Mavimbela in the Swazi record
Bonner lists the Mavimbela with the Ngwenya and Dhladhla, west of Mahlangatja, among the smaller Sotho-speaking chiefdoms Sobhuza I met as he moved into central Swaziland (PDF p. 41), and says the three submitted at once to Sobhuza rather than resist (p. 42).
What the book says
Under Mswati, Bonner says, the Mavimbela were among the earlier-settled chiefdoms attacked by the king’s forces (pp. 97, 99), as part of an effort to bring the last of the Emakhandzambili chiefdoms under closer political and probably economic control. He gives the Mavimbela as an example of how political and economic grievances ran together: they refused a wife from Mswati and were at the same time rejecting the inflated bridewealth they were expected to pay, so that they opposed both kinds of control at once (p. 100).
Bonner’s notes cite 1970 and 1973 interviews with Mavimbela informants. We found no detail on the Mavimbela chiefs or their later history in the book.
Sources and cautions
This page summarises Philip Bonner’s Kings, Commoners and Concessionaires (read from SAHO’s scanned PDF by OCR; page numbers are PDF pages). The surname Mavimbela is common and we claim no link between surname-holders and this chiefdom.
We read this book only through machine OCR of a scanned copy, so names and dates may contain OCR errors, and we have not checked them against the printed pages or against the oral and archival sources Bonner cites. His chapters rest on oral evidence collected in the 1970s and present contested episodes from a scholarly point of view. We did not find these clans in Gillis’s book.
Izithakazelo and totem
We are printing no Mavimbela praises or totem because none has been confirmed. If you belong to the Mavimbela and recite your izithakazelo, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
See also Maziya, Sifundza, Ngwenya and Dlamini.
Do you belong to the Mavimbela? Tell us your praises and what elders say about the history, and we will add it, credited to you. Share what you know or WhatsApp 065 138 8213.