The three brothers
This page follows the history presented to the Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims by Nyezane Reuben Mahlalela on behalf of the royal house, together with the commission’s findings. According to that account the bakaMahlalela originate from Central Africa and are also called abaMbo or eMalangeni. They migrated south from the Great Lakes and settled around Delagoa Bay in Maputaland. The commission records the date given for the migration as about 1570, but its own finding places it round about 1670, so we treat both as approximate.
In the account, a leader named Ngwane I had three sons who became known as Mahlalela, Maziya and Dlamini. The three left Delagoa Bay and travelled along the Lubombo mountains, and at one point split. Mahlalela killed an elephant with his magic stick and waited to see what would emerge from the ground where its tusk had stuck, and so was named Mahlalela, “the one who waited”, and his followers bakaMahlalela. A second brother hesitated about whether to stay or leave and was named Maziya, with followers called bakaMaziya. The youngest went towards present-day Swaziland, conquering the communities he met, and was named Dlamini. He invited Mahlalela to join him, Mahlalela declined, and the account says Mahlalela gave him part of the ritual paraphernalia of the eMalangeni while keeping the rest, including the magic stick. Dlamini became the founder of the Swazi kingdom. See our Dlamini page.
Moves and rulers
The bakaMahlalela later moved to Shiselweni, on the banks of the Phongolo in what was then northern Zululand. The account says that around 1670 they settled on the hill eMkhuwaneni in the present-day Mbuzini area, around 1680 moved to eBukhunkhwini in Mozambique, then to Pigg’s Peak and Sitegi in Swaziland, and in 1892 settled again at Mbuzini in Mpumalanga. It names the line of leaders from Sibangamswane through Nzalela, Zembe and Mlambo I, after whom the Mlambo Traditional Authority is named, Sidloko I, Lomahasha, Mbudula and Sidloko II. Lomahasha is remembered for his bravery, as a member of the Inyatsi regiment under Mswati I in Swaziland. The account records a belief, widespread in Mbudula’s time, that the chiefs of the bakaDlamini and the bakaMahlalela should not meet.
The twentieth century was a period of regencies and disputed succession, which the commission records at length. Mandlenkhosi Sibusiso Mahlalela was installed on 2 May 1992 as inkhosi of the bakaMahlalela, also called the bakaMlambo.
What the commission decided
The commission found that there is no evidence that Mnguni, the leader of the abaMbo, had established a kingship, and that Ngwane I, as a leader of the eMalangeni within a loose confederation, could not have been a king and so had no kingship to pass to his sons. It found that Mahlalela, as eldest, could break away and lead his own community, but that this did not make him a king, and that there is no evidence he or his successors ever established a kingship, while Dlamini, the youngest, established his own kingship through conquest and welded the communities into the emaSwati. It found that the Mahlalela leadership has always been bound up with the Swazi kingship: the bakaMahlalela lived for a time in Swaziland, Lomahasha served in a Swazi regiment, and one senior leader who owes them allegiance is in Swaziland. It concluded that in terms of the Framework Act “bakaMahlalela do not have kingship”, that there is therefore no kingship to be restored, and that the claim by Mandlenkosi Sibusiso Mahlalela was unsuccessful. We have not read any response to the determination from the Mahlalela house.
Izithakazelo and totem
We have not found a published Mahlalela praise text or a confirmed totem, so we are not printing either. If you belong to the bakaMahlalela and recite the 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 kingship of bakaMahlalela (pp. 572 to 598 of the PDF)
The brothers’ story and the later movements are the house’s own account as recorded by the commission, and we have not checked them independently. This is how the Mahlalela tell the story. Our Dlamini page records the Swazi royal tradition of the Dlamini’s own origin, which is told differently.
Do you belong to the bakaMahlalela? Tell us your praises, your totem and what elders say about the history, and we will add it, credited to you. Share what you know or WhatsApp 065 138 8213.