UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA DEPARTMENT OF NATIVE AFFAIRS ETHNOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS Vol. VII HISTORY OF MATIWANE AND THE AMANGWANE TRIBE 1 as told by Mse6enzi to his kinsman Albert Hlongwane Edited and supplemented by Archive Documents and other material BY , ! . ■ N. J. VAN WARMELO GOVERNMENT ETHNOLOGIST O IN THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA BY THE GOVERNMENT PRINTER, PRETORIA 1938 O.P.-S.7007—1938-sOU. ' ■\* . PLATE 1 frontispiece Mse Cenzi uwjo kaMacingwane kaMatmane UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA DEPARTMENT OF NATIVE AFFAIRS ETHNOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS Vol. VII HISTORY OF MATIWANE AND THE AMANGWANE TRIBE as told by Mse6enzi to his kinsman Albert Hlongwane Edited and supplemented by Archive Documents and other material BY N. j. VAN WARMELO GOVERNMENT ETHNOLOGIST 7/6 PRINTED IN THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA BY THE GOVERNMENT PRINTER, PRETORIA 1938 G.P.-S.7007—1938—800 Obtainable from the Government Printer, Pretoria. Vol. I of this series : Transvaal Ndebele Texts, 1930. Vol. II. : Kinship Terminology of the South African Bantu, 1931. Vol. III. : Contributions towards Venda History, Religion and Tribal Ritual, 1932. Vol. IV. : Marriage Customs in Southern Natal, by Dr. M. Kohler, 1933. Vol. V. : A Preliminary Survey of the Bantu Tribes of South Africa, 1935. Vol. VI. : Tshivenda-English Dictionary, 1937. ;V-B'BUOTEEK Ji'N ** UHIVERSITEIT V " METORIA. Klasnommer.?^ MseLBEry-zi i Registernommer- JLQk, 0 CONTENTS Page. Chapter 1. The amaNgwane and how this history came to be written .. .. 5 2. Text: Earliest history to izi Bongo of Masumpa 10 3. ,, History of Matiwane up to his flight from Natal 16 4. ,, Matiwane in Basutoland 24 5. „ Matiwane in the Cape and the Battle of Mbholompo . 46 6. „ IziBongo of Matiwane 62 7. ,, Death of Matiwane and Zikhali's flight to Sobhuza 72 8. ,, Nomlalati; the flight back to Zululand . 88 9. ,, Zikhali and Dingane, the return to Natal and the murder of Dingane 98 10. ,, Zikhali and Wezi; internal troubles 110 11. ,, Story of Mkhumbeli, the amaNgwane meet the HluBi tribe 120 12. ,, The amaNgwane settle near Thintwa Mountain ; various tribal matters 140 13. ,, Nomlalati decides to follow ; royal kraals 148 14. „ Nomlalati arrives and marries Zikhali ; arrangements made after his death 152 15. ,, Mkhumbeli given a reserve ; British occupation of Port Natal 156 16. ,, Differences with Sidinane 162 17. ,, Succession to Zikhali and the factions created thereby 170 18. ,, The crime of Ngazana 180 19. ,, The murderer identified and arrested 188 20. ,, Search for evidence .. 196 21. ,, Arrests in Basutoland, the trial and execution . 204 22. ,, Stories of Ngazi, Mthemelele, and Makhosini 212 23. Family names and amaButho 222 24. Genealogy of the amaNgwane chiefs 224 25. The royal kraals 233 26. Cape Colonial records 235 27. Statements by amaNgwane resident in the Transkei 261 28. Vasha's tribe in Bulwer district 267 29. Index of proper and geographical names .. 269 ILLUSTRATIONS Plate 1. MseBenzi .. frontispiece, 2. Autograph of Shaka face p. 18 3. Three views of the Mbholompo battle field .. „ 58 4. The chief Ngwadi 76 5. A young warrior of the amaNgwane .. 102 6. Albert Hlongwane and Ndungunya, heir apparent .. 140 7. Hair dress of married women .. 166 8. A village of the amaNgwane .. ..214 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from University of Pretoria, Library Services https://archive.org/details/historyofmatiwanmseb CHAPTER 1 The amaNgwane and how their history came to be written Athi uMgovu kaNdindane, “ Uma BeniBulele Beniyini, nxa senifelwe inkosi yenu ? ” (And Mgovu asked them, “ Had they killed you, what would that have mattered, once your chief was lost to you ? ”) i The amaNgwane are a Zulu-speaking tribe resident in a reserve under the Mont-aux-Sources in Bergville district, Natal. Numbering about 30,000 souls, they form one of the largest tribes in the province. A great, an eventful, a spectacular career did they have during the first half of the past century, and many proud memories of those stirring times still linger amongst them. ii The quotation above is taken from the narrative of their history which is reproduced in this hook. It sums up, to my mind, the admirable sentiment of loyalty and devotion which pervades the whole tale, and makes interesting what would otherwise be merely a record of bloodshed and plunder. The amaNgwane have played a not inconsiderable part in the earlier history of this country, a part which is briefly referred to in the more reliable works on South African history, but which deserves to be better known, as the following outline will show. iii Around the year 1800 the amaNgwane were still living peacefully on the White