ABSTRACT

PERIPHERAL POWER: A GENDERED CRITIQUE OF INDIGENOUS PATRIARCHY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

by Paidamwoyo Prisca Hakutangwi

This study illuminates the roles of women through a gendered critique of indigenous patriarchy during the pre-colonial and colonial period in Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. More specifically, it critically analyses the role of royal women in pre-colonial and colonial Southern Africa with a focus on Queen Nandi, Princess Mkabayi, Princess Umcencene, and Queen Lozikeyi. Women found themselves in a society that promoted hegemonic masculinity, and they became victims of African traditional patriarchal and colonial systems which supported male-dominated societies. Despite the challenges they faced, the royal women in this study were able to exert their influence in the face of unequal power relations between men and women. Although their roles were regarded peripheral in African historiography, this study showed us that women had influence and power. The history of Southern Africa is incomplete without paying due attention to women’s roles in the governance of kingdoms.

PERIPHERAL POWER: A GENDERED CRITIQUE OF INDIGENOUS PATRIARCHY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

Thesis

Submitted to the

Faculty of Miami University

in partial fulfillment of

the requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts

by

Paidamwoyo Prisca Hakutangwi

Miami University

Oxford, Ohio

2022

Advisor: Dr Andrew Offenburger

Reader: Dr Tammy Brown

Reader: Dr Jeffrey Hunger

©2022 Paidamwoyo Prisca Hakutangwi

This Thesis titled

PERIPHERAL POWER: A GENDERED CRITIQUE OF INDIGENOUS PATRIARCHY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

by

Paidamwoyo Prisca Hakutangwi

has been approved for publication by

The College of Arts and Science

and

Department of History

____________________________________________________ Andrew Offenburger

______________________________________________________ Tammy Brown

_______________________________________________________ Jeffrey Hunger

iii

Table of Contents List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... iv

List of Figures .................................................................................................................... v Dedication .......................................................................................................................... vi

Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... vii Chapter One: ..................................................................................................................... 6

Historiography of African Women .............................................................................. 6 Chapter Two: ................................................................................................................... 14

The History of the Ndebele People ............................................................................. 14 Women within the Ndebele Kingdom ........................................................................ 26

Conclusion: ....................................................................................................................... 34 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 36

iv

List of Tables

v

List of Figures

vi

Dedication Mr. Kizito and Mrs. Cecilia Hakutangwi

vii

Acknowledgements

Ndinoda kutanga nekupa mbiri kuna Nyadenga nechipo chehupenyu hwangu.

Mwari murambe muchikudzwa! Ndinoda kutenda vabereki vangu nerudo rwamunoramba

muchindiratidza. Vanin’ina vangu Patricia, Ponesai, Pius naPamela nebabamunini vangu

Masimba, ndinokutendaiwo nerudo renyu uye nerubatsiro rwamakandipa. Ndinokutendai,

Mwari varambe vachikuropafadzai. Ndinodawo kutenda nemwoyo wangu wese murume

wangu, Steven Douglas Cross uyo aive neni parewndo rwuno rwechikoro change. Mazuva

mazhinji andaidzamirwa nechikoro asi nekuda kwerudo rwemurume wangu nemhuri

yangu ndakakunda pamusana perudo rwawo uye neminamato yavo.

I also acknowledge my fellow students in the Department of History, other friends,

and family, thank you for helping me throughout this process. The initial journey of taking

up this program began with my mentor, Henry Trotter, who personally dedicated a lot of

his time to coaching and preparing me for this program. I will forever be grateful to you.

During this academic journey, I would like to acknowledge Dr. Andrew Offenburger. I

appreciated your calmness and your guidance throughout my writing process. This final

product is because of your support despite the many challenges I faced. I would also like

to thank Dr. Tammy Brown and Dr. Jeffrey Hunger for being readers of my thesis. I would

also like to acknowledge Mr. Pathisa Nyathi, a Ndebele historian for the three-hour

interview sharing your most valuable knowledge of your people, especially Queen

Lozikeyi.

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Introduction

This study illuminates the roles of women through a gendered critique of indigenous patriarchy during the pre-colonial and colonial period in Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe, a former British colony, was formerly known as Southern Rhodesia until 1965 and 1980 as Rhodesia. Preceding British colonization in 1890, the country was home to indigenous San hunter-gatherers. In the early nineteenth century, a series of attacks from Bantu-speaking peoples on the Nguni people from present-day South Africa introduced the Ndebele people, who will be the focus of this study. British occupation commenced with the arrival of Cecil John Rhodes’ Pioneer Column in 1890; this notably was the inception of a ninety-year long colonial dispensation that saw the gradual expansion of white settler population and the development of a modern economy based mainly on mining, agriculture, and eventually manufacturing, all heavily dependent on cheap African labor. The British occupation resulted in a racially based sociopolitical regime that reigned throughout the colonial period.1

The colonial period reinforced gender divisions that had existed in pre-colonial times. Colonialism especially reshaped notions of femininity and masculinity. Records from the Southern Rhodesia Native Affairs Department Annual (NADA) illuminate colonial policies that were increasingly ambivalent to women’s mobilities designed to curtail women’s movement and tie their existence to colonially invented rigid patriarchal structures. An example is an article by Michael Gelfand that defined and explained upombwe2 and the legal proceedings against those who were found guilty of upombwe. Gelfand consulted local chiefs to provide an explanation of traditional customary law regarding upombwe. According to Gelfand, men despite their marital status could have illicit intercourse with unmarried women. This was not upombwe because cultural norms did not condemn polygamy, a man was free, and he was only wrong if he slept with another man’s wife. However, this was not the same for women. No woman, married or unmarried, could plead innocence should she have an affair with a man, women were always found guilty.3 Women found themselves in a society that promoted hegemonic masculinity, and they became victims of African traditional patriarchal and colonial systems which supported male-dominated societies. While they faced patriarchal oppression in the private arena, they also encountered rampant oppression as well from the colonial system which favored the domination of men.

Later, in response to this oppression, the local people went into alliance with the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, which comprised neighbors Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Nyasaland (Malawi). In 1965, after failing to sway the colonial power to grant independence, white Rhodesians unilaterally declared their independence from Britain in what was popularly known as the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) under Prime Minister Ian Douglas Smith. This coincided with the formation of African political movements such as the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU), the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), and the Front for the Liberation of Zimbabwe (FROLIZI), which led to armed conflicts that ended with Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980. At long last, the nation’s future promised to be shaped by a black majority rule government.4

1 Alois S. Mlambo and Neil Parsons, A History of Southern Africa (London: Red Globe Press, 2019), 1-3. 2 Upombwe: in former times strictly meant a man having illicit sexual intercourse with a married woman is adultery in the Shona language of Zimbabwe. Source: NADA, The Southern Rhodesia Native Affairs Department Annual, ed. E. E. Burke, vol. XI (Salisbury: Management Committee, 1975), 192. 3 NADA, The Southern Rhodesia Native Affairs Department Annual, ed. E. E. Burke, vol. XI (Salisbury: Management Committee, 1975), 192-197. 4 Alois S. Mlambo and Neil Parsons, A History of Southern Africa (London: Red Globe Press, 2019), 1-3.

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Despite men and women playing different roles in society in pre-colonial and colonial times, women’s historical narratives were limited because of patriarchal systems that marginalized them. Resuscitating past historical narratives of the women of Zimbabwe poses ongoing challenges for researchers. If significant historical gaps exist about women's lives, how can historical records tell a complete story? Zimbabwe’s written history finds itself with just such a challenge: an incomplete account that promotes gender inequalities. The last two decades have been awash with debates on what can be legitimately said about the nature and extent of women’s “power.” Yet our knowledge remains limited in knowing what happened to women during the 19th century.

This study will critically examine the role of royal women in pre-colonial and colonial Southern Africa with a specific focus on Queen Nandi, Princess Mkabayi, Princess Umcencene, and Queen Lozikeyi. Queen Nandi was the mother of Tshaka and was the rallying point in Tshaka’s life. She was a highly influential figure who was involved in the course of events within the royal house before and during Tshaka’s reign. Princess Mkabayi was a powerful woman who contributed to shaping the Zulu kingdom.5 Princess Umcencene was referred to as both the First Queen and royal Princess as the sister of Lobengula. Amongst her tasks was that of supporting Lobengula in ruling the Ndebele kingdom. Queen Lozikeyi was the second queen of the Ndebele people, and as King Lobengula’s favorite wife, she also contributed to the ruling of the Ndebele kingdom.6 All these royal women were figures of political influence. Lozikeyi and Umcencene had a more significant impact in the Ndebele kingdom, whereas Nandi and Mkabayi were influential in the Zulu kingdom. Although they were women of power, their roles were peripheral to male figures in a patriarchal environment.

This study will focus in detail on Queen Lozikeyi, though the political influence of all royal women cannot be isolated from the patriarchal society they operated in. Going back to the eighteenth-century Zulu kingdom, Nandi was the mother of the mighty Zulu king, Tshaka. Apart from his mother, Nandi, Tshaka inherited political influence from his paternal aunt, Mkabayi. In the Ndebele kingdom, King Lobengula was strongly influenced by his wife, Lozikeyi, and his sister, Umcencene.

Queen Lozikeyi and King Lobengula were some of Zimbabwe’s most famous indigenous leaders. They led the Anglo-Matabele war (1893-1894), a war against British colonial rule and land dispossession of the Ndebele people.7 As such, Lozikeyi is most notable for being the intellect behind one of the most effective anti-colonial revolts.

The exile in 1893 and the mysterious death of Lobengula under the British South Africa Company caused Lozikeyi to act as queen regent and manage the Ndebele monarchy. With the support and help of her brother, she began a war in 1896 to drive out the British, but the Ndebele were conquered by imperial forces and lost control over most of their land. Despite the defeat, she maintained rulership with the British. In 1909 she supported the founding of Western mission schools in her territory, and she also accepted representatives from the London Missionary Society. Lozikeyi died in 1919 during the international influenza pandemic.8

5 Maxwell Z Shamase, “Women King Makers: The Case of Zulu Princess Mkabayi Kajama,” Gender & Behaviour, IFE Centre for Psychological Studies, n.d., pp. 10390-10401, 10399. 6 Marieke Faber Clarke and Pathisa Nyathi, Lozikeyi Dlodlo: Queen of the Ndebele "A Very Dangerous and Intriguing Woman" (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: AmaGugu Publishers, 2010), 30-39. 7 Stanlake, Samkange, On Trial For My Country (London: Heinemann, 1969), viii and Marieke Faber Clarke and Pathisa Nyathi, Lozikeyi Dlodlo: Queen of the Ndebele "A Very Dangerous and Intriguing Woman" (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: AmaGugu Publishers, 2010), 120-178. 8 Kathleen E. Sheldon, African Women: Early History to the 21st Century (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2017), 143.

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To the few who know her history, Queen Lozikeyi remains an inspirational figure. The late Dr. Yvonne Vera, a Zimbabwean and one of Africa’s most esteemed writers, described her as follows:

Queen Lozikeyi was one of Lobengula’s senior wives. A conspicuous and commanding figure, she was a big, bold, and beautiful woman of ample proportions and clearly the leading spirit among the Ndebele queens. With quick intelligence and ready wit, she was also remarkable among Ndebele women9 Another Zimbabwean, Natasha Fuyane, a social media influencer, writer, and policy

consultant, described Queen Lozikeyi as follows: Her war credentials were memorialized by the predominantly Ndebele’s Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA), and they referred to her as the Foremother of ZIPRA. As a show of honor and for good fortune, the ZIPRA forces buried two bullets at her grave years after her death. Queen of Peace: by the end of 1896, Rhodes’ forces and the Ndebele army had reached a stalemate. Queen Lozikeyi led the peace initiative through runners and guided the indaba (negotiations) in the Matobo mountains. This led to an amnesty and ceasefire, although the Ndebele people had already lost their best land and control.”10 Lozikeyi is one amongst many women who were crucial to the success of resistance efforts

through their work in supplying food, acting as couriers, and building an alternative social order in the liberated zones. Women’s perspectives, participation, and contribution at all levels of anticolonial activism were fundamental to the eventual independence of African nations.11

To show that Lozikeyi was an influential historical figure, South African-based Zimbabwean film writer Bekezela Dube is working on producing a film in honor of Queen Lozikeyi. This film is set to portray her role in the Anglo-Ndebele war.12 Dube said, “Such productions will become the first visual act that will portray the life of a woman regarded as one of the most powerful in the history of the country.”13

The above shows that women actively participated in the socio-economic and political fronts that shaped Southern African history. A comparative critique of four indigenous leaders, looking for the roles of four royal women, can help highlight how elite women were active in the governance of Southern African kingdoms. This study falls within the category of intersectionality theory. Intersectionality was theorized by the Black feminist legal scholar Kimberle Williams Crenshaw who introduced the metaphor in 1989. Crenshaw initially used this approach to raise awareness of the intersection of systems that oppress black women. Analysis of this theory has now been extended to include a much broader spectrum of social identities commonly known in the fourth wave of feminism to include gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, castes, sex,

9 Marieke Faber Clarke and Pathisa Nyathi, Lozikeyi Dlodlo: Queen of the Ndebele "A Very Dangerous and Intriguing Woman" (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: AmaGugu Publishers, 2010), 9. 10 Natasha Fuyane, “The Last Ndebele King: Queen Lozikeyi,” Medium (Medium, October 21, 2018), https://medium.com/@nfuyane/the-last-ndebele-king-queen-lozikeyi-91e5f7f8af3c. 11 Kathleen E. Sheldon, African Women: Early History to the 21st Century (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University press, 2017), 143. 12 Prestige Muntanga, “Queen Lozikeyi’s Life Captured on Camera,” Newsday, October 26, 2021, https://www.newsday.co.zw/2021/10/queen-lozikeyis-life-captured-on-camera/. 13 Prestige Muntanga, “Queen Lozikeyi’s Life Captured on Camera,” Newsday, October 26, 2021, https://www.newsday.co.zw/2021/10/queen-lozikeyis-life-captured-on-camera/.

