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Mzala Tom

@RealMzalaTom

Dec 31, 2020 • 10 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X

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1. THE WITCHCRAFT TRIAL OF PRINCESS MNCENGENCE KHUMALO 🇿🇼

Umnxeba .... 🧵

Princess Mncengence was King Lobhengula's sister who rose to prominence after Lobhengula's succession of King Mzilikazi. In the Ndebele kingdom there were two capital offences : treason and witchcraft.

2. The crime of ubuthakathi was significant in that there was a belief that for misfortune to occur in a person's life it was either the person's amadlozi were angry and needed to be appeased or the misfortune was caused by witchcraft.Only an isanusi/seer could sniff out a witch.

3. When king Lobhengula ascended to the throne, he continued with the alliance between the Ndebele and the Shangani kingdom. He married a Shangani Princess Xhwalile Nxumalo the daughter of King Mzila of the Gasa people.

4. Queen Xhwalile's royal house was at Emganwinini. She had been earmarked to be the one who would give birth to King Lobhengula's heir to his throne. Ten more princesses from King Mzila's kingdom were given to King Lobhengula's as wives and Xhwalile was their head queen.

5. Despite many attempts Queen Xhwalile failed to conceive the royal child. After many rituals and consultations, King Lobhengula's head isanusi Gulukudwana Zondo sniffed out Princess Mncengence as the one who had bewitched Queen Xhwalile.

6. Princess Mncengence was accused of seeking to block her brother from having an heir so that she could maintain her influence in the royal courts and diminish the powers of the queens. She was brought on trial before her brother King Lobhengula who ordered her execution.

7. Six other people who were alleged to have been complicit in Princess Mncengence's witchcraft were also executed. The Ndebele philosophy was that umthakathi kancengwa uyaphohozwa ngenduku. (there is no mercy for witches they must be executed).

8. Where evidence of witchcraft was inconclusive, suspects were not allowed to remain in the mainstream community but were instead banished.They were banished to places like eZihwabeni (between Solusi and Plumtree) or emaguswini amnyama, the dark forests in Matabeleland North.

9. Some of the methods used to punish abathakathi included piercing through the anus or the centre of the head with a sharp object, tying stones around the neck of an offender before being drowned in water or just being stabbed to death with multiple spears.

10. King Mzilikazi was known to be more merciful on crimes of witchcraft and always preferred the banishment of witches.During his reign people accused of witchcraft often fled to the royal capital before trial to avoid execution at their districts.However, Lobhengula was brutal.

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Mzala Tom

@RealMzalaTom

Dec 28

1. PRINCESS MKABAYI KA- JAMA (1750-1843) 🇿🇦

Princess Mkabayi was the daughter of the Zulu inkosi uJama. She was a twin by conception. Her twin sister was known as Mmama. Inkosi uJama decreed that the twin girls were not to be killed at their infancy. This decision was not well received by the royalty and Zulu society.

2. The twin girls were not loved by the community as there was great fear that they would bring curses and attract ancestral wrath on the Zulu community. This fear was confirmed when the queen mother died before she could bear the king a male heir. Mkabayi and her twin sister bore the brunt of the people's hate and rejection.

3. Mkabayi became the focus of public attention because of her strong willed character and stubbornness. Her sister on the other hand was calm and mellow. As years progressed, inkosi uJama failed to produce a male heir. This was worrisome to the Zulu royals and the nation.

Read 14 tweets

Mzala Tom

@RealMzalaTom

Dec 8

1. WHEN ALLIES FALL OUT : THE TRAGEDY OF KING LOBHENGULA AND CHAMINUKA PASIPAMIRE (Part 1) 🇿🇼

Two political dynasties in the present day Harare province and surrounding areas aligned themselves with the Ndebele in the mid to late 1800s. These were the Rwizi and Hwata dynasties. The relationship was one based on mutual benefits. These two dynasties were however, not the only allies of the Ndebele in present day Zimbabwe outside the borders of the erstwhile Ndebele kingdom. The focus of this thread is on the Rwizi Dynasty-Ndebele relations.

