BLACK HISTORY MONTH: KING SEKHUKHUNE

First name: 

Sekhukhune

Last name: 

Sachs

Date of birth: 

1814

Date of death: 

13 August 1882

Synopsis:

King of the Marota people (Bapedi)

Sekhukhune was King of the Marota people (commonly called Bapedi) who originated from the Bakgatla of the Western Transvaal. Sekhukhune, like Moshoeshoe King of the Basotho people, was an illegitimate ruler who came to power using military force. As a result, his half brother, and legitimate heir, Mampuru was forced to flee from the Kingdom. As a result of lack of legitimacy, he built his power by entering into diplomatic marriages with various royal dynasties, by incorporating other societies into his empire, and by military conquest. This increased his support base and gave him legitimacy.
To defend his empire from the encroaching European colonization, Sekhukhune sent young men under the authority of 'appointed' headmen to work in white farms and diamonds mines. The money they earned in these employments was taxed and used to buy guns from the Portuguese in Delegoa Bay and cattle to increase the wealth of the Marota people. By the middle of the 19th century the Marota empire had grown to unite all the disparate people in the area under a common Royalty.
The Marota lived in the land between the Vaal and Limpopo rivers. They regarded this territory as their country and admitted or excluded all corners to it. The political landscape has, of course, changed greatly since those far-off days. After Sekhukhune's death, Pretoria divided Sekhukhuneland into small "tribal" units that owed allegiance not to one central' Marota Authority but to "Native Commissioners". This effectively destroyed the Marota Empire. Thereafter, the Bapedi people were forced to seek employment on white farms, in factories and mines as migrant labourers. The migrant labour system that the Bapedi used to build their empire was now skewed against them. In a curious sort of way this fulfilled Sekhukhune's prophecy of December 1879, that after him no other chief would be able to stand up to Pretoria since they would all be its tools.
Wars of Resistance
When Hendrick Potgieter and the Voortrekkers arrived in the Marota Empire in the middle of the 19th century, Sekhukhune's father, Sekwati (1775-1861), resisted them. In a famous battle at Phiring in 1838 Sekwati defeated the Voortrekkers by the simple tactic of establishing his stronghold on an impenetrable hill. But Phiring was insecure and so Sekwati moved his headquarters to Thaba Mosega (the fighting koppie) in the Lulu Mountains of the Eastern Transvaal from which his people were dislodged only by a series of bitter wars ending in December 1879.
In 1846, the Boers, claiming to have purchased the land from the Swazis, sought to expel the Marota from the land east of the Tubatse (the so-called Steelpoort) River. They were rebuffed. In 1865, Rev. Dr. Alexander Merensky (1837-1917), Superintendent of the Berlin Missionary Society and who had been welcomed among the Marota first by Sekwati and later by Sekhukhune, was expelled for activities that were deemed to be subversive of Sekhukhune's authority and favourable to the Pretoria Boers. He took refuge in Botshabelo, near Middleburg where he established a Mission station and a school of that name. Merensky continued to play a double game, hunting with the hounds and running with the hares, until Sekhukhune disappeared from the scene in 1879 when the Boers rewarded him (Merensky) by granting him land in Maandagshoek from which he carried on his dubious activities under the cloak of religion.
Johannes Dinkoanyane, Sekhukhune's half-brother, at first supported Merensky and became a Lutheran convert. His stay in Botshabelo was short-lived and soon he was back with his followers in Spekboom Hills, in the Tubatse Valley. He assumed a very independent demeanor, which Sekhukhune by no means discouraged. On March 7, 1876, Dinkoanyane detained a wagonload of wood belonging to one Jankowitz, a Boer farmer who had trespassed on Dinkoanyane's land to cut wood. At the same time false rumours of cattle theft spread - also false rumours to the effect that Dinkoanyane had burnt down Rev. Nachtigal's German mission.
When the news reached Pretoria, an enraged President Thomas Francois Burgers decided to set out "to deal with the Sekhukhune menace" himself. Burgers quickly assembled a largest army not seeing before in the Republic. Armed with 7 pounder Krupp guns they marched to Thaba Mosega, which he reached on August 1, 1876. He was supported by African troops hoping the land under Sekhukhune would be given to them after Sekhukhune was defeated. Sekhukhune came to Dinkoanyane's rescue and, although Dinkoanyane himself was killed in action, Sekhukhune inflicted a humiliating defeat on the Boers and President Burgers. This defeat cost him his position and lost it to Paul Kruger.
In response to the humiliating defeat suffered by President Burgers, the Boers sponsored an army of mercenaries (sometimes called the falstaffian gang of filibusters or free booters). Styled the Lydenburg Volunteer Corps. Their leader was "a reckless adventurer of Diamond notoriety" named Conrad Hans von Schlieckmann, a German ex-officer and soldier of fortune who was closely connected with the German Establishment and who had fought under Otto von Bismarck in the Franco-German War of 1870-71. Other mercenaries were Gunn of Gunn, Alfred Aylward, Knapp, Woodford, Rubus, Adolf Kuhneisen, Dr. James Edward Ashton, Otto von Streitencron, George Eckersley, Bailey, Captain Reidel and others from America, Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, Austria and other European countries. They committed the grossest atrocities in the Tubatse Valley. All acted in total disregard of the British Foreign Enlistment Act, 1870; the American Neutrality or Foreign Enlistment Act, 1818 and similar laws.
They also acted with the connivance of their home countries. Many of these soldiers of fortune were recruited from the diamond diggings in Kimberley where they had gone in a vain search for diamonds. The Lydenburg area attracted them because it was said to hold large deposits of gold, diamonds and other precious minerals. So when Pretoria established the Lydenburg Volunteers Corps, von Schlieckmann's men fell for it. They fought fiercely from behind the rampart to avenge the defeat of President Burgers. They lost, and Von Schlieckmann himself was killed in battle on November 17 1876, to be succeeded by Alfred Aylward, an Irishman. But this was not the end of the war only of a battle, albeit an important one.
Sekhukhune versus the British
On April 12, 1877, Sir Theophilus Shepstone annexed the Transvaal on the pretext, inter alia, that a Boer Republic that failed to "pacify" the Bapedi threatened, by its very existence and weakness, to destabilize the British colonies of the Cape and Natal. Up to 1877 the British had "supported"' Sekhukhune's attitude to the Boers.
Sekhukhune's attitude was that his Empire fell outside the jurisdiction of Pretoria ; that the land between the Vaal and the Limpopo rivers belonged to him, and that although he would never accept Boer rule, he might as a last resort, like Moshoeshoe, accept Protectorate status under the British Crown.
However, after the British Annexation of the Transvaal (April, 1877) British attitudes changed. James Grant, a Briton, confirmed: "... the view taken by our government was that Sekhukhune was not a real rebel against the Transvaal, in-as-much as his territory formed no part of that dominion (Transvaal Republic), and that the war waged against him was an un justifiable aggression against an independent ruler; but when, in 1877, the Transvaal was annexed, Sekhukhune's country was included without any question, in the new territory added to Britain's possessions".
