The house of Ramabulana
The Ramabulana house is the line of Venda kings through Munzhedzi Mpofu, his son Ramabulana, and Ramabulana’s son Makhado, then Mphephu and later holders of the name. The account below is the one presented to the Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims by the Mphephu Ramabulana house, followed by the commission’s findings. The other houses tell the story differently, and their accounts are on the pages for Tshivhase, Mphaphuli and Ravhura.
From Dzata to Songozwi
In this account the house descends from Thohoyandou, who succeeded Vele-la-Mbeu because the senior (dzekiso) house produced no heir. Thohoyandou’s son Munzhedzi Mpofu was installed as thovhele at Dzata after a succession fight, and he defeated attacks by Tshivhase, who had settled at Dopeni. He later moved the great place from Dzata to Songozwi, because from the summit one could see the whole kingdom. A second battle with Tshivhase was fought on a river that ran red, and so became known as Khwivhila, “red”. Munzhedzi Mpofu is also said to have given refuge to people displaced by the Mfecane wars, including the Batlokwa under their chiefs Machaka and Ramokgopa (see the Batlokwa page).
Makhado and the Voortrekkers
Ramabulana, who died in 1864 according to the account, had four sons: Davhana, Ramanala, Rasikhuthuma and Makhado. Makhado was born of the senior house and was the rightful heir, but while he was away on a hunting trip the elders installed the eldest son, Davhana. When Makhado returned he won the kingship back in a battle, and Davhana fled and sought asylum with the Portuguese settler Joao Albasini. During Makhado’s reign, which the account dates from 1867 to 1895, the Voortrekkers arrived and began to reduce the status of the Venda king. On 15 July 1867 Makhado drove them out of Venda, and he beat off a further attempt in 1869. He became known as the Lion of the North.
Mphephu and the twentieth century
Mphephu Ramabulana succeeded Makhado in 1895 and kept the Voortrekkers out. After a battle in 1898 he was driven into exile in Zimbabwe, returned in 1902 and settled at Dzanani near the old Dzata, and died in January 1925. His line then passed to Mbulaheni and to Patrick Ramaano, who reigned from 1950 to 1988 and became the first president of the Republic of Venda. Makhadzi Phophi Mphephu was regent for Dimbanyika Tshimangatsho Ramabulana from 1988 to 1993, he reigned from 1993 to 1996, and she was regent again for Peter Toni Ramabulana from 1996 to 1998, when he ascended the throne. The account’s dates do not always agree with those in the other houses’ accounts.
What the commission decided
The commission found that Dimbanyika created the Vhavenda kingship around 1600, and that Voortrekkers destroyed it during Mphephu Ramabulana’s reign in December 1898. It found that after the split at Dzata it was Munzhedzi Mpofu who remained with the kingship, that Ravhura had abandoned his right by fleeing to Makonde, and that Tshivhase and Mphaphuli had not established new kingships. It concluded that the claim of Toni Peter Mphephu Ramabulana for the restoration of the kingship of the Vhavenda as a whole was successful, and that, in its words, “the kingship of Vhavenda as a whole is restored under the lineage of Mphephu Ramabulana”. The commission did not decide whether Thohoyandou was Vele-la-Mbeu’s brother or son, because it said the finding did not turn on it. It also found that the house of Ramabulana was the most senior of Vele-la-Mbeu’s descendants, and that the apartheid government’s elevation of the house to paramountcy was in line with custom.
The succession inside the Mphephu house has since been disputed in court. Our Mphephu page records that later history and what we have not been able to confirm.
In Mulaudzi’s history of the house
Lufuno Mulaudzi’s 2020 University of Pretoria doctoral thesis, drawing on Van Warmelo’s informants, Nemudzivhadi and Müller-Malan, calls the founder of the house Ravele Ramabulana and gives a fuller story than the Commission’s record. He was the eldest son of Munzhedzi Mpofu, installed first after his father’s death, and driven into exile at Moletsi by his brother Ramavhoya. The Batlokwa, whose kgosi Ramavhoya had killed, recalled him and, with Louis Tregardt, trapped Ramavhoya, whom Ravele then choked with his belt so that royal blood was not spilled. He rewarded Tregardt with an offer of land. He later welcomed Commandant Hendrik Potgieter in 1849 and, afraid for his son Davhana, who was wanted by the Voortrekkers over an alleged theft, left Tshirululuni and settled at Vuvha. Mulaudzi says he had many sons, among them Rasikhuthuma, Davhana, Ramanala, Nthabalala, Ramalamula, Liswoga, Matamela and Makhado, and that he died of old age in 1864 while Makhado was away hunting elephants. The Commission’s record names four sons: Davhana, Ramanala, Rasikhuthuma and Makhado (ch. 4, pp. 73 to 82).
His sister was the makhadzi Nyakhuhu and his brother the khotsimunene Madzhie, who backed Makhado after his death. The sources disagree on dates and some names; the Commission, for example, has no mention of Ramavhoya’s rule as separate from Ramabulana’s. See also Mphephu I, Sinthumule and Maemu for the sons of Makhado.
Overview articles
The successions of 1864 and 1895 are compared in The Ramabulana succession, 1864 to 1895.
The disputes from the 1890s to the 2020s are followed in Venda kingship disputes, 1890s to 2020s.
Izithakazelo and totem
We have not found a published Ramabulana praise text, so we are not printing one. The elephant (ndou) is recorded as the totem of the Mphephu house on our Mphephu page. If you belong to the house and recite its praises, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims: Determination on the Vhavenda kingship claim (the account on pp. 611 to 618, the findings on pp. 654 to 664)
- Lufuno J. P. Mulaudzi, “Historicising the politics of vhuhosivhuhulu: the Venda polity and state formation in South Africa, c.1800s-2020”, DPhil thesis, University of Pretoria (2020), chapter 4, pp. 71 to 97; drawing on Van Warmelo (1940), Nemudzivhadi (1977) and Müller-Malan (1953)
The dates and events in the account are as presented by the Mphephu Ramabulana house to the commission and have not been independently checked. We have not read any court judgment.
Do you belong to the Ramabulana house? 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.