2. After clashes with the Ndebele between 1860-1864 over gold and trade routes , Hwata Nherera Gwindi, travelled to meet King Mzilikazi at his capital where they agreed to have a mutually beneficial alliance . It was agreed that the Ndebele would have partial access to the lucrative Shawasha gold mines and Portuguese trade routes controlled by the Hwata. The Hwata dynasty stretched from present day Harare, past the Mazoe Dam (then commonly known as pagomba) to modern day Glendale and to the heads of the Mazoe, Tateguru and Murowodzi valleys. In return the Ndebele had to assign personal and family bodyguards for Hwata Gwindi and dispatch regiments to protect him from his family contenders and external enemies. With Ndebele backing Hwata Nherera Gwindi and his son Mazarura maintained their territory and retained power for their house up to the late 1880s.

3. At the beginning of the 1880s the emerging Rwizi dynasty of Chitungwiza was ruled by Madzora, but his brother Pasipamire was much more famous. Pasipamire was the medium of the Chaminuka spirit. The Rwizi Dynasty was centred in present day Chitungwiza - Dungwiza – territory of long grass, where Chaminuka Pasipamire's shrine was located. The territory covered the area between the Mupfure and Manyame (Hunyani) rivers, extending as far as Mhondoro in the north-west and Hwedza Hills in the south east.

Read 11 tweets

Mzala Tom

@RealMzalaTom

Sep 21

1. THE CORONATION OF KING LOBHENGULA 👑🇿🇼👑

The contested coronation of King Lobhengula around 1870 was done in three phases over a period of about three months. This was in line with Nguni customs . The first stage was the welcoming of the new king at his father’s old capital, eMhlahlandlela where his ordination would commence.

2. On his arrival at the eMhlahlandlela town gate, he was welcomed with a black ox and invited to enter through the north gate. There were around 15 000 soldiers to welcome him at eMhlahlandlela, singing, dancing and parading.

3. From the gate he was ushered to the goat kraal, where he was welcomed by a senior inyanga yomuzi who,cleansed and purified him as part of an elaborate purification ritual for kings. The vessels to be used in the festivities for his coronation were also purified.

Read 15 tweets

Mzala Tom

@RealMzalaTom

May 26

1. THE PRE-COLONIAL UKUCHINSA - FIRST FRUITS CEREMONY OF THE NDEBELE PEOPLE OF ZIMBABWE 🇿🇼

Thread..

After the conclusion of the Inxwala national ceremony , people went back to their respective villages. After a week or two, the king performed the ukuchinsa /dolo qina ceremony.

2. Citizens of the Ndebele state were prohibited from harvesting their crops until the ukuchinsa ceremony was conducted. This was usually around January or February, when the first crops started to appear.

3. The king was the first to partake of the first crops in the kingdom. Anyone who broke this rule was punished by death.Izinyanga -traditional doctors gathered the first crops like amakhomane, marrows and mixed them with medicines. After that the king would eat the first fruits.

Read 19 tweets

Mzala Tom

@RealMzalaTom

May 23

1. QUEEN NZINGA MBANDE OF ANGOLA (1583-1663) 🇦🇴

The first Portuguese explorers arrived in present day Luanda around 1500s. By 1575 Paulo Dias
de Novais arrived with a hundred families of colonists and four hundred soldiers. They set up a fort at present day Luanda.

2. The Portuguese gradually took control of the coastal area by a series of treaties and wars throughout the 16th century, and their interest in Angola quickly turned to the slave trade.

3. With the capital at Luanda on the coast, the Portuguese struggled against the kingdoms of Kongo, Ndongo, and Matamba to gain control of the interior.

Read 11 tweets

Mzala Tom

@RealMzalaTom

May 3

1. THE PRE-COLONIAL INXWALA CEREMONY OF THE NDEBELE PEOPLE OF ZIMBABWE 🇿🇼

Inxwala was a national ceremony for spiritual renewal and thanksgiving for the first fruits in the Ndebele kingdom. The main Inxwala came a lunar month after the conduct of the minor inxwala.

2. Once the date for the main inxwala was set, a clarion call was
was made at all kraals in the regions of the kingdom for people to attend the big ceremony. ‘Umthwakazi kagcobe!’, ‘Let the nation dress up for Inxwala!’ the town criers would announce with great excitement.

3. All roads would then lead to the capital. The people brought with them food, beer and oxen for slaughter. There were special oxen known as amamvubu, the hippo oxen. These oxen were regarded as sacred animals. It was believed that the king’s ancestral spirits lived in them.

Read 11 tweets

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