Sekhukhune rejected this new British position scornfully. By March 1878 drums of war were beating again in Sekhukhuneland - this time it was against the British. Captain Clarke who was sent to subdue Sekhukhune, was routed with heavy loss of life and barely escaped with his life at Magnet Heights. Immediately after this first British failure to subdue Sekhukhune, a fully equipped force of 1,800 men under Colonel Rowlands made another attempt from August until October 1878, to reduce Sekhukhune to submission. The mission failed (again with much loss of life on both sides) and had to be abandoned on October 6,1878.
The British made a third attempt at subduing Sekhukhune in June/July 1879, under the command of Colonel Lanyon. This too failed. There was little more the British could do at that time since, they had on their hands colonial wars in the Eastern Cape Colony, in the Colony of Natal, in Lesotho (the Gun war), in Ashanti (Ghana), Afghanistan and Cyprus, military logic forced them to await the outcome of these wars before challenging Sekhukhune again. This stage was reached after the Battle of Ulundi and the exile of King Cetshwayo to Britain.
Thereafter Sir Garnet Wolseley moved his motley troops of Britons, Boers and Africans (10,000 Swazi troops) to bring down Sekhukhune. This was the fourth British attempt to reduce Sekhukhune to submission. Wolseley chose November 1879, for his move. It was a major military operation. Sir Wolseley's men moved in a pincer movement from Fort Kruger, Fort MacMac, Fort Weeber, Jane Furse, Bebo, Schoonoord, Lydenburg, Mphablele, Nkoana, Steelpoort, and Nchabeleng, Swaziland - literally from all sides - to Thaba Mosega. The battle raged furiously from November 28 to December 2,1879. Sekhukhune fought with muskets obtained from Lesotho where he had royal support and French Missionaries as friends; from Kimberley Diamond fields where his people worked; from Delagoa Bay ( Mozambique ) with which he had close trade and other links.
The British used their more modern Mausers. Much life was lost. Sekhukhune himself lost his son and heir, Moroanoche, and fourteen other members of his immediate family. As the battle raged, Sekhukhune was taken by surprise in the form of an attack from behind by 10,000 Swazi troops in the service of the British. These had been recruited on direct British instructions by Captain MacLeod of Macleod (British political agent in Swaziland ) and his Lieutenant Alister Campbell, R.N. This surprise attack virtually brought the war to a close. Sekhukhune took refuge in Mamatarnageng, the cave on Grootvygenboom (high up in the Lulu Mountain ), some 15 miles from Thaba,Mosega. There he was cut off from all sources of food and water. So when on December 2, 1879, Captain Clarke and Commandant Ferreira were led to the cave and called him out, Sekhukhune had no choice but to comply. He was accompanied by his wife and children, his half-brother, Nkwemasogana, Makoropetse, Mphahle (a Swazi national) and a few attendants. Commandant Ferreira, who was obsessed with the myth that Sekhukhune owned large quantities of gold and diamonds, searched diligently but found nothing.
So ended the colonial war against Sekhukhune. On December 9, 1879, Sekhukhune (then 65 years old), his wife, a baby, a child, Nkwemasogana, Mphahle, Makoropetse and a few generals were led to prison in Pretoria. He remained there until the Pretoria Convention of 3 August 1881 was signed between Britain and the Boers after the first South African War. The Boers, who had never accepted the British Annexation of the Transvaal, called it the First Boer War of Independence. Article 23 of the Convention provided that Sekhukhune be set free and returned home. He could not return to Thaba Mosega, which had been burnt down in the war and which had fresh military associations, but to a nearby place called Manoge.
Sekhukhune Murdered
There on the night of August 13, 1882, he was murdered by his half-brother, Mampuru, who claimed that he was the lawful king of the Marota and that Sekhukhune had usurped the throne on Sep. 21, 1861, when their father Sekwati, died. Thereafter Mampuri, fearing arrest escaped and sought refuge first with Chief Marishane (Masemola) and later with Nyabela, king of the Ndebeles.
The Pretoria Boers asked Nyabela to surrender Mampuru for trial on a charge of murder. Nyabela refused, saying that Mampuru was in his (Nyabela's) stomach. Another war thus broke out between Nyabela and the Boers. It raged for almost a year - nine months to be precise. Ultimately Nyabela surrendered and gave up Mampuru to the Pretoria Boers. Marishane, Nyabela and Mampuru were tried in the Pretoria Supreme Court. On January 23, 1884, Marishane was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for having granted Mampuru temporary refuge and for "causing a tumult". He returned to his village Marishane (Mooifontein) thereafter to die.
Nyabela was sentenced to death (later commuted to life imprisonment) on September 22, 1883. Mampuru was sentenced to death for murder and rebellion and was hanged in Pretoria prison on November 22,1883.
Thus ended one of the stormiest politico-military careers in our country. And thus too ended the Marota Empire. It had been defended bravely against great odds: The death of Sekhukhune did not pass unnoticed. The London Times of August 30, 1882, announced his death to the world and paid reluctant tribute to him in a long editorial:
"...There is yet no sign of permanent peace among the native races of South Africa. We hear this morning from Durban of the death of one of the bravest of our former enemies, the Chief Sekhukhune. He with his son and fourteen followers, has been killed... The news carries us some years back to the time when the name of Sekhukhune was a name of dread, first to the Dutch and then to the English Colonists of the Transvaal and Natal... It was, indeed to a great extent the danger caused by the neighbourhood of this formidable chief that led to the annexation of the Transvaal by England. When war was declared against the Zulu king, operation went on simultaneously against Sekhukhune and early in 1879 his stronghold was attacked... Obstacles stood in the way of these operations, and when after Ulundi, Sir Garnet Wolseley entered the Transvaal, he endeavoured to humiliate the Chief.
But Sekhukhune was safe, as he imagined, in an impregnable mountain fortress, and scornfully rejected the terms offered by the British General. It became necessary to attack him in force. A combined movement of columns, containing 2,000 English and 10,000 Swazis and other native troops was planned and carried out with great skill, and on the 28th November, 1879, the kraal was taken by assault. Still the Chief and a great number of his men held the "koppie" and from the caves and cracks in the rock they poured an incessant fire upon their assailants. At last the Summit was gained, and after a desperate and sanguinary struggle, the enemy was subdued. Sekhukhune however, like Cetswayo, succeeded in escaping and was only captured a few days later. He was treated for a time as a State prisoner and his land was settled somewhat after the Zulu manner... If, however, the death of Sekhukhune portends anything, it means that the displaced Chief in these savage and warlike regions still retain some power, and that on occasion they are able to rise successfully against him who has superseded them..."
This tribute, however, reluctant, is significant because it was paid at all - in the 19th century the London Times was not in the habit of devoting columns of editorial space to the passing of African kings.
On 13 August 1982, it was King Sekhukhune's 100th anniversary of his death in 1882.

