Hamutsha in the sources
Hamutsha is the southern part of the old Tsianda territory, around Tshituwani, ruled by Mugivhi and his descendants after the 1885 division. It was the royal residence of Dingana before the Swazi invasion of 1869, and Mugivhi’s followers refused to pay tribute to Mukhesi at Mikondeni, arguing that the kingship belonged at Hamutsha.
What the sources say
The seat. Dingana’s royal residence was at Tshituwani, in the Hamutsha area; after the Swazi attack on Tshakhuma and Makhado in 1869 he moved to the mountain at Mikondeni, which he judged safer. One of his sons, Mugivhi, was later sent back to Tshituwani, where the old homestead stood in disrepair, and he moved the headquarters to a higher place nearby, which became the headquarters of his descendants “right up to the present” (pp. 167 to 168). Nemudzivhadi’s informant B. Mugivhi was himself interviewed at Hamutsha, Tshituwani in December 1985, and another, Makhadzi Ramphiri, in December 1986.
The Hamutsha case. When Makhado’s deputation installed Mukhesi at Mikondeni in 1882, Mugivhi’s followers from the Vhuronga region, “from Mathuzeni and Mukanye to Dzwerani”, assembled at the forest of Hamutsha instead, where Mugivhi was staying with his mother. Their elders decided never to send tribute to Mukhesi, arguing that Dingana’s royal residence had been Hamutsha and Mikondeni was only a temporary one set up after the Swazi invasion of 1869, that the “property of kingship” had been left at Hamutsha by Dingana, and that the initiation institutions of the royal house remained there (pp. 170 to 172). Mugivhi himself, says Nemudzivhadi, did not wish to differ with his brother and said the matter had to go to the elders (p. 171).
After the war. Under the 1885 settlement Mugivhi’s territory stretched south of the Tswororo and was bordered by the Mufule, Dzondo and Dzindi rivers; his brother or son Khavhagali was stationed at Pfumbida and Mashawana fell under him (p. 176). Mugivhi died in 1887, and Matamela Mulelu was sent to take over until the succession could be settled between Mugivhi’s sons Tshipetane and Khavhagali (pp. 176 to 177; see Matamela Mulelu). During the 1880s fighting Mugivhi’s followers secretly crossed to Lwamondo for help, which Maboho Nelwamondo gave because Mugivhi was married to his daughter Vele (pp. 174 to 175; see Lwamondo).
Today. The Ha-Mutsha community appears, separately from Tsianda, on the roll of communities named in the 1991 Proclamation (Mulaudzi 2020, ch. 8; see the Proclamation page). Nemudzivhadi says the two territories have never been merged (p. 177). See Tsianda.
Overview article
See The Venda succession wars of the 1880s for the wider context.
Cautions
The Hamutsha case is given mainly through Hamutsha informants, so it is the account of the party that lost the 1882 contest. Nemudzivhadi calls Khavhagali both Mugivhi’s brother and Mugivhi’s son in different paragraphs (p. 176), and we cannot say which is right. We list the initiation and kingship items the elders named only in general terms and print no detail of them. The account of the Tsianda succession rests chiefly on two elderly informants from Hamutsha (B. Mugivhi, about 73 in 1985, and Makhadzi Ramphiri, about 90 in 1986), on a 1906 Location Commission paper on the tribe of “Netseanda and Mogibi”, and on N. J. van Warmelo’s 1940 report on the Sinthumule chieftainship, as Nemudzivhadi cites them; they favour the Hamutsha view of events, and we have not seen the commission paper or the report. A Venda typescript by M. Mugivhi on Govhamasenga and his sons (1939) is in the Van Warmelo collection at the University of Pretoria; we have not read it. Nemudzivhadi is a Venda historian whose subject is Makhado’s reign; he built on oral interviews done between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s and on colonial archive papers, and he often says where his informants and the written sources disagree, as do we.
Izithakazelo and totem
We found no confirmed Hamutsha praise poem. For the Vhalaudzi section’s goat totem as recorded by Stayt for Masia and Tsianda, see Tsianda. If you belong to the Hamutsha community and recite your praises, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- Mphaya Henry Nemudzivhadi, “The attempts by Makhado to revive the Venda kingdom, 1864-1895”, PhD thesis, Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education (1998), chapter 7; 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)
- 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 8 (the 1991 Proclamation roll)
- M. Mugivhi, “Gwamasenga na vhana vhawe” (Venda typescript, 1939, published in Mudededzi II, pp. 73 to 77), Van Warmelo collection, University of Pretoria; listed only, not read
See also Tsianda, Hamutsha, Makhado, Vhalaudzi and Lwamondo.
Do you belong to the Tsianda or Hamutsha communities? Tell us what elders say about the history, and we will add it, credited to you. Share what you know or WhatsApp 065 138 8213.