A decade of fate: LMS missionaries document Ndebele history

Cultural Heritage

Pathisa Nyathi THE last decade of the 18th Century saw the birth of two men whose destinies were set to be intertwined and endure for a long time. Mzilikzi Khumalo was born to Chief Matshobana and Cikose the daughter of Ndlovu Ndiweni, a chief of Amangwe. Chief Matshobana a son of Chief Mangethe and a MaHlabangana wife lived at Esikhwebesini in the Ngome area. The Khumalos had got to that place from Nquthu before which they had been at Empangeni.

It was time when raids, for both humans and livestock, were common. During that time most probably in the last decade of the 18th Century Mzilikazi, actually Mzilawegazilikamatshobana was born when his father Matshobana was away on one of the raids and found a son born to him. Chief Matshobana had, during a bloody encounter sustained a wound and he bled profusely, but however, survived.

As per Nguni naming practice, the baby son was appropriately named Mzilawegazilikamatshobana and later became simply Mzilawegazi and later still, Mzilikazi, a name that has endured to this day. While Ingome was relatively more inland, activities taking place along the coast sent waves which were felt even that far. The Portuguese were active in the East Coast, while the English had started arriving in the Cape from 1815 and, by 1820, there was a major influx. Slave trading was rife as commercial activities of the new arrivals required native labour which was secured by means fair and foul from Malagasy, Malay, Angola and the interior.

There was competition among African groups that sought to control lucrative trade routes to the coast. It was the time when more powerful nation states emerged and began waging military campaigns on each other with the aim of getting the bigger slice of economic resources available. The cataclysmic wars, commonly referred to as Imfecane/Difaqane, were not initiated by King Tshaka as sometimes maliciously insinuated, but rather by economic interests of new European arrivals. King Tshaka merely responded to the wars and, in the process, built a big and powerful empire.

Chief Matshobana fell victim to the wars when King Zwide kaLanga Nxumalo of the Ndwandwe tribe had his soldiers raid the Khumalos. One arm of Chief Matshobana was severed and later a three legged leopard used to appear during his propitiation. As has been pointed out earlier, Chief Matshobana had his heir apparent living at his maternal uncles, the Nxumalos. This is to say Chief Matshobana married a Nxumalo woman, Nompethu who was the mother of Dwangubana Khumalo, the rightful heir. The unsettled affairs in the region following the demise of Chief Matshobana saw another of Chief Matshobana’s sons, Mzilawegazilikamatshobana move away from his ancestral land to seek refuge among the Zulus where there was relative stability. He lived at the royal capital named Kwabulawayo.

Following the death of Chief Matshobana, his son Dwangubana was recalled and the Khumalos felt he was too weak to stand against King Tshaka. For that reason he was put to death and the act paved way for Prince Mzilawegazilikamatshobana to take over. The Khumalos’ judgment was right. In Prince Mzilikazi they had a man whose inclination was towards independence. He was a shrewd, astute, diplomatic and brave man and military genius. He knew when to stand and fight and when to move his people to a safer place, with his safety guaranteed by distance.

An army travelling a long distance has its striking capacity diminished. It was this strategy that saw the Ndebele of King Mzilikazi Khumalo finally settle in south western Zimbabwe in about 1839. It was this movement, aimed at gaining safe distance that led to the Ndebele settling at Ezinyosini near the Vaal River, on the western side of the Drakensberg Mountains, Izintaba Zokhahlamba. Wars were still being waged against foes, which wars finally led to the removal of his people further north west to the Magaliesberg area where the king had his royal town known as Mhlahlandlela. The Griqua, AmaHiligwa/Amalawu in collaboration with the Sotho and Tswana peoples led to his departure from Ezinyosini where he had settled between 1822 and 1827.

In the meantime in Britain, a man named Reverend Dr Robert Moffat was born at Ormiston in Scotland in 1795. The man was trained in gardening which would, in later years, prove handy when he lived in South Africa’s Namaqualand. Reverend Moffat had successfully applied to the London Missionary Society (LMS) to be a missionary in Africa. In 1816 he was formally commissioned in the Surrey Chapel in London as an LMS missionary. At the age of 21 he sailed to South Africa as a Congregational missionary where the LMS already had a presence. His fiancée Mary Smith joined him after three years.

The 1790s witnessed the rise of missionary societies that sought to send missionaries overseas for the sole purpose of “. . . spreading the knowledge of Christ among heathens and other unenlightened natives.” Missionary societies were being formed along the lines of the Anti Slavery Society. The aim of these men was not just to spread Congregationalism but to facilitate the financing of their missionary endeavours in a co-ordinated fashion. By 1795 the Anglican Evangelicals and other non-conformists started sending missionaries overseas. These men with reformed outlook began sending missions to Oceania and Africa.