- See more at: http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/king-sekhukhune#sthash.azp1rcXy.dpuf
SOURCE: SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY ONLINE

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: MOGALE OF THE TSWANA

According to tradition, the founder of the Batswana tribe was a 14th-century chief named Mogale. His great-great-grandson Malope had three sons, Kwena, Ngwaketse, and Ngwato, who became the chiefs of the major tribes that now inhabit Botswana.

The foundations of the modern state lie in the 1820–70 period, when the Batswana suffered many tribulations at the hands of the Matabele. In 1872, Khama III became chief of the Bamangwato. He was the son of Chief Sekgoma, the only Batswana chief who had succeeded in turning back the Matabele. Up to that time, the Batswana had no permanent contact with Europeans, except for the missionaries Robert and Mary Moffat and David Livingstone, who had established missions in the first half of the 19th century.

But with increased exploration and the partition of southern Africa among the European powers, hostility developed between the Batswana and the Boer trekkers from the Transvaal. Khama III appealed to the UK for assistance, and in 1885 the whole of what was then known as Bechuanaland was proclaimed to be under the protection of Queen Victoria. The territory south of the Molopo River was constituted a crown colony called British Bechuanaland, and in 1895 it was incorporated into South Africa. The northern part of the territory, the Bechuanaland Protectorate, remained under the protection of the British crown, the powers of which, beginning in 1891, were exercised by the high commissioner in South Africa.

The South African Act of Union of 1909, which created the Union (now Republic) of South Africa, provided for the eventual transfer to South Africa of Bechuanaland and the two other High Commission Territories, Basutoland and Swaziland, despite their requests to the contrary. The provision was dropped in 1961, after the withdrawal of South Africa from the Commonwealth.

The first significant political progress was made in 1921–22 with the creation of European and African advisory councils, added to which was a joint advisory council. In 1961, executive and legislative councils were created. A major step on the road to independence was taken in 1965 with the implementation of Bechuanaland's self-government constitution under Seretse Khama, the former chief-designate of the Bamangwato, who had become prime minister after Bechuanaland's first general elections. Final constitutional talks were held in London in February 1966, and on 30 September 1966, under the leadership of President Khama, the newly named Republic of Botswana came into being.

On 18 October 1969, the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), under the leadership of Sir Seretse Khama, was returned to power in the general elections, and he was sworn in for a second term as president on 22 October. Khama was reelected president after the BDP won 27 out of 32 regular elective seats in the National Assembly in national elections held on 26 October 1974. During this first decade of independence, Botswana refused to support UN sanctions against South Africa because, although officially opposed to apartheid, Botswana recognized its own economic dependence on South Africa.

Following the 1969 elections, President Khama banned the import of goods from the white minority regime in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Tensions were high in the 1970s as Botswana harbored 20,000 refugees from Rhodesia, and Rhodesian forces several times crossed into Botswana on "hot pursuit" raids against guerrillas.

In elections held in October 1979, the BDP won 29 of the 32 elective seats, and Khama was elected to a fourth presidential term. He died in 1980 and was succeeded by Vice President Quett Ketumile Joni Masire, who was elected to a full five-year term on 10 September 1984. Masire was reelected on 7 October 1989 and the BDP won 31 and the BNF 3 of the elected assembly seats.

South Africa repeatedly, but fruitlessly, pressed Botswana to sign a mutual-security agreement, and it accused Botswana of harboring insurgents opposed to the Pretoria regime and allowing them to mount acts of terrorism and sabotage against South Africa, a charge Botswana denied.

An attack by South African commandos on 14 June 1985, aimed at South African refugees, killed at least 15 people in Gaborone. Further South African border violations and attacks on targets in Botswana took place during 1986, but such incursions had ended by 1988 and in 1992 the two countries established formal diplomatic relations.

Before the 1994 legislative elections, the assembly was expanded to 44 seats, 40 of which would be elected, with the majority party given the right to appoint the remaining 4 seats. The opposition maneuvered before the election, attempting to form a broad coalition to unseat the BDP, which had so dominated the country since independence.

The modern republic of Botswana (formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland) is named for the Tswana people. The country's eight major tribes speak Tswana. All have a traditional Paramount Chief, styled Kgosikgolo, who is entitled to a seat in the Ntlo ya Dikgosi (an advisory body to the country's Parliament). The Tswana dynasties are all related.

The three main branches of the Tswana tribe formed during the 14th century. Three brothers, Kwena, Ngwaketse and Ngwato, broke away from their father, Chief Molope, to establish their own tribes in Molepolole, Kanye and Serowe, probably in response to drought and expanding populations in search of pasture and arable land.

The principal Tswana tribes are the:

Bakgatla
Bakwena
Balete
Bangwato
BaNgwaketse
Barolong
Batawana
Batlokwa
Bahurutshe

The largest number of ethnic Tswana people actually live in South Africa. They are one of the larger black minorities, and the Tswana language is one of eleven official languages in South Africa. Until 1994, South African Tswana people were notionally citizens of Bophuthatswana, one of the few bantustans (similar to American Indian reservations) as planned by the Apartheid regime, 1948–1994.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: Hintsa ka Khawuta

Hintsa ka Khawuta (1789 – 12 February 1835), also known as Hintsa the Great or King Hintsa, was the 4th paramount Chief of the Gcaleka sub-group of the Xhosa nation from 1820 until his death in 1835.
Hintsa was the second eldest son of Khawuta ka Gcaleka, the second chief of the Gcaleka people. His father was in turn the eldest son of Gcaleka ka Phalo. Hintsa had 4 known sons, Sarili ka Hintsa (1810) from his first wife Nomsa kaGambushe Tshezi and Ncaphayi ka Hintsa, Manxiwa ka Hintsa and Lindinyura ka Hintsa from an unknown second wife.

Invited to peace talks by Governor Harry Smith, the British demanded 50 000 cattle in compensation for the 1834 war, and that Hintsa tell all Xhosa chiefs to stop fighting the British. Hintsa was then held captive until the terms were met. Hintsa sent word to Maqoma, his military commander, telling him to hide the cattle.

On May 12, 1835 Hintsa, who was about 45, was riding as a prisoner in the company of British soldiers led by Governor Harry Smith.

Noel Mostert in his "Frontiers:The Epic of South Africa's Creation and the Tragedy of the Xhosa People" tells the story:

Hintsa was being guarded on the ride back over the Kei and the Fish by a corps of guides led by George Southey. Soon after breakfast, Hintsa asked Smith: “What have the cattle done that you want them? Why must I see my subjects deprived of them?” To which Smith replied, “That you know far better than I do.” Soon after that Hintsa spurred his horse forward and galloped away. Smith gave chase and twice tried to fire on the fleeing monarch. Twice his pistols malfunctioned but he caught Hintsa and pushed him off his horse. Hintsa got up and ran, still carrying his assegai. “Shoot, George, and be damned to you,” cried Smith to Southey. Southey fired and hit Hintsa in the leg but still he ran. Southey fired again. Hintsa was again hit but ran into a stream. “Be damned to you,” cried Smith to Southey, “Shoot again.” By this time Hintsa was in deep water and couldn’t stand properly. He threw his spear but it landed harmlessly near Southey, who took aim again. “Mercy,” cried the King. And again. “Mercy.” But there was to be no mercy. Southey, whose Xhosa was fluent, fired, and hit Hintsa in the head, killing him. Southey got to the body first and took off Hintsa’s brass body ornaments for himself. Others grabbed for his beads and bracelets. Southey or his brother William cut off one of Hintsa’s ears as a trophy and someone else cut off the other. A doctor travelling with them was seen trying to pull out some of Hintsa’s teeth. Later, even Smith could no longer bear the barbarity he had caused and ordered Hintsa’s body dropped from his horse and to be left in the bush for his followers to find.