Mfolozi in Northern Natal. They were an independent tribe ; the ancestry of their chiefs cannot be connected up with that of any other royal family we know. Their chief was Matiwane, a remarkable man, whose name has since become a by-word from Zululand to the Cape. The tribe was attacked by Shaka around the year 1818' and moved southwards to the Mont-aux- Sources. They routed the HluBi in battle, but soon after, fearing an attack from Shaka, they followed them over the Drakensberg into Basutoland, where they commenced operations amongst the South-Sotho tribes dwelling there. It should be realised that once a large tribe had been disturbed and was on the march, it had no food supplies for any length of time and not even the seed corn with which to start making gardens again, let alone the wherewithal to tide over the time till the next crop. So the amaNgwane, like all other tribes in a similar predicament, continued to live on plunder. iv They fought many battles, amongst others with the Hlu6i and also with the amaNdeBele of Mzilikazi, besides making an abortive attack on Moshesh’s stronghold of Thaba Bosiu. Then they moved down across the Orange River into Tembuland. In 1828 it so happened that just at the time when the 1 according to Bryant (“ Olden Times in Zululand and Natal ”, 1929, p. 136) Shaka did this as the vassal of Dingiswayo. 6 amaNgwane re-commenced their raids on the Thembu, Shaka was plundering Pondoland. The government feared that there might be a great influx of refugees into the Colony, with disastrous consequences. Thus it came about that, after a preliminary encounter in which Major Dundas took part, a mixed force of regulars, burghers and Hottentots under Lt. Col. Somerset attacked Matiwane at Mbholompo near where Umtata now stands, on 28th August, 1828. The amaNgwane were defeated and scattered. Matiwane with a small following went back to Zululand, and was murdered by Dingane soon after. v Though the great days of the tribe had ended with the defeat at Mbho- lompo, the narrative gains rather than loses interest from there onwards. It is impossible not to admire the courage, resource and devotion of the men who now march with their chief to what seems certain death at the hands of Dingane, and when Matiwane is slain, flee with his youthful heir Zikhali to Swaziland, save him from death at Sobhuza’s court, again seek refuge in Zululand, plot for freedom with Mpande and finally, when opportunity offers, make a dash with him for the safety of Natal and the Mont-aux-Sources. vi Thus was the heir to the throne saved and, with him, the very life of the tribe. For had Matiwane’s house come to an end, the tribe, which was much scattered at the time, would have ceased to exist. But now, with Zikhali established in a country of his own, thousands of tribesmen began to re-assemble from every corner of the land. As far afield as Grahamstown were the chief’s messengers actually sent to announce to the scattered amaNgwane that Mati¬ wane’s son and heir had come into his own again, and to invite or coerce them ' to return. vii The tribe has never been moved since those times ; dwelling far away from the scene as it did, it was spared the tribulations of the Zulu War and the rebellion, and has lived as peacefully as the warlike and pugnacious nature of its members has permitted, ever since. viii The amaNgwane are thus a tribe of historical interest and importance. They were the first Zulu-speaking tribe to meet Europeans in open battle and did so within the lifetime of Shaka, and almost of the confines of the Cape Colony, as it was then. The battle that was fought and the way they conducted themselves are equally worthy of note. Besides several native versions of it, we are fortunate in also having the report written by Lt. Col. Somerset shortly after the battle and now preserved in the State Archives in Cape Town. ix As regards purely native history, the consequences of the amaNgwane migrations were tremendous. It is they who attacked the HluBi of Mpanga- zitlia and drove them into Basutoland. It is they who, together with the HluBi, turned that country upside-down and brought about the chaos out of which the new Basutoland of Moshesh was to arise. x The wanderings of Matiwane and Zikhali lead us through a great part of South-eastern Africa and especially to the Zulu court of Dingane and that of 7 the Swazi king Sobhuza. The battle with the maKholokoe of the chief Wetse, after whom Witzieshoek is named, marks the end of the eventful sequence of the wars of this tribe. xi Considerable interest also attaches to the origin of the manuscript con¬ taining the narrative of Ngwane history reproduced in this book. Matiwane’s second son Macingwane became regent after Zikhalis death. He had a son named MseBenzi, who was early recognised as a poet and a lad gifted in many ways.