THE RISE, CONSOLIDATION AND DISINTEGRATION OF DLAMINI POWER IN SWAZILAND BETWEEN 1820 AND 1889. A study in the relationship of foreign affairs to internal political development. Philip Lewis Bonner. ProQuest Number: 11010329 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 11010329 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 ABSTRACT The Swazi kingdom grew out of the pressures associated with competition for trade and for the rich resources of Shiselweni. While centred on this area it acquired some of its characteristic features - notably a regimental system, and the dominance of a Dlamini aristocracy. Around 1815 the Swazi came under pressure from the South, and were forced to colonise the land lying north of the Lusutfu. Here they remained for some years a nation under arms, as they plundered local peoples, and were themselves swept about by the currents of the Mfecane. In time a more settled administration emerged, as the aristocracy spread out from the royal centres at Ezulwini, and this process accelerated under Mswati as he subdued recalcitrant chiefdoms, and restructured the regiments. Consequantly, by the time Mswati died in 1865, Dlamini power was sufficiently entrenched for there to be no serious disturbance, and for a regency to function smoothly for the following decade. Externally the dominant influence was the Zulu, who continually threatened the kingdom’s stability. The Swazi were forced by these attacks to look for allies in the Boers, and to make several territorial cessions from 1846. Nevertheless, the relations they established were not markedly.unequal, since the Republic were dependent on the Swazi in various ways. Consequently, the Swazi were able to take charge of the lowveld in the north, and by the 1860s reached the pinnacle of their power. The consolidation of the South African Republic following the British annexation, and the discovery of gold, meant that this freedom was gradually lost, and in the 1880s pressure mounted on Swaziland itself. The clearest index of this lies in the country's conquest by concessions, which eventually so eroded the social fabric of the country that a pretext was given for the Republic and Britain to intervene. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost my thanks are due to my supervisor, Dr. Shula Marks, who introduced me to southern African studies, and without whose encouragement and forebearance this thesis would not have been written. A debt of gratitude is also owing to all those who gave their assistance and encouragement to my researches in Swaziland - in particular to Prince Makhungu Dlamini, who opened doors which would have otherwise remained closed; to Arthur Dlamini for giving me the benefit of his wide knowledge of Swazi history and oral historians, and for his unstinting help in a variety of other ways; to Mr. T. Simelane and Mr. F. Buckham for their excellent translations of interviews; to Mr. J. Masson and to Mike and Fiona Armitage for smoothing my way after my arrival in Swaziland; and to a host of officials from the Department of Local Administration and Community Development who helped with my interviewing in their individual districts. The staff of a large number of libraries and archives assisted in the course of my research, who are too numerous to acknowledge individually. In addition to a general word of thanks, however, I should like to single out for special acknowledgement the archivists and librarians at the Society for the Propogation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and the Killie Campbell Africana Library, Miss M. Farmer of the Gubbins Library, University of the Witwatersrand and Mrs. B.E. Rothgeisser of the same institution for her translations of German mission sources. A Hayter scholarship from the Department of Education and Science, and an equipment grant from the University of London, Central Research Fund, provided the funds which made this thesis financially possible, and their assistance is gratefully acknowledged. Lastly, I should like to thank David Hedges for access to his notes from the Arquivo Historico de Mocambique, Maputo, and his translations of these; Helen Malcomess who painstakingly typed the manuscript of this thesis over a none too enjoyable Christmas; and most of all my wife, Christine, who prodded and proof read, and whose support and encouragement during the course of my research cannot be adequately expressed. CONTENTS Title page i Abstract ii-iii Acknowledgements iv-v List of Maps and Figures vii Abbreviations viii-ix Map x CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER II THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE SWAZI STATE 27 CHAPTER III THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE SWAZI STATE - ADMINISTRATIVE RE-ORGANISATION AND ZULU ATTACKS, 1839 - 1852 76 CHAPTER IV SWAZI-BOER RELATIONS, 1852 - 1865 117 CHAPTER V DEEPENING AND WIDENING OF DLAMINI POWER, 1852 - 1865 164 CHAPTER VI INTERREGNUM: 1865 - 1874 212 CHAPTER VII MBANDZENI: 1875 - 1881 268 CHAPTER VIII REPUBLICAN PRESSURE AND THE BEGINNINGS OF CONCESSIONS, 1881 - 1886 336 CHAPTER IX THE CONQUEST BY CONCESSIONS, 1886 - 1889 385 CONCLUSION 426 APPENDIX 429 BIBLIOGRAPHY 434 vii LIST OF MAPS AND FIGURES MAPS 1. Modern Swaziland x 2. Swaziland - Vegetation Types 12 3. Swaziland - Relief 15 4. Swaziland - % Better Arable Land by Subcatchments 17. 