Hintsa was captured by the British during the Cape Frontier Wars 1835 and in extenuating circumstances was shot and killed trying to escape resulting in him becoming a martyr for the Xhosa people. His body was subsequently whose body was dismembered by troops in search of grisly momentoes and that his head had been preserved and taken back to Britain."

He is considered a hero by many Xhosa. These days the Xhosa people know about him through poems and bedtime stories and he is often compared to "Shaka ka Senzangakhona", commonly known as "Shaka Zulu".

In his reign as king he had 11 sub-chieftaincies and had about 10 (Today known as Eastern Cape area).


In 1996 Nicholas Tilana Gcaleka, a descendant of King Hintsa, claimed to have returned the 161-year-old skull of King Hintsa from Scotland. He also claimed that he was the great-great nephew of Hintsa and was called on by the spirits of his ancestors to go to Scotland to find Hintsa's head.


The Gcaleka Xhosa Monarch, King Xolilizwe Sigcau, and his court refused to sanction the planned burial of the skull because they said it was not the disembodied head of Hintsa.

South Africa has institutionalized in 1999 the King Hintsa Bravery Award for leaders that live and act in the spirit of Hintsa kaKhawuta. It was awarded to Jacob Zuma in 2012. Earlier notable earners of the award include Robert Mugabe from Zimbabwe. The award is being conferred by the ruling Xhosa king.

SOURCE: SOUTH AFRICAN HERITAGE ARCHIVES

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: SOSHANGANE

Soshangane kaZikode (born Soshangane Nxumalo ca 1790 -1858) was the founder and first king of the Gazankulu Empire, which at the height of its power stretched over modern-day southern Mozambique and parts of Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces in South Africa. Soshangane ruled over the Gaza State from 1825 until his death in 1858. Soshangane was also known by the name of Manukosi and was responsible for the massacre of the Janse van Rensburg Trek.

Soshangane was born in ca 1790 in modern-day KwaNongoma, KwaZulu to Zikode kaGasa, a chief of the junior branch (iKohlo) of the Ndwandwe. The Gasa occupied the Mkuze region around the eTshaneni mountain (Ghost Mountain) whilst the senior house under Zwide lived in Magudu near the Pongola Valley. Around the same time that the Ndwandwe were growing in military power, his cousin Zwide ascended to the Ndwandwe-Nxumalo throne following the death of his father Langa kaXaba.

It was at this time that Zwide sought to expand his borders, and in 1818 he destroyed the power of the Mthethwa Kingdom, after he had their paramount chief Dingiswayo KaJobe killed. Zwide and his Ndwandwe forces then destroyed and overran the neighbouring Khumalo Kingdom and executed their chief Mashobana KaMangete. Mashobana's son and heir Mzilikazi escaped from the Ndwandwe-Nxumalo and sought refuge with Shaka, who had reformed the remnant Mthethwa clan under his rule.

The Ndwandwe and Zulu would clash for the first time at the Battle of Gqokli Hill in which Zwide and his heir Nomahlanjana were commanders of the Ndwandwe forces, whilst neither side emerged victorious, these two military powers would soon clash again. In 1820, with Soshangane kaZikode as the commanding general of the Ndwandwe army under King Zwide, the Ndwandwe forces were attacked by the Zulu forces whilst crossing the Mhlathuze river, scattered and confused the Zulu inflicted a resounding defeat on the Ndwandwe, however losses were heavy on both sides. Following this defeat, Soshangane led a remnant of the army and of the Ndwandwe people northwards away from Shaka's Zulu hegemony.

Soshangane left with his followers for the eastern Lebombo foothills, till they reached the vicinity of upper Tembe river. Around 1825 Soshangane entered the country between Matsolo and Nkomati river where he found Zwangendaba Hlatswayo of the Jele clan, a former Ndwandwe subsidiary chief. They briefly formed an alliance, but due to Soshangane's ambition to establish his own kingdom this was short lived. After clashing with Soshangane, Zwangendaba and his followers left for Vendaland, between Limpopo (Vembe) and Levubu (Ribvubye) rivers, where they lived there for a while, before migrating to Rozviland, near present-day Bulawayo.

He defeated the Changamire Dombo of the Rozvi. He later left for Manyikaland in the North east where he met Soshangane again in the early 1830s where he fled from Soshangane and crossed the Zambezi for Malawi in 1835. By 1825 Nxaba Msane, another former Ndwandwe general and subsidiary chief had entered central Mozambique, in the Sofala province. He ruled Sofala undisturbed for about 10 years, between 1825 and 1835. It was only in 1835 when he was removed by Soshangane. Nxaba left Sofala for Zambia. After defeating Nxaba, Soshangane lived for a while in Musapa in Zimbabwe, where he conquered the Ndau (Vandau) and Manyika (Vamanyika). Some Gazan Nguni lived in various Manyika regions in Zimbabwe, like the Zindi, Samanga, Nyamhuka, Karombe and Murahwa.

Soshangane then began to carve out a Nguni empire of conquest known as the Gaza Empire (or Gasa), named after his grandfather Gasa KaMakweya, which would later significantly expand to cover areas over present day southern Mozambique, parts of Mpumalanga and Limpopo in South Africa. The rise of the Gaza Kingdom was based primarily on military conquests, particularly of the Ronga and Ndau peoples, who would be absorbed into the Nguni Gaza Kingdom.

Soshangane then began a campaign to create a new language and culture named after himself known as IsiShangane. This began primarily with the formation of a regimented system in which different classes of the Gasa/Gaza kingdom were separated. The conquered Ndau and Ronga peoples were regimented under the Mavulandlela regiment and taught Nguni/Ndwandwe battle tactics. In 1828 Shaka sent a punitive expedition to liquidate his rival to the North, however suffering from Malaria and food shortages they were easily defeated and Soshangane consolidated his empire.

Soshangane's army overran the Portuguese settlements at Delagoa Bay, Inhambane and Sena and he extracted tribute from the Europeans primarily the Portuguese. After the death of Soshangane around 1856, Soshangane's empire was embroiled in succession disputes between his sons Mzila and Mawewe. The final ruler Ngungunyane (born Mdungazwe Nxumalo), was defeated by the once tributary Portuguese in 1895, and the Nguni Gazan empire entered into decline. Soshangane is one of a number of outstanding figures that rose to prominence during the Mfecane.

Gasa/Gaza Kingdom is rising up as King Mpisane Eric Nxumalo has obtained a Constitutional court order that says: "The appeal against the order of the High Court concerning the President's decision is upheld and that order is set aside and replaced with the following order: "The first respondent' decision or notice is set aside." The Gazakingdom headkraal is situated in currently known as Giyani, Limpopo province in South Africa.The live size Statue of King Nghunghunyani is situated at Giyani information centre.

