Name: Taderera Hebert Chisi Student Number: 612C7065 Department: History Thesis Proposal: Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Rhodes University. Title: Transformations in Hlengwe Ethnicity in Chiredzi, Zimbabwe, 1890 to 2014. Supervisor: Professor Enocent Msindo Date of Submission: 8 November 2017 0 CONTENTS Illustrations .................................... iii Dedications .................................... .iv Acknowledgements ....................... v Abstract .......................................... viivtH- Acronymns ..................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 2: TOWARDS AN UNDERSTANDING OF EARLY HLENGWE SOCIETY ..........................................................................................................................................................5556 CHAPTER 3: HLENGWE AND THE COLONIAL ENCOUNTER IN MATIBI 2 AND SENGWE COMMUNAL AREAS, 1890s-1940s....................................................................... 99 CHAPTER 4: AFRICAN SETTLERS, COLONIAL ADMINISTRATORS AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF HLENGWE ETHNICITY, 1950s-1960s..................................... 154 CHAPTER 5: THE ROLE OF THE FREE METHODIST CHURCH MISSIONARIES IN THE TRANSFORMATION OF HLENGWE IDENTITY, 1950s-1960s.............................. 185 CHAPTER 6: ZAPU NATIONALISTS AND HLENGWE ETHNICITY: 1964-1975.......207 CHAPTER 7: REVOLUTIONARY ARMED STRUGGLE AND THE HLENGWE IDENTITY, 1975-1980.................................................................................................................. 238 CHAPTER 8: RE-AWAKENING OF HLENGWE ETHNIC CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE POST-COLONIAL ERA................................................................................................................263 CHAPTER 9: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION.................................................................... 303 APPENDICES...........................................................................................................................317318 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................................ 335 ii Illustrations Map 1: Location of Matibi 2 and Sengwe Communal Area 9 Map 2: Possible routes of Hlengwe movements into Zimbabwe 16 Map 3: Hlengwe chiefdoms in the south east lowveld of Zimbabwe by 1890 72 Map 4: The general location of Hlengweni and the major rivers 318 Figure 1: A woman displaying the traditional xibabela 92 Figure A1: Hosi Ben Macheme 319 Figure A1(a): Hosi Ben Macheme Chilonga and his women village heads 320 Figure A1(b): Court Session at Hosi B. Macheme Chilonga’s Court 321 Figure A2: Hosi Amos Gezani and three Elders 322 Figure A2(a): A Meeting at Hosi Gezani’s Homestead 323 Figure A2(b): Court Session at Hosi Gezani’s Court 324 Figure A3: Hosi Makoti Sengwe (Paramount Chief) 325 Figure B1: A Hlengwe nghula or granary 326 Figure B2: A nghula in the Sengwe area. 327 Figure C1: A Hlengwe woman wearing the modernised ceka (cloth) and xibabela 328 Figure C2: Elderly Hlengwe women wearing their nceka in the Chikombedzi area 329 Figure C3: Hlengwe women at a meeting in Sengwe ardoning symbols of their identity 330 Figure C4: Hlengwe women from Mahenye at a cultural gala in Chiredzi 331 Figure C5: Primary school children performers at the Hlengwe cultural gala in Chiredzi 332 Figure D1: The low-level Chilonga Bridge on the Runde River 333 Figure D2: The low-level Mwenezi River Bridge linking Matibi 2 and Sengwe Area 334 iii Dedications To the memory of my father, father-in-law and mother-in-law who all passed on in 2013, 2016 and 2017 respectivelly. Father, I always wish God had given you that extra portion of life to read the story of the Hlengwe to the making of which you contributed so much. I also extend this dedication to the memory of the late Hosi Amos Gezani and Hosi Ben Macheme Chilonga, both of whom made great contributions to the writing of this history of the Hlengwe but never lived to see it. May your dear souls rest in peace - I have completed the task. iv Acknowledgements First and foremost, I wish to thank my Supervisor Professor Enocent Msindo for his intellectual mentorship, advice and encouragement as I journeyed into the world of PhD research. It was his critical eye that gave this thesis direction and helped me to reduce the numerous errors that I was always making. He would always direct me to useful sources. Twice he also sought much needed financial assistance to meet my tuition fees. For this I will forever be grateful. I am also indebted to Professor Julie Wells for providing me with comfortable accommodation each time I visited Grahamstown. I knew not Grahamstown when I first arrived there, but she helped