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religion, and disability. Intersectionality is an analytical framework that acknowledges that social and political identities are intertwined to construct various modes of discrimination and privilege. All these intersecting and overlapping social identities lead to either oppression or empowerment.14 According to Nikol Alexander-Floyd, intersectional “stands in for the broad body of scholarship that has sought to examine and redress the oppressive forces that have constrained the lives of black women in particular.”15

This approach is applicable in Africa, where interlocking power systems were responsible for marginalizing black women’s experiences, thereby excluding their agency in history. African and colonial patriarchal power systems were some of these intertwining social and political identities that constructed various discrimination modes. Throughout this study, it will be evident that women were oppressed based on gender, race, sexuality, religion, and sex. This framework opposes analytical approaches that treat each characteristic of oppression in isolation. Intersectionality is an analytical framework that essentially promotes social and political egalitarianism. Consequently, the same interlocking systems of power that marginalized these women also created narratives of empowerment for those who endured the oppression.

This research relies on newspaper articles, interviews, autobiographies, biographies, and published sources, both in print and online. Due to ongoing COVID-19 travel restrictions, accessing primary sources has been a challenge, if not impossible, and so I have mainly relied on secondary sources.

Chapter one provides a background of women’s history in West and Southern Africa. Through select individuals, it aims at providing a narrative of African women’s record as a vast topic that embraces a variety of societies with different geographies, social customs, religious and historical situations. It traces back to women’s activities since the pre-colonial period when women once had greater power. Within their societies, they could wield both individual and collective authority. Women’s roles were changed as European contact began to impact African communities. This chapter will showcase women’s leading positions in trade and commerce, Bibiana Vaz from Guinea Bissau, women as spiritual leaders through the lives of the Rain Queen of the Lovedu people, Mbuya Nehanda led the revolt known as the First Chimurenga against British colonization in Zimbabwe. The role of ordinary women will also be illuminated. The second part of this chapter will examine the active role of royal women, Queen Nandi and Princess Mkabayi, who were very influential in shaping up the Zulu Kingdom. For this study, the history of women within the Zulu kingdom is significant given that the Ndebele people were breakout people who originated from the Zulu kingdom.

Chapter two of this study examines the active roles of influential royal Ndebele women. The central part of this chapter investigates the influence of royal Ndebele women, Princess Umcencene and Queen Lozikeyi, in the political organization of the Ndebele kingdom. In both chapters, although women played peripheral roles in the governance of their kingdoms, they had much influence in day-to-day political, economic and social activities. The roles of women were also affected by external circumstances. With the formal onslaught of colonial rule on the continent and gender-based biases, African women’s roles in history became even more marginalized and submerged under male representation. Queen Lozikeyi is a good example; while many sources write about King Lobengula, only one biography has been written about Queen Lozikeyi. The

14Anna Carastathis, Intersectionality: Origins, Contestations, Horizons (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2019), 22. 15Nikol G. Alexander-Floyd, “Disappearing Acts: Reclaiming Intersectionality in the Social Sciences in a Post-Black Feminist Era,” Feminist Formations 24, no. 1 (2012): pp. 1-25, https://doi.org/10.1353/ff.2012.0003, 4.

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narratives available on African women such as Queen Lozikeyi from the colonial period presented them as victims of Africa’s social and cultural institutions and a group with no voice or agency.16

16 Toyin Falola and Nana Akua Amponsah, Women's Roles in Sub-Saharan Africa (Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood, 2012), 1-2.

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Chapter One:

Historiography of African Women “When the Jesuit father, A. Hartmann, visited the Shona chief Chipanga in about 1891, he asked the chief how numerous his people were, including women and children. The old chief reportedly answered, “Women are not counted.” He then took a handful of dust from the ground and said,

“That is the woman”17 The history of African women is a vital and thriving field of study that has seen phenomenal

growth in literature on this subject from a small collection of books and articles published in the 1960s and 1970s to a broader coverage of gender and women’s histories in the twenty-first century. Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch argues that almost nothing was written about African women until the United Nations Women's Decade of 1975-1985. Before this period, the literature on the history of African women was very sparse.18 The early centuries of African civilization and community are problematic to study and even more complicated to find information about women in early African history. Thanks to advances in historical research, there has been an expanded use of historical linguistics and new approaches in archeology and art history which have illuminated gender and women during a time when there was little or no European contact. Such evidence points towards women’s central role in their societies and their leadership potential especially in communities that followed matrilineal lines of succession. Such sources also detail women’s decision-making concerning agriculture, family configuration, and religious beliefs.19 This demonstrates that despite limited sources, technology has been able to recover the stories of women. Using historical linguistics, African oral traditions were brought to life through materials and through oral art. Other forms of oral traditions that might have been captured through historical linguistics were songs, dance, and storytelling.

In the eastern part of Zimbabwe, women could and did become headwomen of their communities, exercising the same political power as their male counterparts in other parts of the country. Within the social context, women exercised authority in many ways. As mothers, they served a vital function, especially to their daughters, particularly over the education of their brothers' children and ancestors and their female descendants' reproductive capacity. Women served as producers or service workers, possessing special skills in pottery and healing. Female authority grew over time, in much the same way as men. By the time women were grandmothers, they had the power to influence their natal family and their husbands' families. It was typical that post-menopausal women became an "honorary male" in village society. As elders of the community, despite having lost their mystical influence associated with menstruation, they were no longer responsible for domestic responsibilities as this was left to younger women. An essential part of belonging to the "honorary male" was that these women could acquire personal property.20

The end of the fifteenth century marked the arrival of Europeans at coastal communities in Africa. Published articles and archival collections offer some of the earliest documentation

17 Elizabeth Schmidt, Peasants, Traders and Wives: Shona Women in the History of Zimbabwe, 1870-1939 (Harare: Boabab, 1996), 15. 18 Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch, African Women: A Modern History (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1997), 2. 19 Kathleen E. Sheldon, African Women: Early History to the 21st Century (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2017), 1-2. 20 Alois S. Mlambo, A History of Zimbabwe (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 51, 111-2.

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concerning African women. However, these records are mainly of elite women. European traders who landed along the West African coast interacted with African women who frequently controlled access to trade routes and markets. By the mid to late seventeenth century, women in communities along the West African coast had emerged as key figures in the growing international trade networks. Along the coast near Guinea Bissau, including the Cacheu region, women were known to actively export enslaved people and trade items such as ivory, beeswax, animal hides, and kola nuts. They were also known for importing glass beads, brandy, gunpowder, firearms, and iron bars.21

An example of a woman trader was Bibiana Vaz from the Cacheu area. She was the daughter of an African woman and a European man. Bibiana married into a prominent family, the Gomes family. In 1679, the death of her husband prompted her stepson to challenge her as he wanted control of his late father’s commercial interests. Bibiana was successful in protecting her assets. In the 1680s, the mayor of Cacheu attempted to restrict local traders from dealing with Portuguese and European merchants, which was probably meant to curtail women’s power. In response to this, Bibiana allied with her brother and male cousins, and together they launched a protest against the proposed restrictions. Successfully, with the assistance of the local people, they managed to compel the mayor to allow British merchant ships to enter the harbor.22

They held the mayor hostage a few days later, and he remained imprisoned in Bibiana’s residence for fourteen months. However, the mayor escaped and led an inquiry that implicated Bibiana, her brother, and other conspirators. In 1687 they were arrested and sent to Santiago, Cape Verde. Attempts to gain control of her wealth failed as it was later learned that her cousin had taken her goods to Sierra Leone for safekeeping. Babiana and the other conspirators were all granted a royal pardon and made to pay minimal fines. This demonstrated Bibiana and her family's political and economic importance and how they were influential in stabilizing Cacheu and other towns and villages along the coast. She died around 1694 after having been instrumental in protecting the interests of local merchants in opposition to imperial claims by the Portuguese. The primary sources of information for Bibiana were Portuguese reports and trial records that were all written by European men. Despite their efforts to marginalize the role of Bibiana, the story of Bibiana clearly shows that women did have leadership skills, were active businesswomen, and were engaged in the politics of the West African coast. They did not conform to the Portuguese expectations of subservient female behavior. They benefited from cross-cultural personal connections, probable multilingual abilities, acute commercial knowledge, and deep understanding of local political alliances in their efforts to protect and advance their positions, their families’ wealth, and their political independence.23 From an early stage, it is evident that despite living in male-dominated societies, women could exercise agency through participation in markets through formal and informal networks. Such involvement increased women’s bargaining power within their communities.24

In the early nineteenth century, the Lovedu of Southern Africa recognized a woman as a spiritual leader. She was known as the Rain Queen or Mujaji. The first woman who represented the Rain Queen was Dzugudini, who came from the north (now Zimbabwe) around 1600. She was

21 Kathleen E. Sheldon, African Women: Early History to the 21st Century (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University press, 2017), 36-39. 22 Ibid., 38-39 23 Kathleen E. Sheldon, African Women: Early History to the 21st Century (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2017), 36-39. 24 Ibid., 38-39

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recognized as founding the dynastic leadership among the Lovedu people. After two centuries of troubled rule by kings, the elderly male ruler Mugodo decided that his daughter Mujaji was a capable candidate to rule. The appointment of Mujaji was conditional, and her father secretly requested that he sire a child daughter with her. She agreed, and after bearing him a daughter as an heir, she reigned for fifty years and gained a reputation for bringing peace and prosperity to the Lovedu. Her fame as a rainmaker was known throughout southern Africa, and leaders from across the region paid tribute, brought her gifts, and at times sought her hand in marriage. She is known to have protected her people from the Zulu by striking down enemies who attempted to approach the Lovedu realm. The Lovedu were dominantly matrilineal and took special pride in the role of women in their spiritual world and their physical community.25

Southern African communities countered the intensification of colonial control with protests that often found inspiration in religious beliefs and practices. Amongst the Shona community in Rhodesia was a spirit medium known as Charwe. She is well known for having reported that she experienced possession by the female spirit of Nehanda, and this was the birth of her crucial role during the late nineteenth century protest against British colonialism.26 In A History of Zimbabwe, Mlambo describes her prominent role as one of the Shona people's spiritual leaders. Together with her male counterpart Sekuru Kaguvi, they led the famous revolt, the First Chimurenga, against the British colonization of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Mbuya Nehanda and other spirit mediums set a precedent of resistance and coordinated action against foreign rule. Her uprising and defiance of the colonial powers provided martyrs to the anti-colonial cause, and her efforts also mobilized a future cohort of anti-colonial fighters.27 She was an example of how a known spirit could emerge in different circumstances, in this case during the anti-colonial struggle. Prior to colonial infiltration, spirit possession and leadership were normal roles for women as they helped direct their communities’ seasonal round of cultivation. They also consulted about marriage and other family issues and in some cases, they were also councilors to local male chiefs. Nehanda’s story demonstrates how women’s older practices could reappear with a new purpose in the face of oppression. Through her spirituality, she came to be seen as a leader of the Ndebele and Shona resistance to British colonial activities in Zimbabwe. Nehanda was accused of being responsible for the death of an oppressive British colonial official, H. H. Pollard. As a result of these accusations and in addition, she was accused of continually resisting converting to Christianity, this led to her being captured in 1897 and her being hanged in 1898. Her life epitomizes a respected female legendary resistance leader. Her image and name continue to take root in Zimbabwean society as emblematic of a national spirit of independence. In honor of her, streets, hospitals, and other public venues have been named after her.28

The lives of Mujaji and Nehanda exemplify women in positions of leadership who drew from their roles as spiritual authorities. Their leadership was crucial in mobilizing people to recognizing and taking action to change injustices. In African society, a queen of rain is responsible for controlling the clouds and rains. This was a vital role as it ensured the basic needs of humans – water. Mujaji and Nehanda were visionaries whose actions were motivated by the need to bring change, thus exercising their power. In conclusion, these examples illuminate that women’s

25 Kathleen E. Sheldon, African Women: Early History to the 21st Century (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University press, 2017), 87-89. 26 Ibid., 145-146. 27 Alois S. Mlambo, A History of Zimbabwe (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 111. 28Kathleen E. Sheldon, African Women: Early History to the 21st Century (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University press, 2017), 145-148.

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significance was not confined to mythical and spirit domains but that they also played a role in the political arena.

History has mainly focused on documenting the lives of influential women. However, it is important to acknowledge that most women did not hold public influential positions. How did ordinary women respond to being treated as inferior? A colonial official said the following about Shona women: “the downtrodden timid individual she is often supposed to be…. I have found that she has a tongue and knows how to use it.29 Similarly, the Native Commissioner F. W. T. Posset noted the following: “Though the female has always been under legal disabilities, her social position has rarely prevented her from exercising considerable influence over her husband; and her freedom of tongue has enabled her to maintain effectively her position as a wife and a mother.”30 This demonstrates that women did not publicly need to exert their power and influence. Within the privacy of their homes, they could still be influential.

