Zwane in the Swazi record
Both books know the Zwane through Sandlane Zwane, Mswati’s chief minister. Bonner says he and Malunge, a senior paternal uncle of Mswati, were important officials already under Sobhuza who weathered the storms of Mswati’s accession and were listened to afterwards (p. 116). Gillis calls him a veteran warrior and statesman who served both Sobhuza and Mswati and whose opinions carried weight (p. 43). Wikipedia’s article on the Swazi people names Zwane among both the founding clans and the Emakhandzambili, which our listing noted as contradictory.
What the books say
Bonner lists Sandlane Zwane among royal functionaries (with Mhlaba Motsa and Mtshengu Mdluli) placed in charge of previously autonomous chiefdoms (p. 100), and says that, with Mbovane Fakudze, he led the nation’s two senior councillors in insisting on a separate audience with Shepstone (p. 159). Gillis says his mark appears on some of the concession documents, and that his killing was linked to his remonstrances over concession grants and his opposition to the so-called white committee (p. 70). Both books record that he was put to death with other leading councillors in late 1888, accused of conspiring to replace the king (Bonner p. 203; Gillis p. 77). Whether he was guilty is contested; we report the accusation as the books give it.
Sources and cautions
This page summarises two scholarly histories of the Swazi kingdom: Philip Bonner’s Kings, Commoners and Concessionaires (read from SAHO’s scanned PDF by OCR; page numbers below are PDF pages), and D. Hugh Gillis’s The Kingdom of Swaziland: Studies in Political History (read from SAHO’s scanned PDF by OCR; page numbers below are PDF pages). We found no Zwane-authored history, praise text or genealogy in the books.
We read these two books 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 other histories they cite (Matsebula, Bryant, Kuper, Stuart’s archive). Both books rely heavily on oral evidence collected in the 1970s from clan informants, and they present contested episodes from a particular scholarly point of view.
Izithakazelo and totem
We are printing no Zwane praises or totem because none has been confirmed. If you belong to the Zwane and recite your izithakazelo, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- Philip Bonner: Kings, Commoners and Concessionaires (SAHO scan)
- D. Hugh Gillis: The Kingdom of Swaziland: Studies in Political History (SAHO scan)
- Wikipedia: Swazi people (clan lists)
Do you belong to the Zwane? 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.