me find my way around and her apartment was home away from home. I also extend my sincere gratitude to my colleagues and senior academics I worked with in the History and International Studies Department at the Midlands State University, Dr Gilbert Tarugarira, Dr Joshua Chakawa and Dr Terrence Mashingaidze who read this thesis and offered helpful suggestions. Professor Gerald Mazarire helped me to identify some useful sources at the National Archives. Dr I. Mazambani would always say “mukwashazvichaita” (brother-in­ law, you will make it). I thank all other colleagues and students who were always supportive. I also want to thank Tiyani, my interpreter and research assistant, who played a very significant role during the time of my fieldwork in Matibi 2 and Sengwe Communal Areas. I also wish to thank tihosi, Makoti Sengwe (Paramount Chief) and the late Amos Gezani, Ben Macheme Chilonga and Masivamele and several of their village heads, for the support during my sojourns in Hlengweni. I will forever miss the great Hosi Gezani and Ben Macheme whom I let down by failing to produce this work of Hlengwe history which they were eagerly waiting to see before they untimeously passed on. The two tihosi supported me with a passion and guided me to people in their chiefdoms they were sure had knowledge of Hlengwe history. They even v invited some of them from far and wide to their courts to save me the trouble of getting to these inaccessible places, since I was driving a small vehicle which struggled to negotiate the rough terrain of Matibi 2 and Sengwe Communal areas. Most important however, was not about my means of transport but that I had access to fruitful oral sources. I am also thankful to the great number of interviewees who spent time telling me about their experiences. I wish here to point out a Hlengwe (Tsonga) activist and the Director of the formerly Gaza Trust, now Centre for Cultural Development Initiatives, Mr. Herbert Phikela, who is passionately involved in the struggle for the restoration of "Tsonga” (Hlengwe) pride. Mr. Phikela shared with me their vision, struggle for recognition and invited me to the Hlengwe cultural galas where I learned a lot about Hlengwe identity. This work would have been unreadable and weaker if it were not for the editorial work of Dr Terence Musanga and Professor T. Javangwe of the English Department at the Midlands State University and Mr Elliard Mambambo. I thank you for taking time to go through my long document paying attention to every little grammatical detail to ensure that it was readable. I am also profoundly indebted to my late father, Mr Aniel Kandai Chisi, whose stories about his experiences among the Hlengwe during his time as a demonstrator in Matibi 2 generated the great interest to learn more about this little understood ethnic group in Zimbabwe. I will forever wish he had been there to witness the completion of this work. I also thank God for my old mother who who would always give me the push by asking "wavapapi nechikoro?” (How far are you with your studies?) and always offered prayers and encouraging words each time I visited her. My children Kudakwashe, Kudzaishe, and Kuitakwashe, thank you for not being selfish. You were ready to forego most of your deserved needs and accepted basics to let funds be channelled towards the completion of this thesis. I also wish to thank my siblings, Sarafina, Esther, Ernest, Tadiwa and your spouses for all the moral and spiritual support. vi Grace, my spouse, friend and greatest financier, I will forever thank you for being by my side when the going got tougher. Above all, for the financial support and sound family financial management to ensure that I completed my studies without adversely affecting our other social responsibilities. You showed me your selflessness by foregoing all other basic needs till I completed my studies. Abstract Studies of ethnicity have shifted from primordialism to diverse variants of social constructivism, which include instrumentalism, invention o f tribalism by the colonial elite and missionaries and demotic constructivism or creation of ethnicity from below. The studies have generally generated two broad schools o f thought. One school avers that African ethnicity was invented by the colonial elite and missionaries in the colonial period whilst the other and more recent asserts that ethnicity had a precolonial currency and the generality of Africans also vii played a key role in identity formation. Also most notable is that most studies have tended to focus on larger and more visible ethnic groups, ignoring the stories of small communities mostly found in remote border areas o f modern ‘nation’ states. Using archival material, colonial records, autobiographies, oral and secondary