Mukhesi of Tsianda in the sources
Mukhesi was the son of Dingana of Tsianda by a Singo wife, the daughter of Ratombo of Tshidzivhani. Makhado’s deputation installed him at Mikondeni in 1882 and Makhado’s army upheld him against his brother Mugivhi. He is the “Netsianda (Mukhesi)” of Nemudzivhadi, and not the Mukhesi who ruled the Tshivhase house.
What the sources say
Two different men. Our Mukhesi page is about a ruler of the Tshivhase house, Raluswielo’s son, said by the Commission to have ruled from 1834 to 1867. The Mukhesi on this page lived a generation later, ruled Tsianda in the Vhuronga region, and was of the Vhalaudzi. Please do not confuse them.
His claim. His mother came from Dzanani, being the daughter of Ratombo of Tshidzivhani, a khosi under Makhado (Nemudzivhadi, p. 167). At Mauluma, in 1882, Makhado’s deputation proposed installing him at Dzananwa, where his mother was posted, and Mugivhi at Tshituwani; Mukhesi objected, as above, that only one khosi should be installed, and said he should be that one. Nemudzivhadi describes him as “a sincere, but outspoken person” (p. 170). His supporters celebrated his installation at Mikondeni (p. 171).
The war. When Mugivhi’s followers refused him tribute, he prepared his forces, and the two armies met at the Tswororo stream; Mukhesi’s followers then turned to his mother’s brother Ratombo, who told Makhado, and Makhado sent Mulelu (pp. 172 to 173; see Tsianda succession war, 1882 to 1885). In the 1885 division Mukhesi kept the northern territory (Tsianda) and the right to pay tribute directly at Dzanani.
After. Nemudzivhadi calls him Netsianda in his later pages, and says that after establishing himself he claimed sovereignty over Lwamondo on the ground that Lwamondo’s people had settled there by an agreement with his forefathers; Phophi of Lwamondo refused tribute and Makhado settled the matter by treating them as separate rulers who each sent tribute to Dzanani (p. 182; see Phophi Nelwamondo).
Overview article
See The Venda succession wars of the 1880s for the wider context.
Cautions
Nemudzivhadi’s accounts of Mukhesi come from Hamutsha informants who were on the other side, though he reports points in Mukhesi’s favour, such as the legitimacy of the Dzanani deputation. We have found no Tsianda-side account. 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. 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.
Sources and further reading
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.