List of Soshangane's ancestors (Ndwandwe/Nxumalo Lineage)
Nxumalo
Ndwandwe
Mkhatshwa
Langa I
Gasa I
Makweya
Gasa II
Zikode
Soshangane (Founder of the amaShangane Tribe)
Mzila
Mdungazwe (Ngungunyana)
Buyisonto
Mafemani
Mpisane (Current ruler)

SOURCE: SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY ARCHIVES

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: King Mzilikazi

First name: 

Mzilikazi

Date of birth: 

ca. 1790, Mkuze

Location of birth: 

Mkuze, Zululand

Date of death: 

9 September 1868

Location of death: 

Matabeleland, Entumbane, Matopo Hills, Zimbabwe

Synopsis:

King of the Matabele

Mzilikazi (meaning The Great Road), was a Southern African king who founded the Matabele kingdom (Mthwakazi), Matabeleland, in what became Rhodesia and is now Zimbabwe. He was born ca. 1790 near Mkuze, Zululand (now part of South Africa). The son of Matshobana whom many had considered to be the greatest Southern African military leader after the Zulu king Shaka. In his autobiography, David Livingstone referred to him as the second most impressive leader he encountered on the African Continent.

The territory of the Northern Khumalo was located near the Black Mfolozi River, squeezed between the lands of two strong rival groups: the expanding Mthethwa chiefdom of Dingiswayo and the land of the equally ambitious and much more ferocious Zwide of the Ndwandwe. Mzilikazi's boyhood was spent in the household of his grandfather Zwide. Inevitably, as he grew to manhood he observed the less powerful Khumalo being drawn into the conflict between Dingiswayo and Zwide.

On the death of Chief Mashobane, who had been murdered by Zwide, Mzilikazi was duly installed as chief of the Northern Khumalo clan. But, after Dingiswayo's death, instead of siding with Zwide, in exchange for the protection of his people, Mzilikazi swore allegiance to Shaka, who had risen to power as a commander of Dingiswayo's army and had usurped the Zulu chieftainship and taken over the Mthethwa confederacy after Dingiswayo’s death.

Proving himself a fearless warrior, Mzilikazi soon became one of Shaka's advisers. Shaka's trust, however, was misplaced. Mzilikazi dreamed of being a potentate himself. Dissatisfied with a life of subservience, he plotted to free himself and his people from Shaka's influence. In June 1822, Shaka sent Mzilikazi's regiments to attack the Sotho chief Ranisi (Somnisi). They pounced on the Sotho chief's defenceless rabble and drove away their herds. Defying Shaka, Mzilikazi refused to give up the spoils of battle and in June 1822, he bolted with his followers.

Moving north and northwest, as he pillaged and slaughtered, Mzilikazi rounded up the strong men and women, turning the men into army recruits and the women into concubines for his warriors, his possessions increasing with his power and prestige, and his followers numbering, in due course, more Sotho youths than Zulu. Having cleared for himself a wide area, in about 1822-23 Mzilikazi temporarily joined forces with Nxaba, a chieftain of the Nguni-speaking Ndzundza Ndebele community who lived in the Middelburg area. Here, he built the royal kraal ekuPhumuleni (Place of Rest). By then, the size of the Khumalo clan was swollen by other Nguni-speakers who had settled in the area.

During the early years of their migrations Sotho-speakers of the highveld called Nguni-speakers ‘maTebele', a name they used for all people who came from the coast, whereas the Nguni-speakers called themselves Ndebele. After the arrival of Mzilikazi on the highveld, the name Matabele became especially attached to his fearful hordes, and historians later wrote of this period referring to the Matabele wars. While living among the Ndzundza, Mzilikazi subjugated the old baPedi kingdom of Chief Thulare, killing five of his nine sons, but one son, Sekwati, fled north to the Soutpansberg Mountains, where his people were able to repulse Mzilikazi's attacks.

Mzilikazi settled for a while along the Vaal River until Korana cattle raiders became a threat. In the winter of 1827, Mzilikazi decided to move northwards. The Matabele army swept through the Magaliesberg via Kommandonek near the present Hartbeespoort Dam. Mzilikazi established temporary settlements near present-day Rustenburg, then launched into action against the baKwena, roasting some alive, clubbing most to death, and piling the infants onto mounds of brushwood, which were set ablaze. After falling on the Kwena at Silkaatsnek the Matabele turned on the Po who were easily overwhelmed. Kgatla Chief Pilane fled to the hills that now bear his name. Mzilikazi ruthlessly, massacred the remaining Tswana groups in the area. Using the Magaliesberg as his centre, Mzilikazi expanded his kingdom, which by then stretched from the Vaal River in the south to the confluence of the Crocodile and Limpopo Rivers.

Between 1827 and 1832, Mzilikazi built himself three military strongholds. The largest was Kungwini, situated at the foot of the Wonderboom Mountains on the Apies River, just north of present day Pretoria. Another was Dinaneni, north of the Hartbeespoort Dam, while the third was Hlahlandlela in the territory of the Fokeng near Rustenburg. By 1829, the total Matabele population numbered about 70, 000, consisting of the Matabele elite and a vast number who had been enslaved. Most of the Tswana settlements were desolate.

In 1830, Mzilikazi received a visit from Robert Moffat (1795-1883), the Scottish missionary who worked among the Tswana from 1821 to 1870. Moffat's friendship with Mzilikazi is one of the most remarkable stories to emerge from Southern Africa. Moffat described the king as charming, dignified, good-looking, with a ready smile; and added, had he not himself been present at some executions it would have been hard to believe the man's terrible reputation. Mzilikazi admired Moffat so much that he honoured him with the name of his own father, Mashobane, and called Moffat the King of Kuruman'. Henceforth, ordered Mzilikazi, all traders and hunters had to enter his country on the road that led from his friend Moffat's mission at Kuruman. In the spring of 1830, Dingane's Zulu regiments advanced on the Matabele. On the upper reaches of the Sand River, they fell on each other. Three Zulu regiments were wiped out before they fell back.

Early in 1832, the Matabele razed the Rolong villages. Matabele raiding expeditions conquered the Hurutshe, whose capital Mosega became the king's most southern military headquarters guarding the route to Kuruman. At Tshwenyane, he built another military stronghold, and near the Great Marico River, he built the colossal settlement of eGabeni (Kapain).

In May 1835, Mzilikazi was overjoyed when he heard that Moffat wanted to visit him again, this time accompanied by a group of explorers who were undertaking a scientific expedition led by Dr Andrew Smith. Hoping to stay on good terms with the British and to learn more from them about the use of firearms, Mzilikazi gave the expedition permission to enter his country.

The party's journey from Kuruman took them around the northern tip of the Magaliesberg, teeming with game. There, they encountered some Tswana survivors who had built grass huts on scaffolds within a gigantic tree as a safeguard against nocturnal visits of some rather bold lions. This old Ficus ingens, with long, massive branches drooping to the ground, where they have struck root, is now known as ‘Moffat's Tree' or the ‘Inhabited Tree'.

It was identified in the 1960s and can be seen on the farm Bultfontein at Boshoek, a farming area between Rustenburg and Sun City.

The doting king feted Moffat. He allowed him to lecture him about his cruelty and ungodly ways. When Moffat said he was looking for timber for his new church at Kuruman, the king personally assisted him in finding good wood for his church, travelling with him in his wagon, enjoying the company of his esteemed friend and the surprising comfort of the mattress on his bed.

