Who the Ndwandwe were
The Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims records, in its determination on the amaShangana, that Nxumalo was the first leader of the amaNdwandwe in the seventeenth century. It says they occupied the northern part of what was then Zululand, from the Phongolo (Pongola) River in the north to the Mfolozi in the south, with the Ngome River to the north-west and St Lucia Bay in the east. It names the leaders after him as Ndwandwe, Mkhatshwa, Gaza I, Langa I, Mavuso, Ludonga, Xaba, Langa II and Zwide II. Wikipedia says the Ndwandwe are also called the Nxumalo, and calls Zwide the son of Langa kaXaba, a Nxumalo king. See also our Nxumalo page.
Zwide, Dingiswayo and Shaka
Wikipedia gives Zwide’s birth as about 1758 and his death as 1825 in Gauteng, and names his capital as kwaNongoma. It gives his reign as 1802 to 1825 in the infobox but “about 1805 to around 1820” in the text, so the dates are loose. He was a rival of Dingiswayo of the Mthethwa and of Shaka. South African History Online says Dingiswayo subjugated Zwide twice and that the Ndwandwe killed Dingiswayo’s brother-in-law Malusi, which provoked the clash in late 1817 or early 1818 in which Dingiswayo was captured and executed. Wikipedia says that with Dingiswayo dead Zwide overran the Khumalo kingdom and executed its king, Matshobana kaMangete, whose heir Mzilikazi escaped and sought refuge with Shaka. The article describes a Ndwandwe battle against the young Zulu at Gqokli Hill without a date or an outcome.
The sources agree that Shaka broke the Ndwandwe, but not on when. The commission says Shaka defeated Zwide in 1819; Wikipedia’s article on Zwide places the Battle of the Mhlathuze River in 1820, with Zwide escaping across the Phongolo with the remnant of his clan; South African History Online says toward the end of 1818.
Offshoots
The commission says Soshangana, who was Zwide’s cousin and the leader of the Gaza regiment, refused to be absorbed into the Zulu kingdom after 1819, fled north and built the Gaza kingdom among the Tsonga peoples. Wikipedia says Zwide’s generals who fled north founded their own kingdoms and names Soshangana’s Gaza empire. See the Nxumalo page for that story and the commission’s finding on it.
Izithakazelo and totem
We have not found a published Ndwandwe praise text or a confirmed totem, so we are not printing either. If you belong to a Ndwandwe family 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 amaShangana kingship claim (pp. 543 to 544 and 554 to 556 of the PDF)
- Wikipedia: Zwide (cites Mbongiseni Buthelezi, 2015, and E.A. Ritter, Shaka Zulu, 1955)
- South African History Online: Dingiswayo
Do you belong to a Ndwandwe family? 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.