5. Swaziland - Drought Hazard 19 6. Chiefdoms c. 1820 39 7. Transvaal 95 8. Mozambique Chiefdoms c. 1860 203 9. Transvaal Districts - 1873 236 10. Disputed Border Area - 1880 330 11. Mineral Concessions Granted in 1880s 365 FIGURES 1. Marriage to a woman of one’s father’s brother’s clan 51 2. Marriage to classificatory mother’s brother’s daughter 51 viii ABBREVIATIONS A.B.B. Albasini Brieweboek. A.H.M. Arquivo Historico de Mozambique. A.Y.B. Archives Year Book of South African History. C.L. Cory Library for Historical Research. C.O. Colonial Office. Cod. Codices. E.C.A. Executive Council Archive, Natal. E.V.R. Eerste Volksraad Notules. F.C. Forbes Collection. F.P. Fynn Papers. G.H.N. Government House Records, Natal. G.H.Z. Government House Records, Zululand. G.P. Garden Papers. H.C. High Commissioner. K.C.L. Killie Campbell Africana Library. L. Lydenburg Argief. L.L. Lydenburg Landdrost Argief. M a c .P . Macleod Papers. M.P. Miller Papers. N. A. Natal Archives. P.A. Transvaalse Staatsargief, Pretoria. P.P. Parliamentary Papers. P.R.O. Public Records Office. S.A.R. South African Republic. S.A.A.R. South African Archival Records. S.C. Soutter Versameling (Collection). ix S.N. Superintendent van Naturelle. S.N.A. Secretary for Native Affairs, Natal. S.P. James Stuart Papers. S.P.G. Society for the Propogation of the Gospel. 5.5. Argief Staatsekretaris. S.St. Secretary of State. 5.5.A. The Societies of Southern Africa in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Sw.A. Swaziland Government Archives. T.S.C. Sir Theophilus Shepstone Collection. U.A. Utrecht Landdrost Argief. U.R. Argief Uitvoerende Raad. U.W.A. University of the Witwatersrand Archives. Wa.A. Wakkerstroom Landdrost Argief. W.M.M.S. Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society. MAP 1 x MODERN SWAZILAND Mozambique Hh<jhl Transvaal OFS N atal • Piggs Peak C ape Province •Tshaneni Lomahasl HHOHHO • Mbabane Ezulwini LobaAiba • Siteki • Manzini •Malkerns • Bunya LUBOMBO Lusutfi MANZINI • Mankayane •Siphofaneni Big Bi • Hlathikhulu •Maloma SHISELWENI .Mahamba —, iwavum; I__ Dwaleni • Mlosheni District boundaries Lavumisa CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The historiography of pre-colonial Swaziland is not especially strong. There are a number of studies which touch on the subject, but in one way or another these are all limited in scope. Until recently, for example, there has been a mainly albocentric bias, and comparatively little has been written on the Swazi themselves; Symington and Van Rooyen concentrate on the relations of the Boer republics with the Swazi (1), Watson and Boyce focus on con­ cessions (2), Garson confines himself primarily to the diplomatic manoeuvering between the South African Republic and Britain over the status of Swaziland (3), and Perkins looks at missions (4). Only Matsebula gives an account centred firmly on the Swazi them­ selves, and his is more of a survey than a detailed analysis, which only partly explores the data available from the archives and from oral tradition (5). Indeed, with the exception of this and two other much narrower (1) F.C. Symington, ’Swaziland tot 1890’, (M.A, Thesis, University of South Africa, 1941); T.S. Van Rooyen, ’Die Verhouding tussen die Boere, Engelse en Naturelle in die Geskiedenis van die Oos-Transvaal Tot 1882’, A.Y.B., 1951, I, (Cape Town, 1951). (2) E. Watson, ’The History of the Little Free State and Swaziland affairs relating thereto’, (M.A. Thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, 1941); A.N. Boyce, 'The Swaziland Concessions and their Political Consequences 1876-1908’, (M.A. Thesis, University of South Africa, 1947). (3) N.G. Garson, 'The Swaziland Question and the Road to the Sea. 1887-1895', A.Y.B., 1957, II, (Parow, 1957). (4) F.J. Perkins, ’A History of Christian Missions in Swaziland to 1910’, (Ph.D Thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, 1974). (5) J.S.M. Matsebula, A History of Swaziland, (Cape Town, 1972). 2 studies by Swazi historians (6), it is usually more rewarding to turn to the writings of social anthropologists (7). Hilda Kuper, in particular, provides an unrivalled insight into the functioning of Swazi politics, which is neither as synchronic or Dlamini orientated as one might be led to suppose (8).