Mphephu I in the sources
Mphephu Ramabulana, called Mphephu I, was the eldest son of Makhado. He took the Venda throne from his younger brother Maemu in 1895, lost it in the war with the Transvaal republic in 1898, went into exile in Rhodesia, and came back with British help to rule from the Nzhelele valley until his death in about 1924 or 1925. The Mphephu clan page on this site covers the later house.
What the sources say
Youth. Lufuno Mulaudzi’s 2020 thesis says Makhado banished Mphephu to Gogobole after he returned defeated from an attack on the Tshivhase, which Makhado felt had dishonoured the Ramabulana, and that Mphephu went to the Kimberley mines in 1886. Makhado named his youngest son Maemu as heir instead, and those at the royal homestead who disagreed were ready to back Mphephu (ch. 4, p. 92).
1895. After Makhado’s death Mphephu came home, with Sinthumule, Funyufunyu and Nyakhuhu on his side, and took the throne from Maemu in what Mulaudzi calls a silent war. Mulaudzi says Mphephu dismissed the tradition of doctoring young warriors, drove away his father’s headmen, including Funyufunyu, and ruled with a council of young men he had met in Kimberley. He tried at first to show the republic he was obedient, sending a white bull as a gift (ch. 5, pp. 103 to 106).
The war of 1898 and exile. The Boers sent surveyors into his land, which his warriors drove away; the republic cited his unpaid taxes, his Rhodesian ties and the memory of Schoemansdal, and ranged against him other Venda rulers, using the Berlin missionaries as intermediaries (see Mmbidi and Ranwedzi). On 16 November 1898 the commandos attacked Tshirululuni, which was shelled and burned, and Mphephu fled across the Limpopo to Bulawayo; Mulaudzi notes a figure of 550 dead on his side and three on the republic’s, with another source giving 200, and says his headmen had sold his fighting plans to the enemy. About 160 of his followers, mostly women and children, were imprisoned and released when the Anglo-Boer War began. Tshirululuni was renamed Louis Trichardt, and Sinthumule was proclaimed king (ch. 5, pp. 114 to 121).
Return and death. After the British took over the Transvaal Captain H. J. Taylor brought Mphephu back; the republic’s killers of Makhado, including Stemmer, were condemned to death, and Mphephu was settled in the Nzhelele valley, where he held a circumcision school for his eldest son Mbulaheni George. Mulaudzi gives his death as 1924 and notes that by then Venda was divided among seven independent vhuhosi; the Commission’s record has him die in January 1925 (ch. 5, pp. 121 to 123; Commission p. 617). See our Mphephu, Makhado and Ramabulana pages.
Overview articles
The background to the 1898 war in tax and land is summarised in Tribute, land and the Boer state in the Soutpansberg, 1855 to 1898.
The later disputes over the Venda kingship are followed in Venda kingship disputes, 1890s to 2020s.
His passing-over in 1886 and succession in 1895 are set in context in The Ramabulana succession, 1864 to 1895.
Cautions
The thesis gives Mphephu’s death as 1924 and the Commission as January 1925. Several sources name Makhado’s death as 1895 and one passage of the thesis as 1897. The casualty figures for 1898 are from newspapers and are uncertain. 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 Mphephu I 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 5, pp. 100 to 123; 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: Venda Kingship (community site; no author given)
See also Ramabulana, Makhado and Masingo.
Do you belong to the Ramabulana house? 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.