Davhana in the sources
Davhana was the eldest son of Ravele Ramabulana. He was installed as king after his father’s death in 1864, was driven out by his half-brother Makhado, and lived on as a rival ruler under the protection of the Transvaal republic until about 1894.
What the sources say
Before 1864. Lufuno Mulaudzi’s 2020 University of Pretoria thesis says the Voortrekkers in Schoemansdal wanted Davhana, not Ramabulana, because he was accused of theft; Ramabulana, afraid, abandoned his seat at Tshirululuni and fled with Davhana to Ngwekhulu and Mauluma, and settled at Vuvha (ch. 4, pp. 79 to 80). Mulaudzi says Ramabulana had many sons, among them Rasikhuthuma, Davhana, Ramanala, Nthabalala, Ramalamula, Liswoga and Matamela, besides Makhado.
The succession of 1864. After Ramabulana died the sons met and installed Davhana, the eldest, with the support of the elders at the royal homestead. Ramabulana’s sister, the makhadzi Nyakhuhu, and his brother Madzhie objected: Makhado had not been consulted, Davhana was accused of atrocities and of killing his father, and Nyakhuhu proposed Rasikhuthuma instead. Mulaudzi notes that Davhana was by birth the legitimate heir and that the objection was to his conduct. The native commissioner Joao Albasini recognised Davhana for the republic in May 1864, and a veldcornet supported him (ch. 4, pp. 82 to 86). The Commission’s record has the same events from the Mphephu Ramabulana house’s side: that Makhado, the rightful heir, was away hunting, that the elders installed Davhana, that Makhado took the kingship back by battle, and that Davhana fled to Albasini.
Exile and a rival court. When Makhado and his supporters, with some whites from Schoemansdal, moved against him, Davhana fled to Tshivhase, who refused him asylum, and to Mphaphuli, from whom Makhado demanded he be turned out, and finally to Albasini (ch. 4, p. 87). By 1867 he had set himself up as a thovhele with his musanda at Mpheni, controlling an area as far as Madzimbanombe, so that the Venda had two rulers; Makhado asked the Boers to hand him over in exchange for their guns, which they refused. In July 1868 President Pretorius met Davhana and his followers, with Shangaan leaders and the Buys community, at Welgevonden, and an alliance against Makhado was agreed (ch. 4, pp. 88 to 90). Mulaudzi credits Davhana’s peaceful dealings with Pretorius for letting German missionaries work in the Ramabulana land. Wikipedia’s Venda Kingdom article says he was sheltered by the republic until his death in 1894, and the Luonde site says he sought Albasini’s protection at Luonde. Two other men called Davhana appear in the thesis; the one in Munzhedzi’s story is a relative, not Ramabulana’s son.
Davhana at Luonde in Nemudzivhadi
M. H. Nemudzivhadi’s 1998 thesis gives the Luonde years in detail: Albasini recognised Davhana as Ramabulana’s heir, Makhado’s army was repulsed at Luonde on 3 to 4 June 1864, and Davhana later joined the Albasini–Venter commando into Phahwe in April 1865. See João Albasini and Monene affair, 1864 to 1865.
Overview articles
His sheltering of Bele of Dzimauli is mentioned in The Venda succession wars of the 1880s.
His contest with Makhado is set in context in The Ramabulana succession, 1864 to 1895.
Cautions
The account of the quarrel comes largely from the Ramabulana side and from Boer records; we have not seen Davhana’s descendants’ version. Mulaudzi is a historian writing in 2020 from earlier collections of oral testimony, mainly Van Warmelo’s (1940), Nemudzivhadi’s interviews of the early 1970s and Müller-Malan’s popular history of 1953, and he says himself that traditions are socially constructed and reshaped over time. His text as extracted has stray spaces and some unreadable characters, so we have checked names against more than one passage; page numbers are approximate. The Ramabulana house’s history is told differently by Van Warmelo’s informants, Nemudzivhadi, Müller-Malan and the Commission’s record, and the names and dates do not always agree; where they differ we say so and take no side.
Izithakazelo and totem
We are printing no Davhana praises or totem because none has been confirmed. If you belong to the Ramabulana house and recite its praises, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- 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. 79 to 90; drawing on Van Warmelo (1940), Nemudzivhadi (1977) and Müller-Malan (1953)
- Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims: Determination on the Vhavenda kingship claim (the Mphephu Ramabulana house’s account, pp. 611 to 618)
- Wikipedia: Venda Kingdom
- Luonde: Brief History (community site; no author or bibliography given)
- Mphaya Henry Nemudzivhadi, “The attempts by Makhado to revive the Venda kingdom, 1864-1895”, PhD thesis, Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education (1998); open access at the North-West University repository (a scanned copy; we read it by OCR, and page numbers cited are the thesis’s printed numbers)
See also Ramabulana, Makhado and Masingo.
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