How was gender structured and experienced through patriarchal societies, colonialism, and the rise of capitalism? The colonial rule brought with it new systems of gender relations. Colonialism introduced Christianity whereby women were used as the primary vehicles to be spreading Christianity. Jeanes teachers were an example of missionaries who through their teachings introduced the notion of cleanliness. Lifebuoy Men, Lux Women by Timothy Burke builds upon the notion of cleanliness and civilization and its relationship to hygiene and colonialism in Southern Africa. This led to the colonial production of cleanliness, health, and racialized bodies, a process loaded with powerful images and archetypes and marked by intricate interactions between Africans and white settlers. Burke cites that cleanliness was considered possible only through what one called the "woman factor" and what was also referred to as "rightful bringing up a mission" of African women. The idea was that African women needed to be retrained and then sent back to transform their African households. This notion found its strength in the 1930s with the development of "home demonstrators" initially known as "Jeanes teachers." Women recruited to this school of thought were taught a wide range of life skills; these included maternity work, personal and community hygiene, simple physiology, nursing, and first aid, child welfare, and mothercraft, simple cookery with reference to infants, and invalid diet, dressmaking, simple arithmetic, letter reading, and writing. After their training, they were assigned back to their communities to make the necessary changes. A closer examination of the Jeanes women's work gives an insight into the production of African domesticity through women. Such education programs strived to transform African women's domestic practices and thus reproduce what they regarded as clean and proper-looking African bodies.31

Furthermore, messages communicated through missionary personnel emphasized home life as the center of strength for a nation; these messages reminded girls and women that the nation depended on them. As a result, women were increasingly warned that they needed to embrace the message of domesticity in order for them to succeed. Despite the seemingly negative connotations of women's experiences under the colonial umbrella, these experiences were beneficial as they emancipated and empowered women.32

29 Elizabeth Schmidt, Peasants, Traders and Wives: Shona Women in the History of Zimbabwe, 1870-1939 (Harare: Boabab, 1996), 19. 30 Ibid., 19. 31Timothy Burke, Lifebuoy Men, Lux Women: Commodification, Consumption, and Cleanliness in Modern Zimbabwe (Durham & London: Duke University Press, 1996), 17, 47, 52-53. 32 Ibid., 17, 47, 52-53.

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Other influential royal female figures in Southern Africa included Nandi and Mkabayi of the Zulu empire who played instrumental roles in shaping its political and social structures. During the 19th century, Natal and Zululand were inhabited by different small tribes, each having its leader in the form of an induna.33 Tshaka was one such leader who established the Zulu Kingdom. According to Mazisi Kunene,34 Tshaka, also known as Shaka, was born in 1795 and was a great military genius, a great political organizer, and visionary who revolutionized African warfare on a scale few military strategists have equaled in history. He was known for not only having designed a new weapon, a short spear, but he was also instrumental in improving military concepts and tactics and most significantly created a structured society that survived way long after his assassination. Tshaka was the son of King Senzangakhona and Queen Nandi, both from aristocratic families. His mother, Queen Nandi greatly influenced Tshaka to become one of the most powerful rulers. Kunene argued that Tshaka's driving force in his overpowering and charismatic personality was largely shaped by his mother's turbulent relationship with the king. Queen Nandi was a strong, confident woman who did not shy away from exercising her authority. She had been far from the typical obedient, domesticated, and subservient woman. She regarded herself as a representative of her family, and she felt entitled to respect and political authority as any male member of society. Not only did she attend important meetings/ceremonies, but she was also vocally outspoken and was constantly confrontational with men who were part of the meetings/ceremonies. Therefore, she was seen as a great political force behind Tshaka’s achievement who in her own right was recognized as a strong-willed intelligent woman. Her strong convictions led to the discord between her and Senzangakhona, which eventually led her to divorce the king. Her departure from Zululand affected Nandi and her children since it represented marriage failure to the king. She remarried Prince Ngendeyana, and at that time, Tshaka had now been a young man who found life intolerable as it was not among his father's people. He decided to join the Mthethwa court as a military recruit, and there he had been quickly identified as a knowledgeable young man who rose quickly from a raw recruit to the coveted position of a national hero and commander.35

Poems of praise have been written about Queen Nandi. In a poem that introduced Tshaka’s birth circumstance, the following is an extract from poems acknowledging Nandi’s significance:

We shall turn to the North, which is the source of our life, Where the birthplace of our nation is overhung with trembling shadows. From the womb of Nandi comes the language of their secrets, Quivering on the forehead of him who shall be great. … Senzangakhona, the sone of Jama, ‘the fierce bundle of spears’, Encountered the beautiful one, the Princess Nandi. He said to himself: ‘I shall exalt this woman with the angry ones.’ He spoke of her, Nandi, the daughter of Bhebhe. As she walked, she shook the earth. She was the fear of the timid ones; Of her the royal poets sang:

33 An induna (plural: izinduna) was a man appointed by the Ndebele king to a position of authority or command. After 1894, the role of induna was replaced by less powerful so-called “chiefs” nominated by the settlers. 34 Mazisi Raymond Fakazi Mngoni Kunene was the first poet laureate of the democratic South Africa whose works recorded the history of the Zulu Nation. 35 Mazisi Kunene, Emperor Shaka the Great: A Zulu Epic (Pietermaritzburg, South Africa: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2017), xxvi-xxvii.

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‘Woman of many tongues, inhabiter of the high places of the Assembly.’ She feared no one. She invaded the Assemblies of men and spoke defiantly: “I am the daughter of the Prince of abasemaLangeni clan.”36 These poems vividly describe Queen Nandi, not only was she admired for her physical

beauty, but she was feared and admired for her intelligence. Queen Nandi had to be an important figure for there to be poems about her. Traditional poetry is important as it encompasses valued traditions where traditions were passed orally. Important traditional values and morals were passed down through oral tradition in the form of poetry.

The second influential woman in Tshaka’s life was his paternal aunt, Princess Mkabayi.37 Described as a strong, ruthless, manipulative, yet approachable, allusive, and secretive princess, she was the most influential political figure in Zululand. She played a significant role in the history of the Zulu royal family, deposing and ascending various monarchs to the throne. Her power and influence were felt during the time of great historical importance to the Zulu monarchy. When Senzangakhona was a minor, she had acted as regent. She is most notably known for having collaborated in a plot to assassinate Tshaka, and to this day, she remained condemned for her action. She was one of three daughters from the chieftaincy of Jama in 1771. All three daughters of Jama chose to refrain from matrimonial bonds and became military harems while maintaining their titles as princesses.38 Like Queen Nandi there are poems that have also been written about Mkhabayi’s reputed for her bravery and wisdom in the Zululand. USoqili! Iqili lakwaHoshoza Elidl’umuntu limyenga ngendaba; Lidl’uBhedu ngasezinyangeni, Ladl’uMkhongoyiyana ngasemaNgadini, Ladl’ uBheje ngasezanuseni. UBhuku lukaMenzi, Olubamb’abantu lwabenela; Ngibone ngoNohela kaMlilo, umlil’ ovuth’intaba zonke, Ngoba lumbambe wanyamalala. Inkom’ekhal’ eSangoyana, Yakhal’ umlomo wayo wabhoboz’izulu, Iye yezwiwa nguGwabalanda Ezalwa nguNdaba wakwaKhumalo. Intomb’ ethombe yom’umlomo. Zaze zayihlab’imithanti zawonina. UMthobela-bantu izinyoni, Bayazibamba usezibuka ngamehlo.

Father of guile! Cunning one of the Hoshoza people, Who devours a person tempting him with a story; She killed Bhedu amongst the medicine men, And destroyed Mkhongoyiyana amongst the Ngadini, And killed Bheje amongst the diviners. Morass of Menzi, That caught people and finished them off; I saw by Nohela son of Mlilo, he fire-that-burns-on-every-hill, For it caught him and he disappeared. Beast that bellows at Sangoyana, It bellowed and its voice pierced the sky, It went and it was heard by Gwabalanda Son of Ndaba of Khumalo clan. Maid that matured and her mouth dried up, And then they criticized her amongst old

36 Ibid., 5 37 Mkabayi is also spelt as Mkhabayi. 38Maxwell Z Shamase, “Women King Makers: The Case of Zulu Princess Mkabayi Kajama,” Gender & Behaviour, IFE Centre for Psychological Studies, n.d., pp. 10390-10401, 10391-4, 10400.

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UVula-bangene-ngawo-onk’amasango, Abanikazimuzi bangene ngezintuba. UMcindela kaNobiya, UMhlathuz’ uzawugcwal’ emini. Imbibakazan’ eyaqamb’ imigqa kwaMalandela, Yathi ngabakwaMalandela, Ithi yikhona bezoqananaza ngazo zonk’izindlela

women. Who shoots down birds for her people, As they catch them she is simply watching on. The opener of all main gates so that all people may enter, The owners of the home enter by the narrow side-gates. Sipper of others of the venom of the cobra, The Mhlathuze River will flood at midday. Little mouse that started the runs at Malandela’s, And thought it was the people of Malandela Who would thereby walk along all the paths.

At the beginning of the poem, the word Soqili addressed Mkabayi as an unmarried male of

royal descendants. She was commonly addressed as Baba, which characterized her importance and high standing amongst the Zulu people earning her respect and obedience amongst her people.39 The names of Queen Nandi and Princess Mkabayi were recorded in history as being amongst the great heroines and commanders of the Tshaka era.40

Queen Nandi and Mkabayi were instrumental women whose presence shaped the Zulu monarch through its nation-building. Their leadership positions demonstrated the existence of female dynasties that dominantly influenced the making of kings behind the scenes.

A common denominator ever-present in the stories of these powerful women was the overwhelming evidence of the intersection or rather the interlocking matrix of oppression in their lives. It is evident that Bibiana Vaz's oppression was because of her gender, race, and sex. Of note was the fact that attempts were made to gain control of her wealth and nowhere was it mentioned that the mayor had attempted to obtain the wealth of her brother or other male conspirators. This was compelling evidence highlighting the inequalities that women faced. In addition to gender and sex biases, there was a racial bias through colonial narratives that, in this case, focused on highlighting and portraying her as an oppositional figure. The Rain Queen, also known as Mujaji or Dzugudini, was oppressed because of her sexuality. Despite knowing that Mujaji had the potential to rule the Lovedu people, her father exploited her, and the price she had to pay to lead her people was to sire a daughter with her father. We do not know whether she was immediately able to conceive a daughter, if this was not the case, it meant she was forced into an incestual relationship until she could sire a daughter. In the case of Mbuya Nehanda, her spirituality posed a threat to the British. The imposition whose imposition of colonial rule led to Nehanda being singled out by British authorities, who were threatened by how influential she was among her people. Queen Nandi and Princess Mkhabayi’s authority was questioned because they were women. Queen Nandi’s failed marriage to Tshaka’s father was because she had been a vocal female aristocrat who demanded respect from both men and women. To this day, Princess

39 Maxwell Z Shamase, “Women King Makers: The Case of Zulu Princess Mkabayi Kajama,” Gender & Behaviour, IFE Centre for Psychological Studies, n.d., pp. 10390-10401, 10393-10394. 40 Mazisi Kunene, Emperor Shaka the Great: A Zulu Epic (Pietermaritzburg, South Africa: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2017), 45.

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Mkhabayi is viewed as an evil woman because she was involved in planning the assassination of King Tshaka. However, the important question is that had she been a man, would she not have been the hero involved in the assignation of a king who had become too powerful for his good and the good of his people.

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Chapter Two:

The History of the Ndebele People

According to Ndebele historian Pathisa Nyathi41, the Ndebele of Zimbabwe came into

being around 1821. They were the last to leave Zululand, and their cataclysmic scattering from the south-eastern seaboard of South Africa was known as Mfecane.42 Two theories have been used to explain the Mfecane. The first is that King Tshaka of the Zulu had caused considerable adversity that led to the dispersal of different tribes to circumvent his conquering campaigns. The second theory attributed the Mfecane to economic activities at the Cape and in the Delagoa Bay in Maputo, Mozambique. The need for industrial labor in the Cape had meant that labor had to be obtained from the interior. An additional source of pressure was the slaving activities that had been occurring in the Delagoa area. As a result, African groups found themselves fighting to govern the trade routes to the sea. It was during this time that Mzilikazi, the leader of a group of no more than 500 people, had led them over the Drakensberg Mountains, Izintaba zoKhahlamba. Along the way, he increased his nascent kingdom by incorporating the Sotho/Tswana and the Pedi people he encountered in the Transvaal (now the Gauteng, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga Provinces in South Africa). Finally, Mzilikazi’s people, the Ndebele, found a home in south-western Zimbabwe, where they found the Rozvi State heavily weakened by Queen Nyamazana Dlamini of the Swazi kingdom. Queen Dlamini, who had established a state called Mthwakazi, married Mzilikazi in a strategic alliance to consolidate and strengthen their two empires.43

Through Queen Dlamini, women were made visible in politics. This was a reminder that even though most warlike and supposedly male-oriented societies also had influential and powerful female rulers. Why and how did such powerful women come into power? It is possible that male leaders of empires had to be away fighting to defend their territories continually. These male leaders would also take men from their empires to fight with them. While doing so, they would have entrusted their kingdoms to their nearest female kin. Ordinary men would also have entrusted their households to their closest female kin. Under such circumstances, women's

41 Pathisa Nyathi is a Zimbabwean writer, author and publisher. He is the founder of Amagugu International Heritage Centre in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. He is also the former Secretary-General of the Zimbabwe Writers’ Union. He is known for being an art, culture and heritage protagonist who is very unapologetic about his Afrocentric views and perspectives. He is also a published poet, playwright, historian and biographer. He is a columnist for the Sunday News, Umthunywa, The Sunday Mirror and Sky Host in Zimbabwe. His creative writing appears in the anthology Short Writings from Bulawayo. Source: https://www.africanbookscollective.com/authors-editors/pathisa-nyathi & https://www.pindula.co.zw/Pathisa_Nyathi. 42 Mfecane is a Nguni word that means “Crushing.” It is one of the most controversial topics in the colonial history of Southern Africa. The Mfecane was a catastrophic warfare that erupted during the first half of the nineteenth century (1810-1840). Omer-Cooper defines it as “a violent upheaval of unlimited warfare which spread not only over the greater part of Southern Africa but also vast areas of Central and East Africa.” Mfecane, as other scholars call it Lifaqane, or Difaqane, which are all South African indigenous language terms, refers to a contested historical era characterized by unprecedented violent military conflicts, forced migrations, state formation, and expansionism in South Africa. Source: Source: John D. Omer-Cooper, History of Southern Africa, Second Edition (London: James Currey Publishers, 1994), 52. 43 Pathisa Nyathi, Zimbabwe's Cultural Heritage (Ascot, Bulawayo Zimbabwe:’amaBooks,’ 2005), Ebook location 112-121.

