Mazibuko in the sources
Mazibuko is the name of a small Ntungwa-Nguni clan that, in Bryant’s account, settled among the emaNgweni and came to be counted as emaNgweni; he says some call them Sutu and others Swazi in origin. Its best-known early figure is the doctor Kondlo, who staged a flaming-torch performance in a deep pool (isiziba) on the eNkongolwane river.
What the sources say
Among the emaNgweni. Bryant writes that, just as the Ntanzi emaNgweni became in time reputed Zulus through adoption, “so now the Mazibuko Ntungwas, aba-kwa-Mazibuko… some call them Sutus, others Swazis—came to be regarded as pure emaNgweni folk”. A man named Kondlo, “son of Mabuza, of Mzila, of Nkobeni”, came down from some more inland part to practise as a doctor under the emaNgweni chief, and settled near a deep pool (isiziba) in the eNkongolwane river; his umlingo, a miraculous power he was known for, consisted of plunging into the pool with a flaming torch and coming up with it still burning (ch. 20, pp. 183 to 184). Bryant says other chiefs of his time also claimed an umlingo, among them Madikane of the Zelemu and Zwangendaba of the Jele (p. 244).
Numbers. In Bryant’s table of the early nineteenth-century population of the Zululand and Natal clans the Mazibuko have a ratio of one-half, about 513 people (p. 82).
Cautions
The Mazibuko today are a very large surname, and nothing in this old record shows that every present Mazibuko family descends from these people. Bryant says the origin is disputed (Sutu or Swazi) and does not say which he favours. His date for Kondlo is only “in Shaka’s time”. Bryant was a Catholic missionary who collected clan traditions from informants in the early twentieth century; his book is written in a jocular colonial style, uses period terms for Africans that we do not repeat, dates the early generations by a rule of eighteen years to a reign, and often says he is guessing. We give his statements as his, not as settled history.
Izithakazelo and totem
Bryant prints the clan’s address-name as “Mwelase ongaweli Mazibuko ngaZibuko” and connects the name to the pool, isiziba; we give it as printed and do not translate it. We found no confirmed totem. If you belong to the Mazibuko and recite your praises, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
See also Zulu.
Do you belong to the Mazibuko? Tell us your izithakazelo and what elders say about the family’s history, and we will add it, credited to you. Share what you know or WhatsApp 065 138 8213.