During this visit, Moffat gained Mzilikazi's permission for missionaries of the American Board to settle at Mosega. Soon after Moffat's visit, in 1836, Mzilikazi welcomed William Cornwallis Harris, a captain in the Indian Army, who was hunting and sketching in Africa. His paintings and his diary became prized Africana.

Early in 1836 Louis Trichardt's company and the Van Rensburg trekkers moved into Matabele territory and were wiped out by fever and by hostile warriors. Hendrik Potgieter's party followed. They trekked north across the Vaal searching for a permanent place to settle. Captain Cornwallis Harris was still at the royal headquarters in August 1836 when Mzilikazi heard that the Voortrekkers were crossing the Vaal without his permission. Moffat records that Mzilikazi saw this as a threat to the Matabele state.

When he heard they were poaching his game, his warriors were ordered to expel them as bandits. Mzilikazi's warriors butchered the Erasmus party, but were repulsed by the Steyn and Botha families in their laagers. The Liebenburgs were not so lucky, although the Matabele spared two girls and a boy who were carried off as gifts for Mzilikazi.

Potgieter laagered the trekker wagons at Vegkop, between the Wilge and Renoster rivers, and waited for the Matabele to attack them. On 16 October 1836, the Matabele, led by Mzilikazi's general Kalipi, encircled the wagons. At noon, they charged; only to be met, repeatedly, with a viciously accurate fusillade. At length the Matabele called off the attack and retreated, taking with them all the trekkers' cattle.

The Rolong eventually rescued the stranded trekkers and brought them to Thaba Nchu, where a large group of trekkers had assembled under Gert Maritz. Meanwhile, Cornwallis Harris was exchanging gifts with the king and was discreetly refrained from mentioning that he had heard about the massacre of the trekkers. His party had not continued far on their journey when they came upon a section of the Matabele army returning from the battle at Vegkop. The meeting was tense until Harris explained they had been the personal guests of the king himself.

While the Matabele army was away in the north, Potgieter's trekkers fell upon Mosega at dawn on January 17th, 1837, and destroyed it. Dingane, the Zulu king, seized the opportunity of attacking the weakened Matabele forces. But again, they were beaten off, though this time the Matabele suffered heavy losses. Mzilikazi then decided to move to eGabeni.
In November 1837, Potgieter, Maritz and Uys launched another attack on the Matabele. In a battle lasting nine days, they destroyed eGabeni as well as other Matabele camps along the Marico River. Fearing utter destruction at the hands of the Boers who had gained dominance in the Transvaal, Mzilikazi decided to move much further north. His people, now numbering some 15,000, streamed out of the Marico valley, and after crossing the Limpopo River into the present Botswana, they split into two groups.

It was nearly two years before Mzilikazi's group met up with the other section, who having arrived in about 1837, had subjugated and incorporated the Shona, Kalanga and Rozwi. Believing they had lost sight of Mzilikazi forever, they appointed as successor, Mzilikazi's senior son. Meanwhile, Mzilikazi had halted his journey and established himself in the centre of the old Rozwi kingdom, at Nyathi, giving his new headquarters in the Matopo Hills the Zulu name kwaBulawayo. When Mzilikazi heard that his councillors had appointed a successor, he summoned them to Bulawayo, accused them of treason and had them all executed.

Then he ordered the execution of all his own sons. But Fulatha, the daughter of a Swazi chief, managed to hide her son, Lobengula, who escaped death. Having killed his rivals, Mzilikazi reorganized his army and proceeded to subjugate the neighbouring tribes, most of whom in time adopted the Ndebele language and culture, which was in turn influenced by the conquered groups.

The remarkable friendship between Robert Moffat and Mzilikazi was resumed when Moffat visited the king at Nyathi in 1854, 1857 and 1859. Moffat surveyed the old king's swollen body and palsied legs with shock. He was saddened to note that though the king still enjoyed the devotion and respect of his followers, he was no longer the mighty Bull Elephant, the fearsome ruler of the past. As before, these visits opened the way to British hunters, traders and missionaries.

The king allowed Robert Moffat's son John to become a missionary in Matabeleland. John Moffat and missionary colleagues were useful translators, but they achieved no converts because they refused to repair firearms and make bullets. After Mzilikazi's favourite wife Loziba died in 1861, Mzilikazi left Nyathi and moved to a new great place that he called Hlahlandlela after his previous stronghold.

Then followed a hard period for his people: they endured a great drought and were stricken by smallpox and measles; while lung-sickness, brought in by the infected cattle of missionaries and hunters, killed off the Matabele cattle. In 1863, prosperity returned to Matabeleland. Rains fell, harvests were plentiful, and the raiding Matabele regiments returned with large herds of cattle.

Only white hunters who supplied the king with firearms and ammunition were allowed to hunt in the east of his territory. The big-game hunter, Henry Hartley became a good friend of Mzilikazi after treating the ailing king with success. During 1865, while hunting in Mashonaland, Hartley accidentally discovered gold. Soon afterwards, Hartley, Adam Renders and the geologist Carl Mauch, while exploring north of Great Zimbabwe, realized the extent of gold present around the old African mining villages along the Mfuli and Tati Rivers.

At Potchefstroom, in December 1867, Hartley and Mauch announced the extent of gold present in Mashonaland, thus beginning the first gold rush as prospectors and miners from Europe and Australia began the long trek northward up the missionaries' road. The Transvaal Government did its utmost to get hold of the Tati goldfields, but the ailing king, remembering old enmity with the Boers, steadily refused to allow them a grant.

In 1868, 9 September, Mzilikazi died at Ingama, Matabeleland (near Bulawayo, Zimbabwe) and Lobengula was installed as king in 1870, but strife between contesting groups led to civil war that weakened the Ndebele Empire. British imperial expansion later caused the collapse of Ndebele power, but the Zimbabwean Ndebele language and culture survived.

- See more at: http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/king-mzilikazi#sthash.chvNcAGj.dpuf

SOURCE: SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY ONLINE

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: King Moshoeshoe

First name: 

Moshoeshoe I

Date of birth: 

c.1786

Location of birth: 

Menkhoaneng, Northern part of present-day Lesotho

Date of death: 

1870

Synopsis:

Chief of the Bamokoteli

Also known as Moshesh, Mosheshwe or Mshweshwe. His name was allegedly changed from Lepoqo after a successful raid in which he had sheared the beards of his victims – the word ‘Moshoeshoe’ represented the sound of the shearing.

In 1820 Moshoeshoe succeeded his father, Mokhacane, as the chief of the Bamokoteli. His first settlement was at Butha Buthe, but he later built his stronghold at Thaba Bosiu (Mountain of the Night).

He united various groups of refugees during the Shaka wars, a period known as the ‘mfecane’ or difaqane (1813-1830), into the Basotho nation. From his capital at Thaba Bosiu , he warded off attacks from many enemies, including Shaka’s Zulus and Mzilikazi’s Ndebele.

In 1833 he encouraged missionaries from the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society to come to his kingdom, and so brought the Basotho in contact with Christianity.

Moshoeshoe himself is said to have converted to the faith at the end of his life. From 1836 he came into contact with the Voortrekkers who settled in what is today known as the Free State, and then reached several territorial agreements with the British, who had taken over possession of the Free State territory in 1848.