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leadership roles were temporary until their male sons were old enough to take the role of their fathers. Ironically, the rise of powerful male rulers may have fed into the tradition of matrilineal systems.

In contrast, another version of the rise of Mzilikazi argues that Tshaka conquered a group of people under chief Matshobana of the Kumalo clan. Amongst those captured was Matshobana’s son, Mzilikazi. Upon his capture, he was enrolled in Tshaka’s army, where he rose to the position of induna and was placed in command of a military kraal at Gibixegu. In 1822, after a successful raid, he failed to hand over all the cattle he had captured. This was seen as an act of treason and punishable by death. Mzilikazi and his followers set out towards the high lands across the Drakensburg mountains to ensure their survival. An angry and humiliated Tshaka sent his army after Mzilikazi, resulting in a battle that killed many of Mzilikazi’s followers. Mzilikazi continued to be on the run. He and his followers survived by raiding villages for cattle and food and capturing young men who were incorporated into his army.44

Tshaka and Mzilikazi had characteristics of dictators who craved and wanted to maintain absolute power. Therefore, the breakaway of Mzilikazi could not have been a peaceful transition. There is supporting evidence to these views; according to biographer Stuart Cloete, the ill-treatment by other children of his mother's tribe may have encouraged Tshaka's warlike propensities, for, from a young age, he earned himself the name Sigidi which means "a thousand" – meaning he had killed many. At the age of twenty-five, his first act had been to murder his brother, Umtetwa. In 1835, Mr. Nathaniel Isaacs visited him to discuss the affairs of Europe. During their conversations, he confidently said the following "….. There are only two great chiefs on earth, my brother King George, the king of all the whites, and I, Tshaka, am the king of all the blacks."45 Mzilikazi was no different from Tshaka. Reverend David Carnegie, a Scottish missionary stationed in Matabeleland in 1882, described Mzilikazi as a cruel, despotic man with low views of human life and justice. He was well known for exterminating women and men and raising their children for his army.46

A close analysis of the accounts of Isaac mainly showed a two-folded narrative. The first illustrates how African patriarchal systems exercised their power to promote hegemonic masculinity. As leaders of their kingdoms, Tshaka and Mzilikazi held dominant positions in societies that justified the subordination of both men and women. The character description of Tshaka and Mzilikazi demonstrate power dynamics to show how they ruled and treated their people. Secondly, the writers of these accounts were from a colonial perspective with an androcentric worldview that further reinforced gender divisions. According to Coquery-Vidrovitch, the lives and experiences of women were of limited interest to national scholars of history and foreign and native observers. Written views stereotyped women's roles by reducing them to being of menial value.47

Although written sources confirm that Tshaka and Mzilikazi spared girls' lives for military purposes, it is also possible that they were spared for their reproductive power to ensure the continuation of their lineages. It was inevitable that in the battles that Tshaka and Mzilikazi fought,

44 Hilda Kuper, A.J.B. Hughes, and J van Velsen, The Shona and Ndebele of Southern Rhodesia: Hilda Kuper, A J B Hughes, and J Van Velsen (Ethnographic Survey of Africa: Southern Africa), ed. Daryll Forde (London: International African Institute, 1954), 47-48. 45 Stuart Cloete, African Portraits; a Biography of Paul Kruger, Cecil Rhodes, and Lobengula, Last King of the Matabele (Cape Town: Constantia Publishers, 1969), 64. 46 David D. Carnegie, Among the Matabele (London: The Religious Tract Society, 1894), 15-16. 47 Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch, African Women: A Modern History (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1997), 3.

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they lost their warriors/soldiers. The only way to ensure a constant supply of warriors and soldiers would have been to ensure there were women in their kingdoms to bear more children. It is very highly likely that girls and women were made up of a mixture of natives and foreigners who would have been captured or were prisoners of wars, their reason for being saved would have been for their reproductive capabilities. Like in most African societies, women were responsible for producing agricultural commodities that provided food for their families and societies, thereby making them the main agriculturists in their societies.

In some cases, women served as military leaders during the migratory movements of expansionist Zulu factions. In what is now Orange and KwaZulu/Natal, Queen Mma Ntatise or Mmanthatisi (ca1781 – ca1836) was the first wife of chief Mokotjo (who died in 1817), took the regency for her son, then thirteen, at the expense of her brother-in-law, who normally would have inherited this power. Her dominance and leadership enabled her to assert the independence of a group of Tlokwa against Sotho people of southern Africa. Around 1822 she led a resistance against another woman leader, Meseile in what was known as the Battle of the Pots. It was named the Battle of the Pots because of the many kitchen utensils destroyed in the Tlokwa camp. Several years later, her intelligence allowed her to defend her people despite the absence of most of her troops who were fighting elsewhere. She successfully defended her people by lining up an army of women and children with hoe handles instead of spears and straw mats for shields. Mma Ntatise’s reputation earned her the right to maintain a prominent role during the reign of her son. With the coming into power of her son at the age of nineteen, she continued to be instrumental as without literally heading the army, she incontestably directed several of its campaigns. Her legacy inspired tales about her destructive powers.48

In addition to women being military leaders, they also served administrative positions within Lobengula's kingdom. According to Dan Wylie, the isigodlo49 was the pivotal local administration center and an inner cabal of limited access. The king installed two or three royal women alongside the induna yomuzi50 in each town that the king ruled. The royal women's authority was instrumental in linking groups of the king's subjects, thereby neutralizing possible conflict. Their role did not threaten the patriarchal systems since their gender prevented them from taking over the kingship. The most powerful queen of each provincial town was an Unina Womuzi, meaning mother of the homestead. The royal women would discuss important issues with the induna yomuzi as she was almost seen as an equal power to the induna yomuzi51 As Unina Womuzi, royal women in the Ndebele kingdom served an important strategic position, they governed both home and foreign affairs on behalf of the king. At home, their roles were similar to those of an interior minister and provided guidance and expertise to help govern the Ndebele nation to maintain security, peace, and harmony without threatening the rulership of Lobengula. As equivalents of foreign ministers, their role oversaw the governance of both external affairs of the Ndebele kingdom, and they influenced the kingdom's foreign policy and relations. Queen Lozikeyi was an example of a home and foreign affairs leader.

The battle between Tshaka and Mzilikazi gave birth to the Ndebele people. Mzilikazi fought his way through what is known as the Orange Free State and Transvaal en route to his new

48 Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch, African Women: A Modern History (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1997), 39-40. 49 The isigodlo was the king’s private enclosure, where all women of the court slept. Marieke Faber Clarke and Pathisa Nyathi, Lozikeyi Dlodlo: Queen of the Ndebele "A Very Dangerous and Intriguing Woman" (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: AmaGugu Publishers, 2010), 31, 271. 50 induna yomuzi was the town/provincial chief. 51 Mhlagazanhlansi, My Friend Kumalo (Bulawayo: Books of Rhodesia, 1972), 48.

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home. 1838 was the year Mzilikazi finally arrived in the settlement north of the Limpopo River known as Matabeleland and established the Ndebele nation. On his way, Mzilikazi had two wagons that had carried his most valuable belongings. The first wagon carried material wealth that he had looted from the Boer camps and surrounding tribes. The second wagon was even more valuable; it had been the key to continuing his lineage. This wagon carried his son Nkulumana who was expected to take over from his father, and his "great wife" who by default had been expected to bear more children. The remainder of his wives and other women were made to march. Among the straggling crowd of women and children was Lobengula, the son of Mzilikazi by an inferior wife. He walked beside his mother, who carried a still younger child, his sister Ningi on her back.52 Although the role of all other women was underplayed, the survival of his kingdom depended on women's primary function of childbearing and rearing. More importantly, given that this period was the initial building stage of the Ndebele empire, women's reproductive capacities had to be essential. Women would also have been needed to fulfill other day-to-day functions that ensured the survival of Mzilikazi's kingdom.

According to the Rhodesian Ministry of Internal Affairs Annual, Mzilikazi had more than three hundred wives, possibly up to five hundred. Of these, there was a small number that was always in close attendance of Mzilikazi to assist with household matters and assist with decisions in State matters. The remainder of his wives were distributed at kraals throughout the country, from where they could report to the king on affairs in their designated areas. This strategic move ensured no disloyalty from any of the izindunas who may have contemplated rebellion. Ordinary citizens in the Ndebele kingdom acknowledged the importance of an alliance with the king, and therefore fathers offered their daughters to Mzilikazi, which he accepted as this resulted in mutual benefits for the families. The declining years of Mzilikazi’s health saw him being carried about in an old armchair by four Queens. After his death, twelve of the royal widows watched over his decomposing body for eight weeks before the remains were buried in a cave at enTumbane.53 Why were the royal widows given such a task? Was it because there was an element of abusing women or was their presence important to ensure the king was not interrupted on his journey to the afterlife? If this was the case, then the royal women had an important role in safe guarding the passage for the late king to his after-life.

After the death of Mzilikazi on September 6, 1868, Lobengula came into power. There are controversies about how Lobengula became king instead of his brother Nkulumana. These accounts are worth mentioning as they offer readers an insight into some of the roles that royal women played. Months before his death, Mzilikazi had conversations with one of the missionaries endorsing Lobengula as his successor to rule the Matabele kingdom. However, because Mzilikazi had another son from his principal wife, there were debates about who would lead after Mzilikazi. By default, Nkulumana would have been the heir. He was the son of the chief wife, Umoaka, while Lobengula was the son of a minor Swazi foreigner wife, Fulata; she was inferior and therefore not the legitimate heir to the throne. Given that his mother was considered a foreigner, some saw Lobengula as not a pure Zulu, resulting in multiple divisions within the Matabele people.54

Another different version provides an account of Lobengula’s childhood, and this story validates how Lobengula was chosen over Nkulumana to rule the Ndebele people. According to

52 Stuart Cloete, African Portraits; a Biography of Paul Kruger, Cecil Rhodes and Lobengula, Last King of the Matabele (Cape Town: Constantia Publishers, 1969), 72. 53 NADA, The Rhodesia Ministry of Internal Affairs, vol. XI (Salisbury, Rhodesia: Management Committee, 1974), 109-111. 54 J. P. R. Wallis, The Northern Goldfields, Diaries of Thomas Baines (London, 1946), 683-684.

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this account, during one of his raids, Mzilikazi had been killed, and this had supposedly been verified by some Bushmen who claimed they had witnessed the battle that killed Mzilikazi. As a result of this news, there was great trouble among the Ndebele people, who found themselves without a leader. The first wife of Mzilikazi wanted her son Nkulumana to be made chief at once. However, this was not to be as he was deemed too young. In a fury of anger, Mzilikazi’s wife had openly spoken about her hatred for Lobengula. A Dutch girl named Sara had come to rescue the distressed young Lobengula. As a result of her actions, Mzilikazi’s first wife ordered the capture and killing of Sara, but she managed to flee with Lobengula. On her journey through the wilderness of the Matopos, Sarah was spotted by a wizard/witch doctor named Ngwali. Women from Ngwali’s tribe coaxed Sarah and Lobengula with food to convince them to come with them for protection. 55

Sarah and Lobengula stayed among the Ngwali people, with Lobengula growing up and learning much from the witch doctor. Lobengula grew up to be a fearless and wise warrior, and this news traveled far and wide. At this point, information had been received confirming that Mzilikazi was still alive. Umcombate56, Mzilikazi’s regent, was responsible for presenting the long-lost son, Lobengula, to King Mzilikazi. With Mzilikazi’s approval, Lobengula guided the Matabele to a Boer camp to fight his first battle with white men, a significant event as it was his first victory against the Boers.57

The above illuminates how Mzilikazi's principal wife, Umoaka, demonstrated that royal women wielded power, in this case building political agency. She explained that women could exercise political power and participate in and influence royal rulership. Mzilikazi's first wife had attempted to change the leadership structure amongst the Ndebele by taking necessary measures to try and ensure her son Nkulumana would be the heir. The same can be argued for Fulata, the minor wife, who must have wanted Lobengula to be the heir. Therefore, she must have also played a critical role behind the scenes to ensure her son was the chosen king. Even though Fulata was not explicitly discussed in written records, she would have done all in her power to ensure her son's safety as a mother. Therefore, she might have worked with Sarah to ensure the safety of Lobengula. Umoaka and Fulata were two royal women determined to ensure that royal rulership went to their bloodline, thus influencing the political future of the Ndebele Kingdom. As women, their actions shaped the Ndebele kingdom's political arena. In conclusion, closely examining these narratives about Tshaka and Mzilikazi, there is little reference to women. However, that which has been written about women can help tease out women's roles in the Zulu and Ndebele kingdoms.

The death of King Mzilikazi in September 1868 left his state vulnerable. With Nkulumana, the rightful heir, out of the picture, the king’s subjects sought and followed the guidance of the Mwali58 religious institution to advise them on who would be the next ruler of the Ndebele Kingdom. The priests of the Mwali institution wanted Lobengula as king because he was known to the Mwali religious leaders since he had grown up in the Matobo Mountains, were the Mwali

55 Stuart Cloete, Against These Three a Biography of Paul Kruger, Cecil Rhodes and Lobengula, Last King of the Matabele (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1945), 73 - 79. 56 Umcombate was also known as Umgombat, and he was Mzilikazi’s brother. Source: Port Elizabeth Telegraph and Eastern Province Standard (Port Elizabeth, South Africa), October 31, 1885: 1. Readex: World Newspaper Archive. https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/readex/doc?p=WHNPX&docref=image/v2%3A15FD9EDC38E5983F%40WHNPX-161CFDE9F3618C98%402409846-161B94712C60A820%400. 57 Stuart Cloete, Against These Three a Biography of Paul Kruger, Cecil Rhodes and Lobengula, Last King of the Matabele (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1945), 73 - 79. 58 Mwali means The Creator, God.

