A recent article on the Ndebele monarchy appears to have generated some interest among readers and others.
By Jonathan Maphenduka
One reader complained that I had not paid much attention to Njube. I disagree with this view but I‘m willing to make amends.
Before elaborating further on the monarchy issue as it concerns Njube’s rights, let me make it clear that I’m not for, or against any one of the two claimants in the successor issue.
I do, however, assert a historical perspective and I hope that it will help the monarchy to arrive at a speedy resolution of this matter.
One of the tipping points in the genealogical order of the monarchy puts Njube fourth in the succession line from Nyamande.
There is also a little known fact concerning Humphrey, Bulelani’s father. It is that he married a Ndlangamandla.
This is taboo among the Khumalos. Is this fact a minor hurdle against Njube’s line to be ignored or suppressed? It must be noted that this information, which hardly puts Njube’s line in good light, was not mentioned when Bulelani’s name’s was announced.
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There is, however, nothing to suggest that this omission was intentional. It may have been due to oversight. If so, then let Phathisa Nyathi say so. This is vitally important because it is critical in dealing with the issue of tradition.
Moreover, the country has not heard from the Bulelani faction why Nguboyenja has not been allowed to enter the fray in the succession stakes.
Was it because Nguboyenja was younger than Njube or there are other reasons we don’t know?
The argument that Njube’s line qualifies ahead of Nyamande’s due to his exile is lame because the argument presupposes that Nyamande, who was leader of the 1896 rising, would have been spared the fate of exile if the Chartered Company could get hold of him. But his kingship following his coronation in 1896 became an abortion in the wake of the war of attrition that the Chartered Company launched to change the fortunes of the war.
The war ended without a peace treaty. It became an armistice. So it becomes a matter of one’s opinion whether the Matabele lost the country through defeat on the battlefield.
What about the Battle of Lower Shangani that saw those who wanted to bring Lobhengula to book wiped out?
Nyamande was at the head of those who were proscribed to be hanged or shot for leading or for their involvement in the uprising.
It was, therefore, a stroke of luck that Njube and others were merely exiled.
I don’t want to keep referring to this forthcoming new book, which will deal at great length with both Nyamande and the shoddy manner in which the three princes were treated.
The book will deal at great length with this subject, including the fact that Lobengula’s children and relatives were excluded from the 1979 Lancaster House Conference.
In a brazen gambit to silence criticism, the British blame the so-called nationalists for their exclusion.
In their contrived short memory the British choose to forget that Matabeleland was taken from the monarchy.
It was therefore not the nationalists’ palaver, if you like, to invite the monarchy to the Lancaster House Conference.
One might add that the nationalists and Great Britain hated (and still do) the monarchy with an equal intensity.
Nyamande had from 1914 to 1920 been talking independence with the British government. So one cannot arbitrarily decide that Njube was more qualified than Nyamande.
Those who want to see the issue of succession resolved by observing the genealogical order of the monarchy must resist the
temptation to indulge in ill-conceived bias.
Information reveals that Nyamande had nine wives from six different clans. The first two were from the Thebe family.
Then he married two girls from the Mzizi clan, one from Mondela, two from Ngwabi, one from Ndiweni, and the last one from the Nxumalo clan in that order.
All nine could bring forth an heir to the throne, depending on arisen circumstances.
For instance, if the first eight wives had only girls and Ma-Nxumalo had a son, nothing could stop him becoming an heir to the throne. This a well-established tradition in the Ndebele monarchy.
Nyamande’s first son from one of the two Ma-Thebe girls was named Sibongosibi. He fathered three sons and a daughter Asa (89). Two of the sons were Gedion and Albert, with the third boy eluding memory.
It should be noted that in 1873, when Nyamande was born, Lobhengula had another son, Mhlambi, by the surrogacy of the second Ma-Makwananzi.
She might be the mother of Tshakalisa, Nyanda or Fezela whose mothers are at this stage unknown. The three worked with Nyamande during the rising.
In 1875 Lobhengula had a son named Sintinga followed by Njube in 1879, Mphezeni in 1880, Nguboyenja in 1884, with Sidojiwe in 1888 bringing up the rear. Very little is known about Sintinga or his mother.
Sidojiwe and Albert are buried at Entumbane.
Nyamande’s mother was Mbhjda ka Lodada Mkhwanazi with his surrogate mother in the name of uMfaziwamajaha Mkwanazi, Mbhida’s niece. There is a black sheep among Nyamande’s children in the name of Ngandela Mpandezemiti who is believed to be still alive. Ngandela was born in 1930 and believed to be living with relatives in the Dete area.
According to one informant, Sibongosibi had three male children, Gedion, Albert and a third whose name I forget. Gedion’s burial place is still a subject of investigation. Talking about burial places, Nyamande was buried near Mathabiswana School in the mid-Mbembesi area of Insuza.
According to informants, Nyamande’s second child was a boy named Sihluku whose mother was a Ma-Ndiweni who, in the above order of marriage, was number eight and the only Ndiweni girl to have been married by Nyamande.
This narrows the succession race considerably. What emerges now is that front runners from Ma-Thebe have been eliminated from the race by death.
This clears the decks for Sihluku, who was Sibongosibi’s younger brother. Sihluku had six male children. It is not politic for me to name those of them who are still alive.
No prejudice will be suffered however by naming those who have passed on. They are Menziwa, Velakhatshana and Lizwelemali.
It becomes clear, therefore, that with Sibongosibi’s line depleted by death, the decks have now been cleared for a successor to be found among the male children of his younger brother.
Nyamande’s death was in 1929 and not 1925 as reported in the previous article. He was 57.