Border disputes nevertheless led to battles between the Basotho and British forces in 1851 and 1852, both of which were won by the Basotho.

In 1854 the Orange Free State (OFS) became an independent Boer republic. As with the British, border conflict broke out soon afterwards.

After a Basotho defeat in 1868, Moshoeshoe asked the British for protection. Basotholand became British territory, but Moshoeshoe still managed to preserve his kingdom and his people’s existence.

After the British signed the Treaty of Aliwal North with the OFS, the border dispute was settled. Moshoeshoe died in 1870 and a year later Basotholand was integrated with the Cape Colony. However, in 1884, it became a separate British Protectorate.

In 1966, Basotholand gained its independence and was renamed Lesotho.

A great-great-grandson of Moshoeshoe, Archbishop Emmanuel Mbathoana (1904-1966), became the first Black bishop of the Roman Catholic Church in Southern Africa. He was the archbishop of Basotholand from 1952. Another great-great-grandson, Moshoeshoe II, became the king of Lesotho after independence.

- See more at: http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/king-moshoeshoe-i#sthash.VWnXOAA3.dpuf

SOURCE: SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY ONLINE

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: SHAKA ZULU

First name: 

Shaka

Last name: 

Zulu

Date of birth: 

ca. 1787

Date of death: 

24 September 1828

Location of death: 

Stanger, Natal

Synopsis:

King of the Zulus.

Shaka was a great Zulu king and conqueror. He lived in an area of south-east Africa between the Drakensberg and the Indian Ocean, a region populated by many independent Nguni chiefdoms. During his brief reign more than a hundred chiefdoms were brought together in a Zulu kingdom which survived not only the death of its founder but later military defeat and calculated attempts to break it up.

Shaka was a son of Senzangakhona, ruler of an insignificant small chiefdom, the Zulu. His mother was Nandi, the daughter of a Langeni chief. Information about Shaka's early years is gleaned entirely from oral sources. It is claimed that Shaka was born into Senzangakhona's household but that the couple were not yet married according to traditional custom. A more credible account is that the relationship between Nandi and Senzangakhona was illicit, and that Shaka was born in Langeni territory at the Nguga homestead of Nandi's uncle. Shaka's name is said to stem from Senzangakhona's claim that Nandi was not pregnant but was suffering from an intestinal condition caused by the iShaka beetle. Despite his attempts to deny paternity, Senzangakhona eventually installed Nandi as his third wife. Shaka thus spent his earliest years at his father's esiKlebeni homestead near present Babanango, in the hallowed locality known as the EmaKhosini or Burial-place of the Kings, where Senzangakhona's forebears, the descendants of Zulu (Nkosinkulu), had been chiefs for generations. The relationship of Senzangakhona and Nandi seems to have been unhappy and ended in the chieftain driving Nandi from his court.
Nandi and her son sought sanctuary in the Mhlathuze Valley of the Langeni people. Here, growing up as a fatherless child, Shaka seems to have been the victim of humiliation and cruel treatment by the Langeni boys. At that time there were two strong rival Nguni groups, the Mthethwa led by the paramount chief Dingiswayo, and the Ndwandwe under the ferocious Zwide. Later, probably at the time of the Great Famine, known as the Madlantule (c.1802), Shaka was taken to the Mthethwa people, where shelter was found in the home of Nandi's aunt. He thus grew up in the court of Dingiswayo, who welcomed them with friendliness. Shaka, however, suffered much from the bullying and teasing of the Mthethwa boys, too, who resented his claims to chiefly descent.

As he grew to manhood, Shaka began to discover new talents and faculties. Outwardly, he was tall and powerfully built, and his skill and daring gave him a natural mastery over the youths in his age group; inwardly, he was developing a thirst for power. Probably when he was about twenty-three years old, he was drafted into one of the Mthethwa regiments where he found a satisfaction he had never known before. With the impi in the iziCwe regiment, he had the companionship he had previously lacked, while the battlefield provided a stadium in which he could demonstrate his talents and courage. His outstanding deeds of courage attracted the attention of his overlord and, rising rapidly in Dingiswayo's army, he became one of his foremost commanders. At this time, Shaka was given the name Nodumehlezi (the one who when seated causes the earth to rumble). While in the Mthethwa army Shaka became engrossed in problems of strategy and battle tactics, and Dingiswayo contributed much toward Shaka's later accomplishments in war. Militarism was thereafter to be a way of life for him, and one that he was to inflict on thousands of others.

Shaka usurps the Zulu Chiefdom

On the death of Shaka's father (c. 1816), Dingiswayo lent his young protégé the military support necessary to oust and assassinate his senior brother Sigujana, and make himself chieftain of the Zulu, although he remained a vassal of Dingiswayo. But, as Dingiswayo's favourite, he seems to have been granted an unusual amount of freedom to carve out a bigger principality for himself by conquering and assimilating his neighbours, including the Buthelezi clan and the Langeni of his boyhood days.

Dingiswayo's death

According to the diary of Henry Francis Fynn, Dingiswayo's death (c.1818) was the result of Shaka's treachery, though firm testimony of this is lacking. However, it is known that when Dingiswayo fought his last battle, Shaka did not arrive at the scene until after his overlord's capture. He thus retained his forces intact. Zwide later murdered Dingiswayo, and, when the leaderless Mthethwa state collapsed, Shaka immediately assumed leadership and began conquering surrounding chiefdoms himself, adding their forces to his own and building up a new kingdom.

The defeat of the Ndwandwe

Zwide decided to smash his new rival. After a first expedition had been defeated by the superior control and strategies of the Zulu at Gqokoli Hill, Zwide, in April 1818, sent all his army into Zululand. This time Shaka wore out the invaders by pretending he was retreating and drawing Zwide's forces deep into his own territory; then, when he had successfully exhausted the invaders, he flung his own regiments on them and defeated them conclusively at the Mhlathuze river. This defeat shattered the Ndwandwe state. Part of the main Ndwandwe force under Shoshangane, together with the Jere under Zwangendaba, the Maseko under Ngwane, and the Msene led by Nxaba, fled northwards. The survivors of the main Ndwandwe force settled for a time on the upper Pongola River. In 1826, under Zwide's successor, Sikhunyane, they again fought the Zulu, but were totally routed. The majority then submitted to Shaka. He was able to recruit additional warriors from these sources and proceeded to train them in his own methods of close combat.

Shaka's supremacy

By then, Shaka had no major rival in the area of present day KwaZulu/Natal. During his brief reign, which lasted only ten years after his final defeat of the Ndwandwe, his regiments continuously went on campaign, steadily extending their assaults further afield as the areas near at hand were stripped of their cattle. If a chiefdom resisted, it was conquered and either destroyed or, like the Thembu and Chunu, driven off as landless refugees. When chiefdom submitted, he left local administration in the hands of the reigning chief or another member of the traditional ruling family appointed by himself.

