Mini
Very little is recorded about Mini, and the two accounts we have do not agree on who he was. The Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims, in its determination on the amaHlubi kingship claim, says that after the death of Dlomo II a succession dispute occurred between Dlomo’s younger brother Langalibalele I and “one of the sons of Mahwanqa, Mini”, that Dingane intervened and sent his army to assist Langalibalele, and that after Mini’s defeat Dingane tried unsuccessfully to kill Langalibalele himself. See Mahwanqa and Dlomo.
A half-brother in the other account
Wikipedia’s article on Langalibalele says his half-brothers and half-sister plotted to have him killed and eaten by cannibals; that Duba allegedly lured him to his mother’s place in the amaJuba mountains where he was tied to a pole; and that girls alerted his friend Gxiva, who freed him, so he escaped at night and crossed the flooded Mzinyathi. The article names the plotters as Duba, Mini and Luphalule, gives Mini no further role, and tags the paragraph “citation needed”. The Pinelands History page “Two Kings (Part 1)”, by Brian Watkyns, says half-brothers Duba, Mini and Luphalule captured Langalibalele to kill him but he escaped; that page does not give sources. If Mini was a son of Mahwanqa, as the Commission says, he would be a cousin, not a half-brother, of Langalibalele; we cannot tell whether these are the same person, a confusion in the retelling, or two men of the same name.
When and how it ended
Wikipedia’s Langalibalele article says Dingane ordered the murder of Dlomo in 1839, a year before his own death, so that Langalibalele became king; the Pinelands page says Langalibalele became king in 1836. The sources also differ on Langalibalele’s birth year (about 1814 or 1818). We do not know what became of Mini.
What we have not read
Wikipedia’s Langalibalele article cites R. O. Pearse, Brian Kaighin’s “Hlubi-Clan” page and T. V. Bulpin for the surrounding passages, which we have not read; the Mini paragraph has no source. We have not read Wright and Manson’s The Hlubi Chiefdom (1983) or Colenso (1875). We found no account from Mini’s descendants.
Izithakazelo and totem
We found no recorded praises or totem for Mini, so we are printing none. If you descend from him and want your history recorded here, with your permission and credited to you, we would like to hear from you.
Sources and further reading
- Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims: Determination on the amaHlubi kingship claim (pp. 503 to 533 of the PDF)
- Wikipedia: Langalibalele (the “citation needed” paragraph)
- Brian Watkyns, Pinelands History: Two Kings (Part 1)
Do you descend from Mini or the Hlubi royal house? Tell us the history you know and we will add it, credited to you. Share what you know or WhatsApp 065 138 8213.