Swaziland: Origin and rise of the Swazi Kingdom (c1750 - 1868 CE)

Updated July 2008

An Nguni group, that migrated southwards along the eastern littoral from east Africa, settled on the shores of Maputo Bay in the late 1400s under the leadership of Dlamini from whom the Dlamini Clan took their name (Swaziland National Trust Commission Undated; Beemer 1937, 55, 56). In the late 17th century the Dlamini moved inland, settling on the banks of the Pongola River, but due to demographic and ecological factors found themselves in conflict with the neighbouring Ndwandwe Clan in the mid-1700s and they were forced to migrate north over the Lumbombo Mountains (Swaziland National Trust Commission Undated; Beemer 1937, 55, 56). Under the leadership of Ngwane III the Dlamini settled in the Hlatikulu district and from this base, under his successors Ngvudgunye and Sobhuza I, they expanded, absorbing the heterogeneous groups of Sotho, Nguni and Tsonga they found settled there (Swaziland National Trust Commission Undated; Beemer 1937, 55, 56). The consolidation of Dlamini hegemony was a complex process of conquest and absorption of survivors of some groups, the forced subjugation or voluntary submission of others along with the settlement of latter groups taking refuge within their territory (Beemer 1937, 56, 57).

The early 19th century was a period of sever drought, widespread famine and massive social dislocation and the emergent Swazi polity was not able to stand aloof from the conflicts engendered as rival Nguni chiefdoms struggled for resources and domination in the region (Forrester 2005; Beemer 1937, 57). While expanding their territory northwards they had to resist the successive encroachments from the south of the Mtetwa under Dingiswayo, the Ndwandwe under Zwide and the Zulu under Shaka (Beemer 1937, 57). In the reign of Sobhuza I (1815-1836), Zwide managed to force the Dlamini northwards to the Mdzimba Mountains where caves later provided them with refuge from the predatations of Shaka's impis (Beemer 1937, 57; Booth 1983, 8, 9). The indigenous Sotho and Nguni inhabitants were subjugated by Sobhuza and he entered into a series of diplomatic marriages with his more powerful neighbours (Kuper 1963, 8).In this way Sobhuza was able to protect and consolidate the loyalty of his heterogeneous subjects and expand the territory of the Kingdom north and west while expanding its population and its fighting manpower (Forrester 2005; Booth 1983, 8, 9).

The reign of Sobhuza's son, Mswati II (c1840-c1865), was conducted under difficult conditions from the beginning. The polity he inherited was fragile, riven by divisions between its component ethnic groups and power struggles with the royal family (Bonner 1978, 222). The regional situation was one where Zulu power was a continual threat, Boer intrusion a looming possibility and the annexation by the British of Natal in 1843 added an additional element of complexity (Kuper 1963, 9, 10. The defeat of the Zulu by the Boers at the Battle of Blood River in 1836 exhibited them as both a potential threat and a potential ally in curbing Zulu power and the regency quickly sent messengers with offers of peace to them for fear the Boers would pursue Dingane north of the Pongola and into the territory of the Kingdom (Beemer 1937, 58). The installation of the young Mswati in about 1840 led to the first of a number of attempts to usurp or fragment his kingship, the first within months by his elder brother Fokoti who used his charge of a southern chiefdom as a base for his rebellion that was quickly suppressed (Bonner 1978, 222, 223). It was not until 1845, after his circumcision, that the King was able to assume his royal powers, and even then not without challenge from within and without the royal house (Bonner 1978, 224, 225).

To consolidate the power and authority of the monarchy a national centralized system of royal villages to oversee local military mobilization and political activities was created (Bonner 1978, 223; Kuper 1963, 8). This presented a threat to the autonomy of local rulers and a confrontation situation developed in 1845/6, "which led to their issuing an ultimatum to Mswati that any further depredations would be resisted by the chiefly hierarchy as a whole" (Bonner 1978, 223). The situation, which contained the potential for the fragmentation of the polity into its constituent ethnic parts, was defused by concessions that mollified the King's opponents (Bonner 1978, 223, 224).

The decision of the chiefs to confront the King may have been informed by awareness of growing tension within the royal family between Mswati and his elder brother Malambule, who had played an important role in the period of Mswati's minority, which culminated in an open break between the two in late 1845 (Bonner 1978, 225). Malambule enlisted the support of the Mpande and to counter this threat Mswati turned to the Boers of Ohrigstad who had settled to the north-west, between the Kingdom and the Pedi polity, offering them recognition of their land claims in exchange for their assistance (Bonner 1978, 225, 229). A diplomatic struggle ensued in which Mswati was able to exploit divisions amongst the Boers and British suspicion of Mpande to out manoeuvre him (Bonner 1978, 227, 228). The outcome was an agreement between the Swazi and the Boers on the 27 July 1846 (Bonner 1978, 228, 229). In terms of this agreement, Mswati ceded, according to Peter Delius and Richard Cope (2006, 78), "a vast tract of land to the Boers - including the heartlands of the Pedi Kingdom and numerous African chiefdoms. The validity of this agreement has been much debated... the king sold land over which he exercised no effective control".