The Zulu Military System

Once in power Shaka began reorganizing the forces of his people in accordance with ideas he had developed as a warrior in Dingiswayo's army.
The assegai. He had seen that the traditional type of spear, a long-handled assegai thrown from a distance, was no good for the regulated fighting in close formation he had in mind. A group of warriors who held on to their assegais instead of hurling them, and who moved right up to the enemy behind the shelter of a barrier of shields would have its opponents at its mercy and would be able to accomplish complete victory. Having proved the advantages of the new tactics, Shaka armed his warriors with short-handled stabbing spears and trained them to move up to their opponents in close formation with their body-length cowhide shields forming an almost impenetrable barrier to anything thrown at them.

The formation most generally used was crescent-shaped. A number of regiments extending several ranks deep formed a dense body known as the chest (isifuba), while on each side a regiment moved forward forming the horns. As the horns curved inward around the enemy, the main body would advance killing all those who could not break through the encompassing lines.

Discipline. By means of much drilling and discipline, Shaka built up his forces, which soon became the terror of the land. Shaka prohibited the wearing of sandals, toughened his warriors' feet by making them run barefoot over rough thorny ground and in so doing secured their greater mobility. His war cry was `Victory or death!' and he kept his impi on continuous military campaigns until he thought they had earned the right to wear the headring ( isicoco) of manhood. Then they were formally dissolved and allowed to marry.

The male amabutho. The young men were taken away to be enrolled alongside others from all sections of the kingdom in an appropriate amabutho, or age-regiment. This produced a sense of common identity amongst them. Each of these amabutho had its own name and was lodged at one of the royal households, which became military communities as well as retaining their traditional functions. Each military settlement had a herd of royal cattle assigned to it, from which the young men were supplied with meat. The hides of the cattle were used to provide the shields of the warriors and an attempt was made to select cattle with distinctive skin colouring for each amabutho.

The female amabutho. Numbers of the young women of the kingdom were assembled at the military settlements. Officially, they were wards of the king. They were organized in female equivalents of the male amabutho and took part in ceremonial dancing and displays. When one of the male amabutho was given permission to marry, a female amabutho would be broken up and the women given out as brides to the warriors. Until such time, however, sexual intercourse between members of the male and female age regiments was forbidden. Transgressions were punished by death.

The royal women. Each settlement contained a section of royal women headed by a formidable woman, usually one of Shaka's aunts. Shaka, however, dreaded producing a legitimate heir. He never married and women found pregnant by him were put to death. His households were thus not dominated by wives but by stern senior women of the royal family. In the king's absence, administrative authority was wielded jointly by the female ruler of the settlement and by an induna who was usually a favourite of the king. The military system thus helped develop a strong sense of identity in the kingdom as a whole.

The traditional leaders of the subject chiefdoms still held local administrative authority, and on the dissolution of the amabutho the young men would return to live in their community of origin. Thus, the sense of identity of these subject chiefdoms was not entirely lost, but remained an important element in the later politics of the Zulu kingdom.

The military indunas or captains, as trusted favourites of the king, received many cattle from him and were able to build up large personal followings. These developments resulted in the evolution of powerful figures in later reigns with strong local power bases that they had been able to build up because of royal appointments and favours.

KwaBulawayo. Shaka's first capital was on the banks of the Mhodi, a small tributary of the Mkhumbane River in the Babanango district. He named his great place KwaBulawayo (`at the place of the murder'). As his kingdom grew, he built a far bigger KwaBulawayo, a royal household of about 1,400 huts, in the Mhlathuze valley, some 27 km from the present town of Eshowe.

Economic and social changes. The development of the military system caused major economic and social changes. That so much youth was concentrated at the royal barracks resulted in a massive transfer of economic potential to a centralized state. However, the cattle wealth of the whole community throughout the kingdom was greatly improved; even though most of the herds were owned by the king and his chiefs and indunas, all shared in the pride roused by the magnificence of the royal herds as well as the pride of belonging to the unequalled military power of Zulu.

Effects of Shaka's wars. His wars were accompanied by great slaughter and caused many migrations. Their effects were felt even far north of the Zambezi River. Because they feared Shaka, leaders like Zwangendaba, Mzilikazi, and Shoshangane moved northwards far into the central African interior and in their turn sowed war and destruction before developing their own kingdoms. Some estimate that during his reign Shaka caused the death of more than a million people. Shaka's wars between 1818 and 1828 contributed to a series of forced migrations known in various parts of southern Africa as the Mfecane, Difaqane, Lifaqane, or Fetcani. Groups of refugees from Shaka's assaults, first Hlubi and Ngwane clans, later followed by the Mantatees and the Matabele of Mzilikazi, crossed the Drakensberg to the west, smashing chiefdoms in their path. Famine and chaos followed the wholesale extermination of populations and the destruction of herds and crops between the Limpopo and the Gariep River. Old chiefdoms vanished and new ones were created.

The white traders of Port Natal

By the time the first white traders arrived at Port Natal in 1824, Shaka was in control of a centralized monarchy, which spanned the entire eastern coastal belt from the Pongola River in the north to the lands beyond the Tugela in the south. That year, Henry Francis Fynn and Francis Farewell visited Shaka. In 1825, when Lieutenant James King paid him a visit, Shaka sent a goodwill delegation to Major J Cloete, Cape government representative at Port Elizabeth. Shaka accorded the white traders most favoured treatment, ceded them land, and permitted them to build a settlement at Port Natal. He was curious about their technological developments, was anxious to learn much more about warfare, and he was especially interested in the culture they represented. Moreover, he was alert to the advantages that their trade might bring to him.

In 1826, in order to be closer and more accessible to the settlers at Port Natal, Shaka built a large military barracks at Dukuza, (‘the place where one gets lost'). It was 80 km further south of his previous royal residence kwaBulawayo, on the site of the present day town of Stanger. During his lifetime, there were no conflicts between the whites and the Zulus, as Shaka did not want to precipitate clashes with the military forces of the Cape colonial government. H F Fynn, who knew him well, found him intelligent and often amiable, and mentioned occasions that leave no doubt that Shaka was capable of generosity. Freed from the restrictions that limited most chiefs, Shaka acted as an undisputed, almighty ruler. A cruel tyrant, he had men executed with a nod of his head. The loyalties of his people were severely strained as the frequent cruelties of their great king increased steadily. The climax came with the death of his mother Nandi in October 1827, huge numbers were put to death during the mourning ceremonies because they showed insufficient grief; and his armies were sent out to force the surrounding chiefdoms to grieve.

Taking advantage of the absence of his armies, on 22 September 1828, his bodyguard Mbopha, and his half-brothers Dingane and Mhlangana, stabbed Shaka near his military barracks at Dukuza. As the great King Shaka's life ebbed away, he called out to his brother Dingane:

“Hey brother! You kill me, thinking you will rule, but the swallows will do that.”
He meant the white people, because they made their houses of mud, like the swallows. This was too much for his assailants and they leapt upon him, stabbing. According to members of his family, Shaka's last words were:
“Are you stabbing me, kings of the earth? You will come to an end through killing one another.”

Hastily they buried his body in a grain-pit nearby. Having died without an heir, Dingane succeeded him, but Shaka's prophecy haunted him and ever after that, he was wary of white people. Under Shaka's successors, Dingane, Mpande, and Cetshwayo the Zulu monarchy profoundly influenced the course of South African history.

- See more at: http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/king-shaka-zulu#sthash.Tx7BTN4w.dpuf

SOURCE: SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY ONLINE