From the Ndwandwe to the Gaza kingdom
The Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims, in its determination on the amaShangana kingship claim, records that the amaShangana are Nguni people who originate from the Ndwandwe. It says Nxumalo was the first leader of the Ndwandwe in the seventeenth century, and names his successors as Ndwandwe, Mkhatshwa, Gaza I, Langa I, Mavuso, Ludonga, Xaba, Langa II and Zwide II. In 1819 the Ndwandwe were under Zwide II, and his cousin Soshangana (also called Manukusi) was his military commander and leader of the Gaza regiment.
After Shaka defeated Zwide in 1819, Soshangana refused to be absorbed into the Zulu kingdom. He and his followers went along the eastern foothills of the Lubombo mountains to the upper Tembe River and then to Delagoa Bay, where, the commission records, he fought, defeated and subjugated the vaThonga communities. In 1828 Shaka attacked him, and he moved north to Bileni. Along the way he subjugated and incorporated the vaNdzawu, vaNgomane, vaShongonono, vaRhonga, vaChopi, vaShona and vaTshwa. He named the new community amaShangana and the kingdom Gaza, after one of his ancestors. This is the origin of the word Shangaan, which Wikipedia’s article on the Tsonga says properly applies only to the group tied to Soshangane and not to all Tsonga people.
Soshangana’s successors
The commission names Soshangana’s sons Mzila (by his first wife, Sokujamile Madlope) and Nomboya and Mawewe (by his great wife, who was of the Nkosi clan). Nomboya, the heir apparent, died first. Soshangana died at Chayimite in 1858, having ruled 37 years. Mawewe took the throne against his father’s wishes, and in 1862 Mzila won it from him; Mawewe fled to Swaziland, where he died in 1872. Mzila died in 1884. His son Mdungazi took the name Nghunghunyani (often written Ngungunyane) and, in 1889, established his Great Place at Mandlakazi.
The commission’s dates for Soshangana differ from Wikipedia’s article on him, which gives his reign as 1821 or 1825 to 1858, puts Bileni at about 1834, and gives his death as 1856, 1858 or 1859 in different places. The article is itself tagged for unsourced statements. We give the commission’s version above and treat the dates as approximate.
Defeat and dispersal
In 1884 Nghunghunyani signed a treaty with the Portuguese, which the commission says compromised his independence. In 1895 he placed his kingdom under the British for protection, but the Portuguese attacked and defeated the Gaza regiments. He was captured on 28 December 1895 and on 13 March 1896 was banished to Portugal with his sons and a general. He died there on 23 December 1906. After the defeat the amaShangana regrouped under his uncle Mpisane Nxumalo, who travelled west and settled at Bushbuckridge, in present-day Mpumalanga, as regent for a son of Nghunghunyani. Buyisonto, a son who was released from prison in 1922, joined them but was recognised by the South African government only as a chief. The commission records the line through Mafemani Heavyman Nxumalo (installed 1944, died 1973) to Mpisane Eric Nxumalo, installed in 1981 as senior traditional leader of the amaShangana Traditional Authority.
What the commission decided
The commission found that the kingship of the amaShangana was established round about 1828 and that Nghunghunyani was the last to reign over a unified amaShangana. It found that after the Portuguese defeat the kingship disintegrated, and that neither Mpisane Nxumalo nor his successors re-established it. It concluded that “amaShangana do not have kingship”, that there is therefore no kingship to be restored, and that the claim lodged by Mpisane Eric Nxumalo was unsuccessful. It also noted that the loss predated 1 September 1927, the limit on the commission’s authority to restore kingships. We have not read any response to the determination from the Nxumalo house.
Nxumalo elsewhere
Nxumalo is also carried by Zulu and Swazi families. Our Ndwandwe listing covers the wider Ndwandwe, and the Shangana-Tsonga page lists the Tsonga clans.
Mzila in the Zoutpansberg
For the Nxumalo prince Mzila’s time as a refugee near Tshakhuma, his ultimatum over Monene and his part in the 1869 attacks on Lwamondo and Thengwe, see Mzila.
Izithakazelo and totem
We have not found a published Nxumalo praise text or a confirmed totem, so we are not printing either. If you belong to a Nxumalo house and recite its 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. 534 to 563 of the PDF)
- Wikipedia: Soshangane (cites Bryant, 1929; Liesegang, 1975 and 1986; Newitt, 1973 and 1995)
- Wikipedia: Tsonga people
Do you belong to a Nxumalo house? 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.