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religious leaders resided. Moreover, before his death, Mzilikazi had designated Lobengula as his successor, and therefore this strengthened the campaign to throne Lobengula as the next leader. Consultations amongst the leaders of the Ndebele all consented that the second ruler of the Ndebele would be Lobengula.59

Given that Lobengula came into power by being elected by the people instead of inheriting the throne, Lobengula did not possess the same power as his father, Mzilikazi. He earned his power and respect by accusing the old izindunas of crimes such as witchcraft and therefore was able to justify the killing of the old izindunas or anyone who challenged his authority. The riddance of the old izindunas allowed him to appoint new izindunas and strategic leaders who were devoted to his cause. This allowed Lobengula to gain power considerably and naturally rule his kingdom with an iron fist.60 Within the Ndebele society, the elites, patrilineal and patrilocal, made efforts to influence their daughters' future by arranging marriages within their population group. This ensured that patriarchs continued the Zulu tradition of creating a centralized elite whose ascension depended mainly on who married whom. A powerful alliance with a powerful family was needed to strengthen Lobengula’s shaky claim to the throne, which led to the arranged marriage of Lobengula to Lozikeyi, the daughter of the Ngokho Dlodlo.61

Lozikeyi Dlodlo was born around 1855 and became a senior wife of the renowned Ndebele king Lobengula. According to Clarke, the author of Queen Lozikeyi’s autobiography, her marriage to Lobengula in 1880 was driven by the need to form a strong alliance between two powerful families. Their marriage was essential to strengthen Lobengula’s shaky and controversial claim to his throne. The powerful Dlodlo family validated Lobengula by marrying their daughter to Lobengula.62

As an active female ruler with much political influence, Lozikeyi maintained and restored the Ndebele monarchy. Lozikeyi’s responsibilities included preparing medicines, supporting the king, and implementing policies, notably related to women.63 Queen Lozikeyi was influential as she was the intellect behind one of the most potent anti-colonial revolts. As a Ndebele royal woman, she inherited a solid constitutional position from the Nguni royal foremothers in Zululand.64 Lozikeyi became a queen due to her predecessors failing to produce an heir for Lobengula. She came from the Dlodlo family, who were a mighty and influential people when it came to matters of spirituality. They were no strangers to the Ndebele kingdom, as before being king, Mzilikazi had also married a Dlodlo. Lozikeyi became prominent because she was endowed with a unique spirituality that made her an "inyanga."65

Given that Lobengula already had several wives before he became king, naturally, these wives should have given him an heir; however, no heir was sired by his wives. Consequently, a senior queen had to be found elsewhere; this is how Lozikeyi came into the picture. Interestingly,

59 Marieke Faber Clarke and Pathisa Nyathi, Lozikeyi Dlodlo: Queen of the Ndebele "A Very Dangerous and Intriguing Woman" (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: AmaGugu Publishers, 2010), 16, 27. 60 J. Cooper-Chadwick, Three Years with Lobengula: And Experiences in South Africa, vol. 1 (Bulawayo: Books of Rhodesia, 1975), 90. (This is a Facsimile reproduction of the 1894 edition.) 61 Marieke Faber Clarke and Pathisa Nyathi, Lozikeyi Dlodlo: Queen of the Ndebele "A Very Dangerous and Intriguing Woman" (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: AmaGugu Publishers, 2010), 16, 27. 62 Marieke Faber Clarke and Pathisa Nyathi, Lozikeyi Dlodlo: Queen of the Ndebele "A Very Dangerous and Intriguing Woman" (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: AmaGugu Publishers, 2010), 15. 63 Kathleen E. Sheldon, African Women: Early History to the 21st Century (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University press, 2017), 143. 64 Marieke Faber Clarke and Pathisa Nyathi, Lozikeyi Dlodlo: Queen of the Ndebele "A Very Dangerous and Intriguing Woman" (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: AmaGugu Publishers, 2010), 9. 65 An inyanga is a traditional doctor/healer.

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Lozikeyi was not brought to the Ndebele Kingdom to become a senior queen, but her role had been to be an inyanga. There had been efforts to conceal this from Lobengula. Initially an outsider, Xwalile66 had been identified as the senior queen. However, she did not conceive, and once more, Lobengula's kingdom was without an heir.67 From this narrative, it is evident that there might have been fertility issues. Lobengula had several wives who had not been able to conceive, but given that this was a patriarchal system, the blame for infertility could not have been placed on Lobengula; the logical action under a patriarchal system would be to continue searching for more senior wives until an heir was born.

Celt Thomas68 had found it unusual that the king of the Ndebele did not have enough sons to form an army, and as a result, this must have been a disappointment to the Ndebele people. Thomas compared Lobengula and King Sobhuza II, who, at a similar age as Lobengula, had ninety-nine wives and had biologically fathered over 200 children. According to oral traditions, Lobengula had difficulties in siring children. With an area of interest in the history of medicine, a historian, Helen Sweet69, argued that the most probable cause for the royal family's subfertility problem was the king's low sperm count due to gout, a disease Lobengula was known to have suffered. Lobengula's gout diagnosis could not have been verified because the nineteenth-century Ndebele did not have access to medical facilities to test the king's fertility. Furthermore, even if facilities existed to check Lobengula's sperm count, the existing patriarchal systems would have made it easier to blame women for failing to produce children.70 Further evidence exists to confirm that Lobengula might have had fertility issues. Even though Lobengula had 84 wives, he only had eight sons and twenty-four daughters.71 The number of wives Lobengula had cannot be verified. The information provided by the colonial narratives (NADA) differs from those offered by Nyathi, the Ndebele historian. It is interesting to note that Lozikeyi was not mentioned as having been one of Lobengula’s wives.

In analyzing the above, it was evident that the Ndebele King faced difficulties producing an heir to his throne. An important observation to the existing narratives about Lobengula fertility difficulties was notably via histories that conveniently were passed on through oral traditions and conspicuously lacked being recorded as written traditions. In the cases where there was written evidence, it appeared to be vague in acknowledging male fertility issues. Thomas's narrative alludes that Lobengula might have had fertility issues, but this had been carefully worded to merely suggest and not confirm Lobengula's predicament. Such colonial narratives openly promoted hegemonic masculinity that legitimized Lobengula's dominant position (as the King, his authority was endorsed by him, and patriarchal systems blamed their spouses for having fertility issues). Therefore, structures in place in the Ndebele Kingdom justified the subordination of women. Existing historical narratives support colonial and patriarchal systems' intentions to only document information that promoted masculinity and thereby promoted patriarchal systems.

66 Xhwalile was one of Lobengula’s wives. Source: NADA, The Southern Rhodesia Native Affairs Department Annual, ed. E. E. Burke, vol. XI (Salisbury: Management Committee, 1974), 111. 67 Queen Lozikeyi A Larger than Life Character, Queen Lozikeyi A Larger than Life Character (Blue Sky Media, 2021), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smon1POBapc. 68 Celt Thomas, Thomas Morgan Thomas., 73. He was the son of the missionary, Thomas Morgan Thomas 69 Dr Helen Sweet, University of Oxford, Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine. Source: https://oxford.academia.edu/HSweet 70 Marieke Faber Clarke and Pathisa Nyathi, Lozikeyi Dlodlo: Queen of the Ndebele "A Very Dangerous and Intriguing Woman" (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: AmaGugu Publishers, 2010), 38. 71Amakozikazi: NADA Vol XI 1974-78 No. 1, J D White and from Nyathi, Pathisa, Igugu likamthwakazi and personal information from him.

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Another female figure who became a victim of Lobengula's shortcomings was his very own sister, Princess Umcencene. She was the first queen of Bulawayo from 1870-1880. She was well known for leading the Ndebele nation at the iNxwala72 ceremony in 1874. The venue for this ceremony was always the royal town shortly before harvest. It shaped the pinnacle of the integration of religion that had originated from Mzilikazi. It had served the purpose of affirming the king's ritual dominance and showcasing the power of his ancestors. By leading this crucial ceremony, Umcencene pledged her allegiance to the king by carrying on a tradition of obeying the king's will. She conformed to the Zulu and Ndebele traditions that the king's royal women (sisters, wives, and mothers) played a crucial role in supporting the ruler.

Several visitors to Lobengula's court between 1870 and 1880 acknowledged the vital role Umcencene played. Thomas Baines73 described Umcencene as the king's "constant companion, and in some measure at least, counsellor"74 Andrew Anderson, a young settler of Scottish descent who visited Lobengula's royal town in 1877/8, Umcencene "ruled supreme in her brother's court."75 This evidence contradicts colonial narratives that sort to trivialize the role of women by not writing about women and their roles within the Ndebele Kingdom.

As part of Lobengula's inner circle, she was privy to the most confidential information. On the 11th of August 1871, Thomas Baines and John Lee, who served as the king's credible adviser on the critical south-western frontier, and in this particular case, the interpreter was, requested to present themselves as his homestead; only Mncengence was allowed to be present during the meeting.76 In the Ndebele kingdom, control of powerful transport was a privilege and status symbol only a few had, and it was highly gendered. Mncengence was the only woman known to have owned a wagon during Lobengula’s reign. She was known for making a public scene by flaunting her wagon, permitting herself to be royally drawn out by about fifty men with songs and shouts into the king’s homestead.77

However, his close relationship with his sister was affected by witchcraft accusations. When Lobengula’s senior wives could not produce children, Princess Mncengence was blamed for their childlessness. She was accused of having bewitched the king and his queens to prevent Lobengula having heirs. The events of the years of 1879-1881 were pivotal in the accusations laid

72 The iNxwala was the most important religious ritual practiced under the Ndebele kingdom. It has spiritual, economic, political, social and historical dimensions all rolled in one ceremony. Of importance to the ceremony was the regeneration, revival, rejuvenation of the nation as represented by and symbolized through the person of King. Source: Marieke Faber Clarke and Pathisa Nyathi, Lozikeyi Dlodlo: Queen of the Ndebele "A Very Dangerous and Intriguing Woman" (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: AmaGugu Publishers, 2010)Ndebele "A Very Dangerous and Intriguing Woman" (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: AmaGugu Publishers, 2010), 271 and https://www.pressreader.com/zimbabwe/chronicle-zimbabwe/20210602/281552293833983 73 Thomas Baines was an English artist, explorer, and naturalist. In 1868 he led an expedition to explore the Goldfields of Matabeleland. In 1870 he was awarded a mining concession from Lobengula. To be granted a mining concession, he had to have met with Lobengula. Source: “Thomas Baines,” Encyclopedia Britannica (Encyclopedia Britannica, inc.), accessed February 23, 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Baines. 74 Wallis John Peter Richard, The Matabele Mission. A Selection from the Correspondence of John and Emily Moffat, David Livingstone and Others, 1858-1878. Edited by J.P.R. Wallis. with Portraits and a Map. (London: Chatto & Windus, 1945). 75 Andrew A. Anderson, Twenty-Five Years in a Waggon in the Gold Regions of Africa (London: Chapman and Hall, 1887), 205. 76 Wallis John Peter Richard, The Matabele Mission. A Selection from the Correspondence of John and Emily Moffat, David Livingstone and Others, 1858-1878. Edited by J.P.R. Wallis. with Portraits and a Map. (London: Chatto & Windus, 1945). 670. 77 Henry Sparke Stabb and Edward C. Tabler, To the Victoria Falls via Matabeleland; the Diary of Major Henry Stabb, 1875 (Cape Town: Struik, 1967), 96.

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against Princess Mncengence. It was significant because Lobengula was approaching fifty years of age with no son to inherit his state. In addition, ongoing wars and revolts with the British forces and Shona tribes were all cause for concern. If the Ndebele kingdom went to war would they and their king survive? The news of the annihilation of the Zulu army under King Cetshwayo, a powerful ruler of 300,000 people was particularly a cause for concern. Word had been that the war was inevitable, the British forces who had defeated Cetshwayo would be declaring war on Matabeleland, the home of Lobengula.78 All these events must have meant the issue of an heir was at its most critical stage. A solution had to be found at whatever cost, this must have made Lobengula gullible to believe whatever his advisors and those surrounding him had to say.

Lobengula had consulted one of his diviners named Gulukudwana Zondo79 to find out why despite him having many wives he did not have any children. Zondo had informed Lobengula that his lack of having children was a result of being bewitched by his sister the Royal Princess. Upon the verdict of witchcraft charges, Lobengula gave orders for the killing of his sister.80 Not only had the Royal Princess been accused of preventing Lobengula and his wives from having children, but she was also accused of bewitching Lobengula’s latest wife’s child and causing the child to be stillborn. This information was used to convict the Royal Princess of witchcraft, because she was causing “bareness” amongst the queens, she was a dangerous threat to the already vulnerable Ndebele kingdom.81

From the above, it is evident that Umcencene was powerful. Not only was she a threat to the throne, but she was also a threat to the influential advisors to the throne. If Lobengula died, she would have been next in line to take the throne. Was the official reason for her execution have been to appease Lobengula and his leaders? What was the real reason for the killing of Princess Umcencene? It is very likely that her execution was because she posed as a threat, she was a woman who could influence Lobengula, worse still if she came into power, they would have to report to her, this would have been an unusual dynamic given that the Ndebele was a patriarchal system.

Another possible reason was Umcencene also posed as a threat to the Ndebele kingdom was her close association with the white settlers. As the daughter of a Ndebele king, she was allowed to choose her own husband. 82 Her notable choice of men were the English men who visited the country. She had been known to revel in the company of white men with whom she flirted with. In some cases, she even went to the extent of championing for them if they got into trouble. In 1875 she was thought to have “a tender passion” for the well-established hunter and trader George Arthur (“Elephant”) Phillips. She had made it no secret that she desired to wed a European, she had gone so far as to consult an English trader, Tainton about a possible match with one of Queen Victoria’s sons.83

78 Marieke Faber Clarke and Pathisa Nyathi, Lozikeyi Dlodlo: Queen of the Ndebele "A Very Dangerous and Intriguing Woman" (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: AmaGugu Publishers, 2010), 38. 79 Zondo was King Lobengula’s chief induna or Intelligence officer. Zondo was very privy to the affairs of the Ndebele people as he had counselled Tshaka and then had travelled north with Mzilikazi. 80 Marieke Faber Clarke and Pathisa Nyathi, Lozikeyi Dlodlo: Queen of the Ndebele "A Very Dangerous and Intriguing Woman" (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: AmaGugu Publishers, 2010), 39-40. 81 H. Vaughan-Williams, A Visit to Lobengula in 1889 (Glasgow: Robert MacLehose & Company Limited, 1947), 114. 82 Pathisa Nyathi, per communication. Daughters of King Mzilikazi were allowed to choose their own husbands. 83 Henry Sparke Stabb and Edward C. Tabler, To the Victoria Falls via Matabeleland; the Diary of Major Henry Stabb, 1875 (Cape Town: Struik, 1967), 95-96.

