Mnisi in the Swazi record
Bonner lists the Mnisi among the Sotho-speaking groups of central Swaziland, near modern Mbabane (p. 41).
What the books say
He says the Mnisi were attacked by Mswati’s forces, among other earlier-settled chiefdoms such as the Thabede, Gamedze, Mngometfulo, Sifundza, Masilela and Mavimbela (p. 97), and gives the Mnisi as the clearest example of a chiefdom attacked because its pretensions as rainmakers rivalled those of the Swazi king (p. 98). We have not seen what became of the Mnisi chiefdom afterwards.
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). The surname Mnisi is common and we claim no link between surname-holders and this chiefdom.
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 Mnisi praises or totem because none has been confirmed. If you belong to the Mnisi 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 Mnisi? 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.