FOUR WOMEN, FOUR CHIEFSHIPS: CASE STUDIES IN THE DIVERGENT CHOICES AND NEGOTIATIONS WITH POWER OF AMAKHOSIKAZI IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY NATAL by Eva Aletta Jackson University of KwaZulu-Natal 2014 Declaration Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, in History (Society and Social Change Cluster, School of Social Sciences), University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. I, Eva Aletta Jackson, declare that 1. The research reported in this thesis, except where otherwise indicated, is my original research. 2. This thesis has not been submitted for any degree or examination at any other university. 3. This thesis does not contain other persons’ data, pictures, graphs or other information, unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other persons. 4. This thesis does not contain other persons’ writing, unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other researchers. Where other written sources have been quoted, then: 4.1. Their words have been re-written, but the general information attributed to them has been referenced 4.2. Where their exact words have been used, then their writing has been placed in italics and inside quotation marks, and referenced. 5. This thesis does not contain text, graphics or tables copied and pasted from the Internet, unless specifically acknowledged, and the source being detailed in the thesis and in the References sections. Eva Jackson Student Name _______________ Date (Honorary) Associate Professor Julie Parle Name of Supervisor ii Abstract Although women’s status, roles and leadership opportunities in precolonial southern Africa, including within the Zulu kingdom, have been contested amongst historians for several decades, this study focuses specifically on these issues in chiefdoms that by the early colonial period were situated in the Natal region; an empirical gap. While largely focusing on four women who lived in early colonial Natal – Heshepi kaPhakathwayo, Mbalasi Makhanya, Dalida Dube, and Vundlazi MaSenca (of the Qwabe, Makhanya, Qadi and Izinkumbi chiefdoms respectively) – it also considers the experiences of numerous other women in these and other chiefly families (amakhosikazi). Detailing their different contexts and personal experiences, the study also locates them as female members of chiefly elites (whether of large or small chiefdoms) attempting in various ways to re-establish or sustain polities in the difficult context of early colonial Natal. Several of the women considered in the study had migrated southward following military clashes with the Zulu kingdom and the deaths of their husbands and/or fathers, and the chapters consider how the status of widow had vastly different implications across their different contexts. It draws preliminary conclusions regarding thematic threads in these case studies: the (exceptional) opportunities for specific women to own cattle; chiefly women’s opportunities for political influence including through strategic alliances with their sons and daughters; some chiefly women’s experience of simultaneous social prominence and social marginality; and (a previously unresearched area) the few women who became chiefs themselves in and near Natal in this time period. The study therefore provides the first conclusive evidence that Vundlazi was one of at least eight women in and near Natal who took up their deceased husbands’ chiefships (ranging from leadership of a large paramountcy to very small polities). An outline is suggested of the trajectory (and disappearance) of female chiefship in nineteenth-century Natal; and of conflicted colonial stances towards female chiefs within a context of patriarchal hierarchy and indirect rule in Natal. The thesis considers how these case studies relate to debate on precolonial gender relations, and contribute to the ongoing process of understanding how codified customary law was experienced from the 1870s onward. iii Contents Acknowledgements vi List of Maps ix List of Abbreviations ix Glossary x Dramatis Personae: Biographical Notes xii Introduction 1 Framing the project; framing theory; and considering prominent and chiefly women in the southern Africa region 1780 – 1950 1. Biographical outlines 2. Chapter structure 3. Situating the sources and reading the patriarchal archive 4. Scope of the research 5. Women’s power in Africa and in Southern Africa: theory and historiography 6. Conclusion Chapter One “Exceptions that Prove the Rule”? Situating prominent women in 27 precolonial and colonial Zululand and Natal 1. ‘Taking Exception’: Contestations around precolonial gender relations in southeast Africa Structuralist arguments and critique Revising perspectives on prominent women Gender and division of labour Royal women’s roles in politics and