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Not only was the Royal Princess powerful in her own right, especially with the potential of leading the Ndebele kingdom if something happened to Lobengula. She was a threat because she had tended to enjoy close interactions with the white settlers. White settlers and visitors were often considered enemies especially given the pending war with the British forces. Could her “sleeping with the enemy” have incensed the Ndebele advisors and led them to plot her downfall? Did Lobengula feel threatened that his sister posed a threat as her coming into power would have ensured the end of his lineage? All these questions lead to one probable answer, the patriarchal power structures within the Ndebele kingdom felt politically threatened by a powerful woman and a befitting accusation was that of witchcraft, which led to the execution of the Royal Princess Umcencene. The diviners, izindunas, and Lobengula likely felt intimidated by Umcencene, and they successfully plotted to remove the "perceived" threat. If Lobengula had not ordered Umcencene's execution, the power structure and decisions within the Matabele kingdom could have been altered. It was possible that Umcencene could have ruled the Matabele kingdom, a move that would have continued to be unwelcome as it was bound to upset the patriarchal and political structure of the Ndebele kingdom.

Why were witchcraft allegations used to destroy such a powerful woman? This was because of the gender connotation surrounding witchcraft. History has shown that women were typically assumed to be guilty of practicing witchcraft, while men were mostly the victims. The relationship between the sexes can be viewed through the lenses that reveal a concealed misogyny. In his book, Witchcraft in France and Switzerland, E. William Monter argued that “witchcraft accusations could best be understood as projections of patriarchal social fears onto atypical women.”84 Witch persecutions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries became crucial subjects in women’s history. An estimated eighty percent of victims accused of practicing witchcraft were women. Historians interpreted the witch craze as the result of religion. A closer look at the roles played by women in early modern society portrays them as women who served as healers, midwives, and counsellors by using age-old combination of experience and magical techniques to cure and advise.85 In an African context, enthusiasts of African indigenous religions were repeatedly victims of violence by Christian and Islamic fundamentalists. In its extreme form, this fundamentalism was demonstrated in the case where women fell victims by being accused of being witches. One area that saw an intersection was the fundamentalisms of Muslim, Christian, and indigenous religions/beliefs, which were responsible for witchcraft accusations against women.86

Powerful women who posed as a threat by directly or indirectly questioning male authority or deviating from traditionally prescribed roles were at risk of witchcraft accusations, and the Princess Royal was a good example. Witchcraft was taken very seriously amongst the Ndebele people. Vaughan-Williams dedicated a chapter to discussing witchcraft beliefs among the Matabele people. Witchcraft played a central role in the daily lives of the Matabele people and was understood as a scourge and a curse. Anything that went wrong was blamed on witchcraft. Good

84 E. William Monter, “Witchcraft in France and Switzerland: The Borderlands during the Reformation.,” International Trends: The Witch “She”/ The Historian “He” : Gender and the Historiography of the European 8, no. 3 (1976), https://doi.org/https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9780203055830-4/international-trends-witch-historian-gender-historiography-european-brian-levack?context=ubx. 85 Anne Llewellyn Barstow, “On Studying Witchcraft as Women’s History a Historiography of the European Witch Persecutions,” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 4, no. 2 (1988): pp. 7-19, https://doi.org/https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/25002078, 7-8. 86 Nwando Achebe and Claire Cone Robertson, eds., Holding the World Together: African Women in Changing Perspective (Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2019), 112 - 113.

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spirits did not exist as there were only evil spirits. There was no such thing as natural death as someone had always to have caused death. The culprits had to be smelt out by witchdoctors and executed for their treacherous actions. Three types of witch doctors existed. The highest of these were linked to the great Mlimo87 of the Matopos. They were permanent residents of the King’s Kraal. With Lobengula, they were the head rainmakers and performed secret rites in the sacred enclosure at the back of Lobengula’s wagons. Lobengula himself was the chief rainmaker. The second group were the ones who smelt out witches. They were often vile, evil-looking men who were called in sickness, death, or misfortune. During a witch-hunting ceremony, they would dance in front of inhabitants of the kraal until they stopped in front of their supposed witch. The least harmful of the witchdoctors used bones to predict events. Unfortunately, the wrong prediction to the King or chief indunas meant they were killed.88 An interesting question that arises from this is whether the witch doctors were men or women. They were likely women who would be used to “hunt out” those accused of practicing witchcraft. Alternatively, could it be that when it came to witchcraft hunting, did Lobengula intentionally choose to use male witchdoctors? Either way, women became victims of masculinity gender systems that perceived them as a threat and made sure they had policies to manage and exterminate perceived threats.

Lobengula used the belief in witchcraft to instill fear among his people. Anyone who threatened his power or offended him would be accused of witchcraft with the ultimate sentence of death. Vaughan-Williams narrates the following terrifying experience: “While I was at the King’s Kraal, it was estimated that at least eighty were killed in the village to the northeast of the kraal. Judging by the awful noises, yells, and beating of drums we heard at night, I should have thought there were more…… All these gruesome affairs were taken as a matter of course by the natives, who appeared the next day as if nothing had happened.”89 Lobengula was known to wipe out anyone who posed a threat to his leadership. However, he is also known to have pardoned young girls from those kraals that were wiped out. Lobengula kept these girls so they would be his wives.90 In a society with no tolerance for anyone accused of witchcraft, the saving of young girls must have been significant, given Lobengula's intolerance for "witches." This was evidence that while young girls were valuable to the Ndebele Kingdom, some, such as his sister, posed a threat.

Witchcraft served as a way of illuminating women’s agency and influence. The fact that plans were hatched to eliminate influential and feared women in society illustrates that women had some power and leverage, which has been overlooked in historical narratives. What was the significance of witchcraft? According to Mufuzi, witchcraft in Africa is classified into four main categories: offensive, defensive, communicative, and divination.91 Why were women vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft? Amongst many societies’, witches were exclusively women. Women brought their matrilineal alien powers to their husband’s lineage. Their alien spirits threatened the strength of their husband’s ancestral spirits. Such threats were viewed as evil and blamed on the women (wives) outsiders because of their structural position in exogamous, virilocal marriages.

87 Mlimo was the Ndebele people’s spiritual/religious leader. 88 H. Vaughan-Williams, A Visit to Lobengula in 1889 (Glasgow: Robert MacLehose & Company Limited, 1947), 125-127. 89 H. Vaughan-Williams, A Visit to Lobengula in 1889 (Glasgow: Robert MacLehose & Company Limited, 1947), 126. 90 Ibid., 125-127 91 F Mufuzi, “The Practice of Witchcraft and the Changing Patterns of Its Paraphernalia in the Light of Technologically Produced Goods as Presented by Livingstone Museum, 1930s-1973,” Zambia Social Journal 5, no. 1 (2014).

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Acknowledging women as being responsible for witchcraft was an admission of the very real power they possessed despite their official status as jural minors. Even after marriage, the concept of an outsider ensured that women remained vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft and were an easy scapegoat for family crises. More specifically, as a “stranger” in her husband’s family whose primary job description was to produce children for his lineage, women who failed to give birth, who produced sickly children, or whose children consistently died in infancy where particularly vulnerable to witchcraft accusations.92

The authors of Witchcraft in the 20th and 21st Centuries in Nigeria noted that both Islam and Christianity endorsed the presence of witchcraft as their leaders used this to create tension and fear in the minds of people. Furthermore, they traced the reason behind witchcraft practices to various factors such as domestic tension, jealousy, and egotism.93 Could witchcraft have been the worldview of early missionaries? The views of early missionaries were distorted by their prejudices. They found the traditional African kinship model and methods of upbringing incompatible with Christianity. They also accentuated women’s supposed “licentiousness and shamelessness… and the atrocious disorderliness into which {each woman} throws herself entirely.” This image was based on Christianity, precisely the Catholic notion of woman as demoniacal seductress and tool of Satan.

Furthermore, colonial novels depicted African women as impure and hedonistic.94 To curb and control women, in 1890, the British South Africa Company (BSAC) established the Witchcraft Suppression Act, which criminalized those purporting to practice witchcraft. This law also gave rights for hunting witches and soliciting persons to name witches.95 Another example is from the Rhodesia Herald of August 19, 1896, “It is reported that the celebrated witch doctress of Mazoe has been caught and brought in by the Jesuit…. of the Chishawasha Mission Station. Friendly natives state the good lady was there with the object of poisoning the small garrison.”96 Another newspaper article also reported the following “A further message from the Native Commissioner says that spies report native dances and witch doctoring are being held at surrounding kraals.”97 These narratives were in line with efforts to curb and control women in the 1890s.

92 Elizabeth Schmidt, Peasants, Traders and Wives: Shona Women in the History of Zimbabwe, 1870-1939 (Harare: Boabab, 1996), 17-18. 93 M.S Jayeola-Omoyemi, E.M Oyetade, and J Omoyemi, “Witchcraft in the 20th and 21st Centuries in Nigeria: An Analysis,” European Scientific Journal 11, no. 28 (October 2015). 94 Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch, African Women: A Modern History (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1997), 45. 95 Oyekan Owomoyela, Culture and Customs of Zimbabwe (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002), x. 96“Local and General,” Rhodesia Herald (Published as The Rhodesian Herald), August 19, 1896, pp. 2-2, https://infoweb-newsbank-com.proxy.lib.miamioh.edu/apps/readex/doc?p=WHNPX&t=pubname%3A12DCFE9128E23F60%21Rhodesia%2BHerald&sort=YMD_date%3AA&fld-base-0=alltext&val-base-0=witch&fld-nav-0=YMD_date&val-nav-0=&docref=image/v2%3A12DCFE9128E23F60%40WHNPX-12F3B8F1C1DFDFA8%402413791-12F3262C5AC63B98%401-12F3262C5AC63B98%40&firsthit=yes, 2. 97 “Guns Wanted to Attack Sigala,” Rhodesia Herald (Published as The Rhodesia Herald.), October 21, 1896, pp. 4-4, https://infoweb-newsbank-com.proxy.lib.miamioh.edu/apps/readex/doc?p=WHNPX&t=pubname%3A12DCFE9128E23F60%21Rhodesia%2BHerald&sort=YMD_date%3AA&fld-base-0=alltext&val-base-0=witch&fld-nav-0=YMD_date&val-nav-0=&docref=image/v2%3A12DCFE9128E23F60%40WHNPX-12F3B90A6340B438%402413854-12F3262C71097780%403-12F3262C71097780%40&firsthit=yes, 4.

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Women within the Ndebele Kingdom

As in all heathen countries, the women are the drudges of the men, so is this true in a unique sense in this land.”98

In his diary, Lieutenant-General Vaughan-Williams provided an account of his visit to

Gubulawayo99 to meet Lobengula. Lobengula did not live in Gubulawayo except in summer, he spent most of his time at what was known as the King’s Kraal, some seven miles north, with his favorite wives.100 Why did Lobengula enjoy spending time with his wives? From the narrative, one can deduce that women were integral in Lobengula’s day-to-day life. Lobengula may have treated his wives as confidantes who, through close and intimate interactions, might have influenced the way he ruled his kingdom, making his wives an essential catalyst within the Ndebele society. Spending time with his wives may have also meant providing companionship, emotional, spiritual, and physical needs.

Like his father, Lobengula practiced polygamy with 84 wives.101 Having many wives meant that women were responsible for uniting families within their society through their offspring. Their presence also enhanced collaboration between families, consequently improving social integration. Within the Southern African context, being in a polygamous relationship meant Lobengula ensured the continuation of his lineage. Children were the most important and powerful source of wealth in southern African culture. In a collective society, these children were expected to take care of their parents and their younger siblings. The girl child meant a father was guaranteed wealth as he earned a bride price when he married his daughters. His sons would marry wives who would continue the vital cycle – produce children and take care of these children, provide labor, and provide conjugal rights.

What about the role of ordinary women within the Ndebele kingdom? A specific example was, “When beer brewing is a-going, and it is pretty frequent after a good harvest of Kaffir corn, thirty or forty young girls start at early dawn for the distant hills, perhaps six miles away, with axes and bark twine to gather sticks to cook the beer with.”102 Women’s daily routine involved providing water and firewood for their families. Other significant duties carried out by women included agricultural activities to ensure food supplies for their families. Women and girls were also responsible for producing and taking care of children.103

Lieutenant-Colonel H. Vaughan-Williams recalled his encounters with women in Lobengula’s Kingdom. After having dinner with Lobengula, he had asked for permission to visit some of his wives. During his visit only fifteen wives had been present as the rest were said to be out working on Lobengula’s lands in different districts. He had learnt that his wives were responsible for one of the King’s most valuable assets, his 150,000 head of cattle. Vaughan-

98 David D. Carnegie, Among the Matabele (Westport, Connecticut: Negro Universities Press, 1970), 80. 99 Now known as Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city 100 H. Vaughan-Williams, A Visit to Lobengula in 1889 (Glasgow: Robert MacLehose & Company Limited, 1947), 96-98. 101 Appendix 1 entitled King Lobengula’s Wives: Marieke Faber Clarke and Pathisa Nyathi, Lozikeyi Dlodlo: Queen of the Ndebele "A Very Dangerous and Intriguing Woman" (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: AmaGugu Publishers, 2010), 241-250. 102. David D. Carnegie, Among the Matabele (Westport, Connecticut: Negro Universities Press, 1970), 80 103 Ibid., 80-85

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Williams described how all work on the lands was the sole responsibility of women. After having witnessed the role of women, he summarized them as follows: “women, after marriage, were just treated as chattels, to work and breed.”104 In contrast, it is arguable that Lobengula’s wives also led a pampered life despite their day-to-day roles. Vaughan-Williams had offered one of Lobengula’s wife beer and her response had been as follows: “I want champagne!”105 It turned out that most travelers had often presented gifts of champagne and therefore they had grown accustomed to the finer things in life such as champagne. Negative colonial views of women were ever present, Vaughan-Williams had described the women in Lobengula Kraal as: “Some of the Queens are quite decent looking, not like the ordinary Matabele women, who were ugly. Most were of a light bronzy color but fat. Perhaps they washed more than the other women”106. Such descriptions and views of African women are commonplace in literature by European travelers during the colonial period. These views are distorted as they compare the African women they encountered to their European views of white femininity. Despite the negativity surrounding the description of women, examining how European visitors, such as how Vaughan-Williams, chronicled the lives of women, it is evident that women were active and essential despite being denied a place in history. By reading against the grain of what Vaughan-Williams chronicled, women’s agency was present in the Ndebele Kingdom.