In the military conflict that followed in August, Mswati was able to drive Malambule from Swaziland and withstand an invasion by Mpande in 1847 (Bonner 1978, 230, 231). With this threat neutralized, a new one emerged in the form of another of Mswati's brothers, Somcuba, who had played a key part in attaining Boer support and who now attempted to use the ties he had formed with them to undermine Mswati (Bonner 1978, 232, 233).

Mswati engaging in diplomatic initiatives to repair relations with the Boers, to gain British support that would curb Zulu aggression and to enlist the aid of Manicusa (Soshangane), head of the Gaza kingdom in southern Mozambique (Bonner 1978, 234, 235). He managed to neutralize conspiracies within the royal household in the north and repel a half-hearted Zulu invasion at the end of 1848 (Bonner 1978, 235). Nevertheless, the situation remained difficult; the Boers found Somcuba useful and the British advised submission to Mpande (Bonner 1978, 235, 236). Mswati, by becoming tributary to Mpande, freed Mpande to invade the territory of the Boers and the Pedi, but the respite the Swazis enjoyed was brief and a Zulu invasion of Swaziland followed in 1852 (Bonner 1978, 236). This, the last of Zulu invasions, floundered because of divisions among the Zulu, leaving Mswati able to deal decisively with Somcuba in 1855 (Bonner 1978, 237; Delius & Cope 2006, 84).

With Somcuba dead, Mswati was able to consolidate his relationship with the Boers through the cession of additional land to them in 1855, the military assistance he gave them against the Pedi in 1864 and the sale of children captured in military operations to them as indentured labourers (Delius & Cope 2006, 78, 82, 84). The cession of the strip of land north of the Pongola River in 1855 was aimed a creating a Boer buffer settlement between Swazi territory and the Zulu, but the Boers settled there only in the 1890s, long after the Zulu threat had subsided (Delius & Cope 2006, 84). Mswati's concern with cultivating relations with the Boers flowed from his recognition that, despite their apparent weaknesses and current difficulties, they possessed a superior military technology, in the form of guns and horses, which could be as easily turned against him as it had been against Shaka (Delius & Cope 2006, 72).

With the Zulu threat reduced and the last pretenders to the throne disposed of, the country entered a period of tranquility, for the Boers were absorbed with their own difficulties and internal conflicts and British imperialism was at ebb (Bonner 1978, 237). Mswati was able to use this space to eliminate internal threats to the monarchy and, by consolidating its power and authority, wield the various heterogeneous elements of the Kingdom into a whole (Bonner 1978, 237; Booth 1983, 10, 11). Initiatives such as improved military conscription and organisation, the transformation of the ncwala ceremony of first fruits into one that legitimated the kingship, skillful diplomatic marriages to cement the ties of loyalty and obedience of subordinate chiefs and the extension of the system of royal villages assisted in the process (Beemer 1937, 57; Macmillan 1989, 290; Booth 1983, 10, 11).

Mswati's polity provided protection to and absorbed numerous groups, both large and small, that fled to his realm and were settled in thinly populated areas (Kuper 1963, 9). The Though the underlying diversity was not suppressed, indeed it was recognized and institutionalized, by Mswati's death in 1868 a high degree of linguistic, cultural and institutional coherence had developed and the territorial extent of the Kingdom was at its greatest (Macmillan 1989, 290, 291; Kuper 1963, 9).

References

BEEMER, H 1937 "The Development of the Military Organization in Swaziland", Journal of the International African Institute , 10(1), January, [www] http://www.jstor.org/stable/1155846 [opens new window] (accessed 10 Mar 2010).

BONNER, P 1978 "Factions and Fissions: Transvaal/Swazi Politics in the Mid-Nineteenth Century", Journal of African History, 19(2), [www] http://www.jstor.org/stable/181600 [opens new window] (accessed 10 Mar 2010).

BOOTH, AR 1983 Swaziland : Tradition and Change in a Southern African Kingdom, Boulder, New York, 1983.

DELIUS, P & COPE, R 2006 "Hard Fought Frontiers: Mpumalanga 1845-1883" IN Delius, P (ed) Mpumalanga: Reclaiming the past, defining the future, [www] http://www.docstoc.com/docs/8511162/MpumalangaReclaiming-the-past-defining-the-future [PDF document, opens new window] (accessed 10 Mar 2010).

FORRESTER, R 2005 "Outline archaeological chronology" IN Swaziland National Trust Commission, [www] http://www.sntc.org.sz/cultural/archsd.asp [opens new window] (accessed 10 Mar 2010).

KUPER, H 1963 The Swazi : a South African kingdom, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York.

MACMILLAN, H 1989 "A Nation Divided? The Swazi in Swaziland and the Transvaal, 1865-1986" IN Vail, L (ed) The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa, University Of California Press, [www] http://www.escholarship.org/editions/view?docId=ft158004rs& chunk.id=d0e7328&toc.depth=1&toc.id=d0e7328&brand=eschol [opens new window] (accessed 10 Mar 2010).

SWAZILAND NATIONAL TRUST COMMISSION UNDATED "Cultural Resources - Swazi History", [www] http://www.sntc.org.sz/cultural/history.asp [opens new window] (accessed 10 Mar 2010).