state institutions Other women’s roles and institutions in the Zulu state Royal sons, influential mothers and women healers’ authority 2. Gender in Natal chiefdoms from 1830 to 1891 Migrations, fragmentations, and colonial arrivals Widowhood as a social phenomenon, and the political significance and influence of royal mothers Gender, customary law and women’s property rights in colonial Natal 3. Conclusion Chapter Two 64 “Wife of the Former Chief”: The agency of widowed women in Natal among the Makhanya, Qwabe and Qadi, 1845–1860 1. Mbalasi Makhanya (b. circa 1796 – d. post 1851) The First Zulu Christian 2. Dalida Dube (c. 1815 – c. 1890), “Inkosikazi of the Amaqadi tribe” 3. Heshepi kaPhakathwayo and the political roles of chiefly Qwabe women 4. Conclusion iv Chapter Three 92 Women chiefs in Natal: Vundlazi of the Izinkumbi and traces of her contemporaries, 1838–1890 1. From wife to widow, from homestead head to chief 2. The Izinkumbi paramountcy and the royal umuzi at ‘the Umthwalume’ 3. Compromise and control: interactions with the colonial state 4. The regency of Maria Fynn (nee Ogle) and Vundlazi’s role as ‘influential queen mother’ after 1880 5. Connections with other women chiefs in early colonial Natal 6. Nomanga Clothier in 1887: “for she was born in this country, and would have been an heiress if the government had not taken over the country” 7. Conclusion Conclusion 129 Appendix 140 Detailed note on the primary and secondary sources used in the study Bibliography 144 v Acknowledgements Because this dissertation has taken some time to be completed, there are many debts of gratitude for support and input. The phenomenal teachers and historians who made up the UKZN History department during my undergraduate, Honours and Masters studies are Vukile Khumalo, Catherine Burns, Keith Breckenridge, Thembisa Waetjen, Marijke du Toit, Goolam Vahed, Julie Parle, and Kalpana Hiralal. They and the graduate students in the department made it a very special place to learn. Fellow students whose company and insights have been appreciated during postgraduate studies there include, but are by no means limited to, Joanne Tiedt, Bridgette Portmann, Hannah Keal, Lilly Havstad, Karthigasen Gopalan, Nafisa Essop-Sheik, Stephen Sparks, Vashna Jagarnath, Prinisha Badassy, and Suryakanthie Chetty. Thanks are due to the participants in the Missions research project led by Vukile Khumalo that sparked some of this research focus since my Honours year in 2007: Vukile Khumalo, Dylan Lindsay, Bridget Portmann, Nokuthula Cele, Nonkululeko Nzama, Sandi Thompson, Jennifer Upton and Percy Ngonyama. Thanks also to Nonkululeko Nzama for translating a key source on Mbalasi. Discussions in the 'Tradition, Authority and Power' (TAP) working group begun by Jeff Guy from 2008 have shaped this research and particular thanks are due to Jeff Guy, Meghan Healy-Clancy, Jason Hickel, and Percy Ngonyama from TAP. People who have given greatly valued support, motivation and suggestions include T.J. Tallie, Meghan Healy-Clancy, Mwelela Cele along with the staff of the Killie Campbell Library, and John McCoy. Catherine Burns and Keith Breckenridge respectively, as well as together, provided much warmth and hospitality in the early stages of this project; and they and all of the participants in UKZN’s Historical and African Studies Seminar (HASS) asked crucial questions of the work, without which it would be much poorer. Any shortcomings found in the dissertation exist despite these improving influences. Special thanks also to Heather Hughes, Marieke Faber-Clarke, Norman Etherington, Jennifer Weir, and Mike Mahoney for generously forwarding research notes, and/or corresponding around some of the issues and individuals explored in this thesis. vi Julie Parle has been a very patient supervisor, but much more than that: a fount of kindness and humour, incisive commentary on many theoretical and historiographical issues, persistent questioning to ensure greater clarity, and pragmatic suggestions. It is largely due to her willingness to see this through that I have been able to complete this dissertation and bring it together into a whole. I heard the news of Jeff Guy’s passing when this dissertation had just been completed and examined. It is very hard to believe that Jeff’s generosity, harsh criticism, wit, and imagination are gone. He was kind and patient with students newly navigating a historical terrain – colonial Natal – that he found as familiar as a nearby town and so brilliantly described. He gave enormous inspiration, hospitality, and help to many students including myself. Jeff bridged the divide to a colonial past that is crucial to understand, and the psychic and historical weight and complexity of Zululand and Natal for me will always be inflected by his understanding