Serious proposals for a Missionary Society began in 1794 and Tuesday, 22 September 1795 formally marked the origin of the Missionary Society. The first missionaries sailed from Woolwich in 1797 in a small ship named the Duff. They were on their way to Tahiti. The Missionary Society was later, in 1818, renamed the London Missionary Society whose establishment at Inyathi Mission on 26 December 1859 was a direct result of several meetings that took place between King Mzilikazi Khumalo and Reverend Robert Moffat from 1829 till 1857.

While Mfecane was raging, the LMS Board of Directors sent two Scotsmen, Rev Dr John Philip (1775-1851) of Aberdeen and John Campbell to spearhead the formation of LMS mission stations in South Africa. The two arrived in the Cape Province in 1819. Their mission was to “. . . proclaim the glorious gospel of the blessed God.” At that time, the Cape of Good Hope was in the hands of the Dutch East India Company. Later, it passed on to the hands of the Batavian Republic before the British settled in the region in 1815. Subsequently, the Treaty of Vienna gave authority over the Cape of Good Hope to the British.

Reverend Philip became Director of Missions in the Cape and got involved in campaigns against the oppression of natives. In that effort, he collaborated with the Aboriginal Society in England. He also campaigned for press freedom.

It was against this background that Reverend Dr Moffat arrived in the Cape in 1820. He sailed there at the tender age of 21 years. Initially settling at the Cape, Reverend Moffat ventured further north and settled among the Tswana people, the BaThlaping at Kuruman, a name that was given to King Mzilikazi Khumalo’s heir apparent, Prince Nkulumane. It should be appreciated that Prince Nkulumane Khumalo was not King Mzilikazi Khumalo’s eldest son. There were several sons born to him before he ascended the Ndebele throne. Ndebele royal succession demanded that a king be born of a king and not of man.

Among the non-royal sons of King Mzilikazi Khumalo were Mangwana (mother MaDlodlo), Tshukisa also known as Muntu (mother MaSigola), Lopila (mother MaFuyane and Qalingana (mother Masuku). An important consideration was that the mother of an heir apparent such as Prince Nkulumane had her amalobolo paid, not by the king but by the nation. A similar situation prevailed during the time of King Lobengula Khumalo. As man Lobengula Khumalo already had three wives prior to his coronation in 1870.

The said wives were Mbhida Mkhwananzi ( okaLodada and mother of Nyamande and Tshakalisa also known as Sintingantingasenkosi) and Mfaziwamajaha Mkhwananzi ( okaLodada and mother of Mhlambi, father of Dabengwa Khumalo). The third wife was the mother of son Mangisimane who committed suicide. It is important to note that even where a wife married prior to ascension of the throne, a son of such a wife and born after coronation did not qualify. It is the timing of the marriage of the son’s mother that mattered and not the timing of the son’s birth.

The issue of amalobolo did apply in the case of King Lobengula Khumalo with regard to Prince Njube Khumalo who qualified as the heir apparent. As you might know, he together with Princes Nguboyenja Khumalo and Mphezeni Khumalo were whisked away to the Cape Province by Cecil John Rhodes whose desire was to see there was no royal rallying son in Matabeleland. Njube married a woman from the Xhosa tribe and the amalobolo were not paid by the Ndebele people, a thing that prompted Prince Njube Khumalo to marry yet another wife for whom amalobolo, in the form of cattle, were produced by the Ndebele. Provincial Native Commissioner Parker took possession of the cattle in exchange for the money that was then sent to the Cape Province to pay amalobolo for the new wife. The son from that union was called Ndabayecala (see Nyathi: Izibongo Lezangelo Zama Ndebele KaMzilikazi, 2000).

As will be seen later, the LMS provided missionaries both at Inyathi Mission and Hope Fountain Mission who provided useful insights into the history of Matabeleland, in particular with regard to royalty as their mission stations were sited near royal capitals at Emhlangeni where the resident ibutho was Inyathi or UMzinyathi and Enyokeni/ Entenjaneni. For example, Reverend William A Elliott in his book, Gold from the Quartz, records a state visit undertaken by King Lobengula Khumalo to Hope Fountain Mission in 1872. The king was in the company of his children, who included inter alia Banyayi, Nyamande, Mangisimane and Mhlambi who spent the night in Mrs Helm’s house (she was wife to missionary Reverend Charles Helm, uHelemu, the man that Cecil John Rhodes bought for the purpose of misinterpreting the so-called Rudd Concession of 31 October 1888 signed at Mvutshwa). The king slept in the open, in his ox wagon.