Thread by @tlsibanda

1. UMBIKO KA MADLENYA

A thread...

After the death of King Mzilikazi in 1868 Lobengula's rise to power was bloody. A top general & leader of the feared Zwangendaba regiment: Mbiko Masuku, challenged the anointing of Lobhengula as the next
Ndebele king.

2. Mbiko was the son of Madlenya & a powerful military leader. As a reward for his bravery King Mzilikazi had given him his daughter Zinkabi as a wife & Mbiko was elevated to royalty. Zinkabi was Nkulumane's sister. The Masuku clan was revered & feared.

3. Mbiko did not believe that Lobhengula was the legitimate heir to the throne. This was because Lobhengula was born to a Swazi mother (MaTshabalala) & Mbiko felt that she was of a lesser class.He preferred that Nkulumane be found & made king.

4. Others however, say that the issue of finding Nkulumane was just a decoy to his own secret ambitions to take over as king. He believed Lobhengula had no qualities of a king like his father Mzilikazi.

5. The Ndebele nation’s senior political and military leadership was therefore divided into two factions; one led by Mbiko Masuku & one that was pro-Lobhengula.

6.Mbiko decided to send a delegation to Zululand, to find and bring back Nkulumane. This was around 1870. The fate of that delegation is unknown.

7. In the meantime a pro-Lobhengula commander, Velane, of the Mzinyathi regiment, sent his own people to another Lobhengula supporter, Fakafaka Mabhena, urging him to go & take Lobhengula from his regiment, Mahlokohloko, to Mhlahlandlela Palace to be officially installed as king.

8. The Mbiko faction boycotted the ceremony & a few days later Lobhengula decided to attack Mbiko & the Zwangendaba regiment first before they pounced on him. His intelligence sources had warned him that Mbiko’s attack was imminent.

8. The war between the two factions was vicious & bloody. Lobhengula personally killed Mbiko & set the Zwangendaba regimental village on fire. Many fled in order to save their families & were never to come back to the Ndebele state.

9. Lobhengula travelled on horseback to the battlefront to motivate his warriors. He then secretly left for Mbiko’s village & found Mbiko sitting near his calves’ kraal, stabbed him with a spear and then set the village on fire whilst riding his horse.

10. Upon hearing of Mbiko’s death his soldiers were demoralised & fled to different places. Some Masuku people crossed the Zambezi river & sought refuge in Barotseland (Zambia). Some retraced their way across the Limpopo back to Zululand & Eswatini.

11. Others sought refuge among the Mataruse clan in the Zvishavane –Mberengwa region & even became culturally assimilated by that clan. Some l said they were Swazis, in their places of refuge & thus hid their true ethnic identity. Others hid amongst the Kalanga people.

12. Lobhengula had initially named his royal capital Gibixhegu but he later changed it to Bulawayo based on the attempt to eliminate him by Mbiko & his followers.The name Bulawayo comes from the Ndebele word 'bulala' & it translates in this context to "the one to be killed".

13. SOURCES

- Oral tradition
- UMbiko kaMadlenya : Mayford M. Sibanda (Ndebele novel).