Marriage for women was seen as a tool that ensured they were conduits of a relationship rather than partners. The marriage ceremony known as lobola, rovoro, or roora confirmed a man acquired rights over the bride’s reproductive capacity to claim patrilineage of any children she might produce. The newly married bride joined her husband’s household as the member with the lowest status, and thus her duty was to perform the menial tasks under the supervision of her husband, his mother, his sisters, and senior wives. Although she lived amongst her husband’s relatives, she remained an outsider. She did not join her husband’s clan but retained that of her natal family.107 Women were also seen as a financial asset as they were valued in bride prices. Marriage was often a matter of compulsion as their marriage brought wealth to the bride's father. The successful husband was often the highest bidder and not one of selection or affection.108 After marriage, an additional duty of women was to ensure the succession of the lineage of the Matabele people as the primary catalyst in reproduction. Thus, it was natural that upon marriage, women were looked upon to bear children, especially sons, as these ensured the continuation of the Matabele lineage. Although women were subjected to a subordinate position and reduced to reproduction duties, men relied on women to legitimize their identities. Women were essential in the planning, decision-making, and development of the Ndebele society.

In some cases, by default of them being women and their position in society, they had to practice celibacy to protect their communities. In some instances, celibacy was necessary to ensure the continuation of lineages and protect the Ndebele kingdom. Abstinence was essential to fulfill some critical traditional beliefs. Fasting in the form of celibacy was practiced as a status symbol among royal women”109 The Royal Princess Umcencene had been required to be ritually celibate

104 H. Vaughan-Williams, A Visit to Lobengula in 1889 (Glasgow: Robert MacLehose & Company Limited, 1947), 106. 105 Ibid., 106 106 Ibid., 106. 107 Elizabeth Schmidt, Peasants, Traders and Wives: Shona Women in the History of Zimbabwe, 1870-1939 (Harare: Boabab, 1996), 17-18. 108 David D. Carnegie, Among the Matabele (Westport, Connecticut: Negro Universities Press, 1970), 80-85. 109 Marieke Faber Clarke and Pathisa Nyathi, Lozikeyi Dlodlo: Queen of the Ndebele "A Very Dangerous and Intriguing Woman" (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: AmaGugu Publishers, 2010), 34.

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during periods she had been required to make war medicines for the Ndebele Kingdom. She was also expected to be ritually celibate during the ceremony of installing a new king. During the ceremony, the king was required to lie with his sisters, who were expected to refrain from sexual intercourse, which was believed to make the king barren.110

Several young girls had visited Vaughan-Williams expedition camp under the guise of selling mealies or kaffir corn, however, their real agenda had been to offer their bodies to the King’s visitors. Vaughan-Williams believed that some white men could not resist the young girls and therefore had slept with the girls. “Unmarried Matabele girls were allowed the greatest liberty by Lobengula. His justification had been that their bodies belonged to them, and so they were entitled to do as their pleased. However, this lasted for as long as they were single, once married, their bodies had belonged to their husbands.”111 Upon marriage, infidelity was treated as an immorality and was punishable by death. Mrs. Colenbrander, the wife of Johan Colenbrander112 came to stay with her husband and had asked Lobengula why he allowed his native girls to sleep with white men. Lobengula’s humorous response was: “If I stop these native girls sleeping with the white men, and you are the only white woman up here, do you think you could cope with all the white men? Mrs. Colenbrander’s silence served as a response to Lobengula’s question.113

Within the Ndebele Kingdom, women were strategically allowed to marry white settlers. Lobengula was known to arrange marriages between white men and Ndebele women. Two examples of arranged marriages were between a slave girl and Johnny Halyet, a Yorkshire builder whom Lobengula employed. The second was the arranged marriage between a trader/interpreter W. F, Usher, and Mzondwasi, the daughter of an induna.114 This evidence confirms that women had sexual choice before marriage and even after marriage. This freedom of choice enabled women to make decisions about their bodies. It also meant they could use their sexuality to influence decision-making processes. Lobengula used women’s agency by steering them in strategic positions where they could report to him. It was no coincidence that Lobengula and Lozikeyi developed a new gender policy that allowed Ndebele girls and white men to intermarry. Women were helpful in developing and strengthening bonds between the Ndebele and the newcomers. This would have enriched the Ndebele patriarchs and most certainly would have increased the king’s popularity.

110 Marieke Faber Clarke and Pathisa Nyathi, Lozikeyi Dlodlo: Queen of the Ndebele "A Very Dangerous and Intriguing Woman" (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: AmaGugu Publishers, 2010), 34. Footnote 22: Dambiso Dungeni, quoted in cobbing thesis, 283. This has not been corroborated. 111 H. Vaughan-Williams, A Visit to Lobengula in 1889 (Pietermaritzburg: Shuter and Shooter, 1947), 100. 112 Colenbrander (1885-1918). He arrived at Bulawayo in September 1888, spoke isiZulu fluently. He won and retained the confidence of King Lobengula and Queen Lozikeyi. He was the key witness and sometimes unacknowledged informant for Europeans who visited Lobengula’s court. 113 Ibid., 101 114 Marieke Faber Clarke and Pathisa Nyathi, Lozikeyi Dlodlo: Queen of the Ndebele "A Very Dangerous and Intriguing Woman" (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: AmaGugu Publishers, 2010), 55. Footnote: Kerr, Montagu, The Far interior, (sections are in Mathers, Zambezia.) p.105. Interview of James User, their son, at the Bulawayo Pioneer Society. Thanks to Paddy Vickery.

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Queen Lozikeyi: The most influential woman in the Ndebele Kingdom

“So (our people) decided to follow our conventional wisdom of learning the witch/wizard’s way in order to survive his/her threat. So we went to school and churches to learn their tools, tricks

and ways of survival so that, armed with that knowledge, we could at least learn how to live with them, and hopefully defeat them and take back our land.”115

Queen Lozikeyi remains one of the few women leaders who has had a biography written

about her. Her biography breaks historical barriers that have overshadowed and undermined the nature and extent of women’s power in the Ndebele Kingdom and the whole of Southern Africa. Lozikeyi’s story is essential for understanding the political, social, religious, and economic dimensions that shaped the Ndebele Kingdom. To maintain power through patrilineal and patrilocal, the Ndebele elite like Lobengula continued the Zulu traditions of creating centralized arranged marriages to maintain aristocratic or royalized lineage. Therefore, Lozikeyi Dlodlo was a perfect candidate given that she was a Ndebele royal woman who had inherited a solid constitutional position from the Nguni royal foremothers in Zululand.116

King Lobengula was the second and last King of the Ndebele kingdom, who dominated in the northern part of Rhodesia, now known as Zimbabwe. King Lobengula is an essential figure in Zimbabwe’s history. He was the last of the Zulu chieftains to make a stand for black independence by spearheading primary resistance campaigns against the British colonial rule in the 1893 Anglo-Ndebele war against the British South Africa Company’s (BSAC) overwhelming military force. He is well known for having been deceived into signing the Rudd Concession in 1888, an agreement that virtually surrendered his powers to Cecil John Rhodes, a British imperialist, businessman, and politician who played a dominant role in driving the annexation of vast lands in southern Africa. The Rudd Concession, signed on October 30, 1888, enabled Rhodes to make treaties, pass laws, and exercise policy powers over the “native” population. British occupation began with the arrival of the Rhodes-sponsored Pioneer Column in 1890, marking the beginning of a ninety-year-long colonial dispensation that saw the gradual expansion of a white settler population and the development of a modern economy based mainly on mining and agriculture that was heavily dependent on cheap African labor. King Lobengula vanished after a disastrous clash between his fierce “native” warriors and the colonists of Cecil Rhodes. The battle ensured that Rhodesia was occupied by white men bringing down white settlers’ last barrier to their march across Africa.117

After her husband's disappearance, Queen Lozikeyi, remained a power in the land and took it upon herself to speak for the Ndebele people. During the 1896 Uprisings, she was consulted by the Ndebele people and chiefs as a woman of considerable importance and a large measure of

115 Ntini, Melwa, interviewed in 1980 by Sibanda, Eliakim, cited in his thesis, and quoted by Urban-Mead, Wendy, thesis, p.97. Source: Marieke Faber Clarke and Pathisa Nyathi, Lozikeyi Dlodlo: Queen of the Ndebele "A Very Dangerous and Intriguing Woman" (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: AmaGugu Publishers, 2010), 201.116 Marieke Faber Clarke and Pathisa Nyathi, Lozikeyi Dlodlo: Queen of the Ndebele "A Very Dangerous and Intriguing Woman" (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: AmaGugu Publishers, 2010), 22-25. 117 Stanlake Samkange, On Trial For My Country (London: Heinemann, 1969).

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influence. She is also said to have supplied the Ndebele armed forces with guns from Lobengula’s armory. She was a contributor to the welfare of the local people.118

Zimbabwean historian Pathisa Nyathi provided a detailed account of the events that led to Lozikeyi Dlodlo becoming the queen of the Ndebele. Lozikeyi was born in 1855 and had a biological and cultural father119. Her cultural father was Ngokho Dlodlo. Her biological father was known as Tshotsha and was a twin brother of Ngokho. Tshotsha and Ngokho were likely identical twins, and they both married oMatshabalala. Upon Ngokho's death, as per Ndebele tradition, Tshotsha then married his late brother's wife, oMatshabalala. Out of this union, a child was born, Lozikeyi Dlodlo. According to Ndebele tradition, because Matshabalala was Ngokho's wife, even though the brother biologically fathered the child, the child would be the child of Ngokho.120 Lozikeyi came to the Ndebele kingdom as an inyanga. The failure to produce an heir by Lobengula’s senior wives meant a new senior wife had to be found elsewhere and conveniently, Lozikeyi being already in the Ndebele kingdom meant she became the queen. As she was an inyanga, she had to be celibate and therefore did not have a sexual relationship with Lobengula. The Dlodlos brought a surrogate wife to conceive on her behalf; the gynecological intervention was performed by another inyanga, Sidhambe. According to the Ndebele culture, the child conceived was named after the inyanga who performed gynecological intervention.121

During Lobengula’s rule, Queen Lozikeyi served in strategic positions that allowed her to interact with the Ndebele people and white settlers. The following is a quote from one missionary who interacted with her: "Queen Lozikeyi, as the king's favorite, was a power in the land until his death and afterward."122 At the beginning of 1890, she was the right hand to King Lobengula, efficiently providing support to the Ndebele Kingdom. According to Nyathi, Lozikeyi was being inducted for the time, when and if the king were to die, she would take over constitutional power. After the death of Princess Mncengence, Queen Lozikeyi led the Ndebele people to the iNxwala.123

King Lobengula entrusted Queen Lozikeyi to watch over the Europeans visiting his royal town. She was tasked as an immigration officer to oversee the comings and goings of Europeans visiting Lobengula. Queen Lozikeyi used her influential position to gain favor from the Europeans visiting Lobengula’s kingdom. In 1888, a concession hunter described Lozikeyi as follows “The Mother of the Town controlled their rations: Old (Lozikeyi) ‘was the queen of Bulawayo. She undertook to look after you... she always expected something in return …”124 By entrusting Lozikeyi with the above influential position, it shows us that Queen Lozikeyi was intelligent and competent enough to hold such a high political position.

She was also responsible for interactions with missionaries. Following in the footsteps of Lobengula, she sought the help of missionaries. According to Nyathi, she exuded political intelligence by accepting western culture and civilization such as Christianity and education. Her strategy was that to defeat the enemy, and one had to understand their culture. This demonstrates

118 Faber Clarke and Pathisa Nyathi, Lozikeyi Dlodlo: Queen of the Ndebele (Erscheinungsort nicht ermittelbar: AmaGugu Publishers, 2011), 9-10. 119 A cultural father is an equivalent of a surrogate father. 120 Queen Lozikeyi A Larger than Life Character, Queen Lozikeyi A Larger than Life Character (Blue Sky Media, 2021), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smon1POBapc. 121 Interview with Pathisa Nyathi, February 26, 2022. 122 Marieke Faber Clarke and Pathisa Nyathi, Lozikeyi Dlodlo: Queen of the Ndebele "A Very Dangerous and Intriguing Woman" (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: AmaGugu Publishers, 2010), 44-46. 123 Ibid., 45-46 124 Marieke Faber Clarke and Pathisa Nyathi, Lozikeyi Dlodlo: Queen of the Ndebele "A Very Dangerous and Intriguing Woman" (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: AmaGugu Publishers, 2010), 48-49.

