The Zulu Tribe, its humble beginningsLet me explain to you when and how the Zulu tribe was formed. Discover with me the modest beginnings of a tribe which became the most powerful in Africa. In 1250, the Mapungubwe civilization flourished. From there, as we explained, some groups including the Ngunis progressed south and it seems that around 1600 AD a man called Malandela and his wife Nozinja were wandering in the area of the actual Babanango town. From there they explored the countryside until they found the Mandawe hill close to the actual town of Eshowe. They chose to settle on the west side of the hill facing what is now the road to Nkwalini and Melmoth and a few kilometers from the actual cultural village of Shakaland. The spot was a good one from which the chief could spot his cattle in the valley below and there was plenty game for him to hunt in the area to feed his family. Some huts were built and a kraal (family unit around a cattle enclosure established).
Malandela soon died and a conflict arose in the family between Nozinja and her eldest son Qwabe, who wanted to seize the precious white cattle belonging to his mother. So, Nozinja left with her son Zulu and her servant Mpungose and went back to her clan the Gwabini, who were living between the white and the black Umfolozi Rivers. Later on, Zulu became the head of the family, married and it is how the Zulu tribe began. After Zulu, Gumede ruled the Zulu tribe and then his son, Mageba from 1727 to 1745. After Mageba, it was Ndaba from 1745 to 1763. Then Jama from 1763 to 1781. He was followed by Senzangakhona from 1781 to 1816. The small Zulu tribe was paying tribute to the Mthetwa. The old Mthetwa chief Jobe, had two sons, Tana and Gondogwana. Tana was the heir apparent but he was impatient to access to power and with his brother plotted the murder of their father. The conspiracy was discovered and the conspirators were killed except Godongwana who managed to escape. He, nevertheless, received a spear in the back and was saved by one of his sisters who healed him and helped him to escape. Then, he disappeared for many years. He had to flee from one tribe to another as his father pursued him and tried to entice the chiefs who hosted him to put him to death. It seems that, finally, he worked for a Hlubi chief as a cattle herder on the upper reach of the Buffalo River. At this period of time, a certain Doctor Cowan led an exploration mission to the interior. It is said that he stopped by this Hlubi chief to get some servants and guides and Godongwana, who had heard that his father was dead, offered to join him for a while on his way to his kraal. Doctor Cowan pushed forward but was murdered in Qwabe territory. What role Godongwana played in this murder has never been clarified. But, to his tribe’s astonishment, he came back seated on a strange animal. Before nobody had ever seen a horse, which they, from that time, called Injomane. The possession of Doctor Cowan’s gun and the support of his servants backed his power. He soon killed the new chief, his brother Mawewe, assumed power around 1795 and changed his name to Dingiswayo, the wanderer. Dingiswayo divided his young men into regiments, which had different names and could be recognized by the color of their shields. Their weapon was a long throwing spear, Umkonto. Dingiswayo preferred to have friends than enemies: He opened trade with the Portuguese at Delagoa Bay and enlarged his territories by peacefully incorporating smaller tribes.
The Zulu tribe counted 2000 men living on a square roughly 10 kilometers by 10 kilometers. The Elangeni were their neighbors. Their chief, Mbengi, had a beautiful but badly tempered daughter Nandi.
He betrothed her to Senzangakhona but she fell pregnant before he had been circumcised and could officially marry her. Therefore, when she gave birth to a son he was considered as illegitimate. When a messenger came from the Elangeni informing the elders of the Zulu tribe that Nandi was pregnant and asking Senzangakhona to fetch her, they were rebuffed and told that it was obviously no case of pregnancy but merely the work of Ishaka, an intestinal bug, which was supposed to be the cause of menstrual irregularities. The Elangeni swallowed the insult but when the 9th month came a messenger visited the Zulus and summoned Senzangakona to fetch Nandi and her Ishaka. The King sent for them and installed Nandi in his seraglio as his 3rd wife. This happened about 1787. During the 6 following years, the couple tried to make their union work but when Shaka, the small beetle as he was called, lost a pet goat belonging to the King it was the last straw. Nandi, Shaka and his sister Nomcoba, who was born during this period, were sent back to the Elangeni. There, too, Nandi and her children were not welcomed: She had disgraced her clan, brought back 2 children to feed and no male companion to support her and defend the tribe. In 1802, famine struck the area and the Elangeni evicted Nandi and her children. She married a man called Gendeyana who belonged to a sub-clan of the Qwabes and gave him a son named Ngwadi. Senzangakhona married Bibi who became the Queen of the Zulu tribe, and had from her a son called Sigujana. He lived at his kraal called Nobamba. From other wives, he had many daughters and sons among them Mhlangana, Dingane and Mpande. Shaka had developed now into a fully-grown man and both the Elangeni and the Zulus were keen to see him return. But their reasons were not the same: If the Elangeni wanted to add a powerful warrior to their army, Senzangakhona wanted him back to kill him and make sure there was no opponent to his nominated heir, his son Sigujana, to rule the Zulu tribe at his death. Shaka saw the traps and fled with Nandi to her aunt’s kraal, among the Emdletsheni clan, which reported directly to the powerful Mthetwa.
He served as a Mthetwa warrior during the next 6 years.
On the Ngunis: "All about South Africa". Struik publishers 2001. ISBN 1 86872 581 2. Pages 16 and 17. On Malandela and the Zulu tribe: "The warrior people" by C T Binns. Howard Timmins 1974. ISBN 0 86978 094 8. Pages 58 and 59. "The washing of the spears" by Donald R Morris. Pimlico 1965. ISBN 0 7126 6105 0. Pages 43 and 44. "Shaka's Country" by T V Bulpin. Howard Timmins Cape Town 1952. Pages 1 and 2. On Senzangakona, Nandi and Shaka's birth: "Shaka Zulu" by E A Ritter. Panther books 1958. Pages 15 and 16. "The washing of the spears" as quoted above. Pages 44 and 45. On Dingiswayo: "Shaka Zulu" by E A Ritter as quoted above. Pages 24 and 25. "Shaka's Country" as quoted before. Pages 8 and 9. "Natal, the land and its story" by Robert Russell. T W Griggs 1972. Pages 127 to 131. "The washing of the spears" as quoted above. Pages 40 to 43. On Dr. Cowan: "The washing of the spears" as quoted above. Pages 40 and 41. On Shaka's youth: "The washing of the spears" as quoted above. Pages 45 and 46. Shaka's life with the Mthetwa: "Warriors chiefs of Southern Africa" by Ian J Knight. Firebirds books 1994. ISBN 1 875036 01 6. Pages 15 and 16.
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