdengehatshi?
It was the same with King Mzilikazi Khumalo. He met Princess Mwaka Nxumalo for the first time when she was delivered to him when he was resident at eZinyosini on the Vaal (uLikhwa) River where he was domiciled from about 1822 to 1827 prior to his move to Mhlahlandlela near the Aapies River which runs through present day Pretoria.
Marriage was first and foremost a social arrangement to ensure the continuation or perpetuation of a particular blood line, call it procreation. It also served to cement relations and avoid conflict between powerful states.
The Gasa (Shangani) State enjoyed good relations with the Ndebele State and the cordial relations were consolidated through the marriage of the Gasa king’s daughter Princess Xhwalile Nxumalo to the Ndebele King Lobengula Khumalo. In return, King Lobengula Khumalo reserved his daughter, one Princess Sixubhuzelo, for marriage to the Gasa monarch, King Ngungunyana Nxumalo.
Chief Gampu Sithole of eMagogweni spoilt the arrangement when he flirted with the royal princess with whom he eloped to the Transvaal to avoid the wrath of King Lobengula Khumalo. This is another way of saying marriages were arranged among men and their daughters had no say in the transactions, save to trust and obey.
Arranged marriages were common right into the colonial period. When Christianity was introduced, it discouraged such arranged marriages. Within the Brethren In Christ Church (BICC) their Mtshabezi Mission in Wenlock (eNqameni) introduced a place of refuge to which girls facing arranged marriages could flee to and seek refuge and immunity. The girl refugees were referred to as Izintombi zeGedini.
Once the fleeing girl set foot within the gate of the place of refuge she enjoyed immunity. There was an arrangement and agreement between BICC and the local Ndebele community on the issue.
Researcher Wendy Urban-Mead has dealt with the matter in greater depth in her book, “The Gender of Piety: Family, Faith, and Colonial Rule in Matabeleland, Zimbabwe.
Such an idea of fleeing to a place of refuge and immunity was not new. In the heyday of the Ndebele State one could flee, from a crime such as witchcraft, to a place known as eNtukuzweni.
The royal assassins were not allowed to enter the precincts of eNtukuzweni. The culprit only needed to enter the “demilitarised zone” and claim their immunity. This was equally so when one accused person entered the village of Inhlambabaloyi whose chief was Thambo Ndiweni.
It was a place of refuge by virtue of its being run by King Mzilikazi’s uncles, the Ndiwenis. It was just like a child seeking refuge behind his grandmother’s dresses, ukucatsha ngemva kwezidwaba zikagogo. Both parents of the fleeing child had no power to retrieve the child from granny’s protection.
In the next instalment we shall furnish some examples where these criteria were operationalised.