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that Queen Lozikeyi was an intelligent and cunning woman. “So (our people) decided to follow our conventional wisdom of learning the witch/wizard’s way in order to survive his/her threat. So, we went to school and churches to learn their tools, tricks, and ways of survival so that, armed with that knowledge, we could at least learn how to live with them and hopefully defeat them and take back our land.”125 However, an important aspect is that despite her interactions and embracing their culture, Queen Lozikeyi herself did not convert to Christianity. Lozikeyi encouraged and authorized missionaries to establish western schools and provide children with a western-influenced education.

Queen Lozikeyi’s strategy of allowing Christianity and education to be introduced to the Ndebele people cannot be undermined as it went against her own beliefs. The introduction of Christianity to the Ndebele kingdom happened at the same time when African religions and political institutions were stubbornly resisting Christian theology that was meant to dilute the cultural life of African societies. Among the political elites like Lozikeyi, their power was often rooted in the control of indigenous religion and the links with the supernatural. Christianity was a clear threat to the political elites, including spirit mediums and kings and chiefs.126

In her book, Peasants, Traders, and Wives: Shona Women in the History of Zimbabwe, 1870-1939, Schmidt discusses the role of mission education. She deliberates on African women and girls perceived mission education as a means of upward mobility through marriage or occupational opportunities. Some became nannies, servants, and seamstresses with their domestic training, building economic bases. Those more highly educated became teachers and nurses, the professions par excellence of the emerging African female middle class. However, despite their successes, their opportunities for advancement were always limited. They exchanged one form of patriarchal authority for another. In the past, they were under the watchful eyes of African patriarchs; escaping the African patriarchs meant they were exposed to European missionaries' paternalistic rules and regulations. There was a price for their freedom; in exchange for their privileged social and economic status, mission women and girls were forced to accept European values and behavioral codes that circumscribed their options outside the domestic sphere.127

This was instrumental as it was not only the Ndebele children who benefited from western education. In present-day Zimbabwe, the education system remains a British-influenced education system. Western-influenced education saw the beginning of the colonial rulers' influence from a grassroots level, and western education was to be introduced throughout Rhodesia. Although Queen Lozikeyi herself did not embrace western culture, she was a visionary who foresaw the importance of western civilization amongst her people. Clarke opines that "Queen Lozikeyi, it can be argued, contributed to the growth and development of the Zimbabwean nationalist movement.”128 This, together with Queen Lozikeyi’s role of “keeping the nation together” (her first most outstanding achievement) after two depleting wars followed by famine, arguably should be acknowledged as Queen Lozikeyi’s valuable achievements. The institutions and memories of the traditional Ndebele political structure have and continue to survive because of Queen

125 Ibid., 201 126 Richard J Reid, A History of Modern Africa 1800 to the Present, Second (London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), 73-77. 127 Elizabeth Schmidt, Peasants, Traders and Wives: Shona Women in the History of Zimbabwe, 1870-1939 (Harare: Boabab, 1996), 122-123. 128 Marieke Faber Clarke and Pathisa Nyathi, Lozikeyi Dlodlo: Queen of the Ndebele "A Very Dangerous and Intriguing Woman" (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: AmaGugu Publishers, 2010), 233

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Lozikeyi’s leadership.129 This illustrates that Queen Lozikeyi was a great unifier who managed to keep the Ndebele intact after the death of their king, Lobengula.

The first decisive event that led to King Lobengula's downfall was also the beginning of Queen Lozikeyi's political power. This does not mean she was not politically active during the reign of Lobengula, but only that the role of women was secondary to that of men. The Ndebele kingdom's major enemy was the megalomaniac, Cecil John Rhodes. The arrival of Cecil Rhodes was the beginning of the scramble by British colonialists of southern Rhodesia and more specifically, the Ndebele kingdom. The critical event that led to this scramble occurred on 30 October 1888 when C. D. Rudd and his colleagues, representing Rhodes, acquired full and exclusive access to the country's mining resources from King Lobengula through the Rudd Concession. This event led to the 1893 war that led to the disappearance or death of King Lobengula. In a critical passage, Clarke puts forward the thesis that King Lobengula parted from Queen Lozikeyi, whereby he entrusted his senior queen with two large clay pots filled with money. This signified that the time had come that Lozikeyi became "the acting head of the Ndebele nation in the king's absence." Despite her private world having collapsed, she bravely led the Ndebele nation with such prudence that initially, the occupying British forces did not understand her role.130 Lozikeyi was instrumental in the War of the Red Axe. Clarke credits how oral and recorded history subtly revealed how Queen Lozikeyi was an instrumental heroic figure in the Anglo-Matabele War of 1896, also known as the War of the Red Axe or the Impi Yehlok’elibobvu. In preparation for the War, Queen Lozikeyi used her family’s witch doctor’s power to strategically plan a revolt against the white settlers. During this War, she was an inspirational leader; together with the Ndebele warriors, she fought tirelessly to reclaim their falling kingdom from the oppressive British colonial system.131 Although the Ndebele endured considerable losses in the War of the Red Axe, Queen Lozikeyi was responsible for seven significant positive consequences. It is also important to note that the war ended not because of the Ndebele accepting defeat, it ended with negotiations. Queen Lozikeyi’s first achievement was that the Ndebele nation returned to an official existence. This was as a result of Cecil John Rhodes having been put in a position where he had to submit to three sets of promises to the Ndebele in return for their surrender. The second important achievement was that Rhodes had consented to an amnesty for all influential Ndebele people who had agreed to lay down their weapons by the 10th of August 1896. Personal security had been assured to those leaders who had attended the indaba. The third was that Lozikeyi had negotiated that Rhodes would ensure that all those people who came out of the Matobo Mountains would have themselves and their descendants spared and be guaranteed personal security. Historians like Terence Ranger described such negotiations as land settlements for central Matabeleland and the Queen Regent and her negotiators were praised for this achievement. Fourthly the whites were forced to acknowledge the Ndebele as a powerful people, they had not expected such resistance from them. This meant that the Europeans had to take the Ndebele seriously in order to avoid another war with the Ndebele. In terms of land, the 1896/7 War had not affected Southern Rhodesia as much as it had in South Africa. This was a major achievement on the part of Lozikeyi who had forced Rhodes to grant the Ndebele two years of occupation of their traditional homes around Buluwayo. The sixth achievement was that the queen’s close allies could strategically hold several important

129 Marieke Faber Clarke and Pathisa Nyathi, Lozikeyi Dlodlo: Queen of the Ndebele "A Very Dangerous and Intriguing Woman" (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: AmaGugu Publishers, 2010), 218-228 130 Ibid., 60, 61, 90, 91, 96 131 Ibid., 120-178

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chieftaincies. A total of six of the ten men heading districts had been leaders of the War of the Red Axe. Rhodes had no choice but to ensure good relations with them. The last achievement was that through negotiations, some Ndebele leaders were given cattle under the settlement, enabling them to build up large herds which translated to wealth. Of significance, too, was the acknowledgment by the colonial rulers that black women were formidable opponents. Upon realizing the influence women had, Rhodes and his colleagues tried to buy off King Lobengula’s queens with small pensions, and Queen Lozikeyi did not succumb to Rhodes.132

Queen Lozikeyi represents women and how they played powerful authoritative roles in the governance of their societies. Whether they governed in complementarity with their male leader counterparts or on their own in the human political constituency as princesses, queens, queen mothers or female kings, they occupied important politicoreligious roles. Lozikeyi’s authoritative role included her indirectly ruling beside her husband King Lobengula and after his death she continued to rule the Ndebele people. Her roles were in the form of a spiritual political constituency which enabled her to exert supernatural authority in the governance of the Ndebele kingdom. The initial fight against colonialism succeeded as a result of the important involvement of women especially those in royal positions such as Lozikeyi, Umcencene, Queen Nandi and Princess Mkabayi. It is important to acknowledge that the success of royal women heavily depended on the involvement of ordinary women from varied classes, ethnic, religious and other backgrounds who helped advocate for the role of women.

132 Marieke Faber Clarke and Pathisa Nyathi, Lozikeyi Dlodlo: Queen of the Ndebele "A Very Dangerous and Intriguing Woman" (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: AmaGugu Publishers, 2010), 120-178, 180-183

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Conclusion

Despite the challenges they faced, the royal women in this study were able to exert their influence in the face of unequal power relations between men and women. This study focused on decentering (not marginalizing) male-centered narratives of the past. The study has illustrated that Queen Nandi and Princess Mkabayi served as military and political advisors to the Zulu kings. The two also acted as the highest decision-makers in the Zulu kingdom. For instance, Tshaka consulted his Queen mother, Nandi, and his paternal aunt Princess Mkabayi. Queen Nandi was a source of inspiration for Tshaka’s ascendence to power. Despite Tshaka’s difficult upbringing, Queen Nandi stood by his side, encouraging him to become one of the most powerful leaders. That vision was fulfilled as Tshaka became the most outstanding leader of the Zulu kingdom. This illustrates that Queen Nandi was a visionary who foresaw the rise of Tshaka to power. In contrast to Queen Nandi’s positive contribution and urgency to the increase of Tshaka, Princess Mkabayi played a destructive role as she, later on, engineered the downfall of Tshaka. These two royal women proved that women were instrumental in the rise and fall of kingdoms.

Umcencene also played a crucial role as counselor to King Lobengula in the political setup of the Ndebele. Just like Queen Nandi and Princess Mkabayi, she played an advisory role during Lobengula’s reign showing how influential she was in the governance of the Ndebele kingdom. Apart from political influence, Princess Umcencene was influential in the social affairs of the Ndebele kingdom. She led one of the most important ceremonies, the inxwala showing her respect and allegiance to the king. In an interview with Nyathi, he argued that Umcencene’s power was almost equal to King Lobengula.133 In relation to this, Umcencene went a step further to defy the cultural norms of the Ndebele kingdom by openly expressing that she preferred to be married to a white man. She is said to have had the courage to openly express her wishes to be married to Queen Elizabeth’s son. This demonstrates that she was a very ambitious woman who was determined to go to whatever costs to get what she wanted. Although women were oppressed under patriarchal systems, they had the power and ambitions to challenge the existing power structures and cultural norms.

The primary focus of this study was on Queen Lozikeyi of the Ndebele kingdom, fondly known as King Lobengula’s favorite wife. Queen Lozikeyi possessed spiritual powers that enabled her to exert political, social, economic, and even military powers to lead the Ndebele during wars. The importance of spirituality was acknowledged through colonial narratives. “Spirit mediums played a central role…. And we should not be surprised to find them in a prominent position in any contemporary conflict. Thus, the Minister of Justice recently informed Parliament that “through exploitation of spirit mediums the terrorists were able to achieve a spiritual hold over primitive tribesmen” (Parliamentary Debates, 29 March 1973, col. 1072). One medium had been convicted of using his supposed supernatural powers to support terrorism (Rhodesia Herald, 19 April 1973) and a leaflet has been distributed citing another medium as supporting government forces.”134 This shows that colonial powers acknowledged spirit mediums and their role within the Ndebele and other societies.

133 Interview with Pathisa Nyathi, February 26, 2022. 134 NADA, The Rhodesia Ministry of Internal Affairs, vol. XI (Salisbury, Rhodesia: Management Committee, 1974), 30.

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Elias Ncube argues that “Lozikeyi was born a leader: she was recognized as such in her lifetime…. She was as powerful as any man.”135 More specifically, Lozikeyi had military expertise and healing powers that enabled her as a woman to exercise. She also power over the rain. In an interview with Pathisa Nyathi, Peter Khumalo noted that “the elders say that, if she went outside when there was lightning and thunder and stood with her hands cupped upwards, the rain would fall.” Upon the disappearance of Lobengula, Queen Lozikeyi’s full power manifested. She had absolute control over the Ndebele people in all affairs. According to Magagula, Lozikeyi had the ability to look after the nation.136

In conclusion, one can note that royal women were a force to reckon with. Although their roles were regarded peripheral in African historiography, this study has shown us that women had influence and power. The history of Southern Africa is incomplete without paying due attention to women’s roles in the governance of kingdoms.

This study has provoked many interesting questions about the place of women in African history. For instance, if the narratives of the active roles of royal women in African history received less or no due attention, then what more about that of ordinary women? This study, therefore, argues that much historical research needs to be done to bring to light or recover the narratives of how ordinary women actively contributed to the progression of African historical development.

Such views and questions have been aired in the past by female historians such as Helen Bradford. According to Bradford, many studies in African and imperial history have neglected women, and this has had repercussions. She argued that the repercussions were empirical inaccuracies due to the insignificance accorded to gender differentiation and women themselves. She also argued that the representation of women as insignificant and men as ungendered resulted in a flawed analysis of both men and the colonial encounter.137 Therefore, African history remains in great danger of continuing to be incomplete.

Another question, were royal women’s narratives meant to promote patriarchal systems by serving colonialist or nationalist agendas? Did existing historical records only bring to light women’s roles to endorse the achievements of men who served either colonialist or nationalist agendas? Women were only mentioned in existing historical narratives to support the successes of male key historical figures. Without these male key historical figures such as Tshaka, Mzilikazi, and Lobengula, would we have known about the likes of Nandi, Mkabayi, Umcencene, and Lozikeyi?

135 Elias J Ncube at Loziba Church, Inyathi, September 1994 in Marieke Faber Clarke and Pathisa Nyathi, Lozikeyi Dlodlo: Queen of the Ndebele "A Very Dangerous and Intriguing Woman" (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: AmaGugu Publishers, 2010), 96. 136 Antony Magagula in an interview with Pathisa Nyathi in Marieke Faber Clarke and Pathisa Nyathi, Lozikeyi Dlodlo: Queen of the Ndebele "A Very Dangerous and Intriguing Woman" (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe: AmaGugu Publishers, 2010), 96. 137 Helen Bradford, “Women, Gender and Colonialism: Rethinking the History of the British Cape Colony and Its Frontier Zones, c. 1806–70,” The Journal of African History 37, no. 3 (1996): pp. 351-370, https://doi.org/10.1017/s0021853700035519, 351.

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