A history of the Zulu Rebellion, 1906, and of Dinuzulu's arrest, trial, and expatriation

by James Stuart

Tradition seems to carry the arrival of the people still further back. It is safe to say it is one of the oldest tribes in Zululand and was already long in situ when the migration of the great Xosa family to Cape Colony took place in the seventeenth century.

Although Tshaka attacked and defeated many tribes, he was unable to conquer that over which Mvakela, grandfather of Sigananda, presided. Later, however, he succeeded in putting Mvakela to death. This man took refuge in the Manzipambana section of the forests. It proved so detrimental to his health that he was obliged to leave and expose himself, thus affording the enemy an opportunity of which advantage was swiftly taken.

It so happened that Mvakela had married a sister of Nandi, Tshaka's mother. Mvakela's son, Zokufa (father of Sigananda), was thus Tshaka's first cousin. This connection with the royal house of Zululand plays a most important part in regard to the Rebellion. It shows the character of the blood relationship between Dinuzulu and Sigananda.

Zokufa was allowed to become Chief. The tribe continued, as in former ages, to practice the art of iron-smelting, and the manufacture of hoes, axes, knives and assegais of every shape and size. Owing to special aptitude in these respects, the people were largely patronized by the King who, from time to time, called for supplies of the articles manufactured. The national army depended to no small extent on the assegais made by the tribe, which came to fill much the same kind of place in the body politic that Woolwich arsenal does in England. Large quantities of the domestic articles referred to were, moreover, bartered to the general public far and near. When the white man arrived in 1824, and, in the years that followed, introduced hoes, axes and knives, the demand for more serviceable wares soon caused this once famous handicraft to die out. But, although the Zulus were content to use European hoes (which were lighter and cheaper), and axes and knives (which were harder and sharper), they never lost faith in their own smiths for the making of assegais and other implements of war. To this day the assegai forged in Birmingham has been unable to supersede that of the ordinary Native blacksmith who, in these days, is not above using European pig-iron, instead of smelting his own with those quaint old bellows of his from the ironstone so frequently to be met with. Sigananda himself was an excellent smith, his reputation for barbed, large stabbing, as well as throwing, assegais being by no means confined to members of his own tribe.

In Cetshwayo's day, we find Zokufa holding the position of induna at that Prince's Mlambongwenya kraal. It was there that the famous Usutu party was first created by Cetshwayo. The Usutu became his personal adherents in opposition to the Izigqoza of the rival claimant to the throne, Mbuyazi. The party was made up of men from many tribes, and not recruited merely from the Zulu one, of which its leader was a member. Zokufa, and after him Sigananda, together with the amaCube tribe, belonged to the Usutu faction. Sigananda accordingly fought on the Usutu side during the great Ndondakusuka (Tugela) battle on the 2nd December, 1856.

Shortly after, owing to disturbances in the tribe, Sigananda fled to Natal. He took refuge in the tribe of Mancinza, father of Bambata. He became a policeman at the Magistrate's office, Greytown, but, about 1871, was invited by Cetshwayo to live in Zululand, when, after fourteen or fifteen years' absence, he became Chief over the tribe.

During the Zulu War, Sigananda naturally fought for his King. Cetshwayo's restoration to Zululand occurred in January, 1883, and, as has been seen, was the signal for violent conflict between his and Zibebu's forces. Cetshwayo was obliged to find a place of refuge. He fled to the Nkandhla forests, where he was harboured in one of the amaCube kraals immediately overlooking the Mome waterfall. A small kraal, known by the name of Enhlweni, was constructed for the ex-King's use on the eastern side of the waterfall, and only three hundred yards from it, whilst a covered path was specially made through the forest that stood between the two kraals. The Government succeeded, through the influence of Mr. Henry F. Fynn (son of the earliest pioneer of Natal), in inducing Cetshwayo to leave his place of hiding and reside at Eshowe, and there he died in 1884.

Owing to the unsettled state of the country, it was decided by the heads of the nation that Cetshwayo should not be buried on the banks of the White Umfolozi, where it had for generations been the practice to inter the kings. The district in the occupation of the amaCube was the one selected, whereupon he was conveyed there in an ox-waggon and 'planted,'[174] near the Nkunzana stream, on a small exposed ridge about three miles to the east of Mome gorge. A relative of Sigananda was appointed keeper of the grave, a post of much responsibility and honour. One of his kraals was erected on a knoll some 500 yards from his charge.[175]

In the battle of Kotongweni in 1884 between the Usutus, on the one side, and the Government forces, Basutos and other Natives loyal to the Government, on the other, Sigananda threw in his lot with the former. Finally, in 1888, when Dinuzulu once more waged war against Zibebu, Sigananda was called on by the Government to furnish a levy. He refused, subsequently reviling a few more loyally disposed members of his tribe for breaking away and assisting the authorities.

Such, in brief, was the history of the man and tribe with which the Colony had now to deal. In 1905, the tribe was wholly within the Nkandhla magisterial district; it consisted of 462 kraals, with an approximate total population of 4,300, or about 700 men capable of bearing arms.