Colonial Intrusion and the Dispute over Leadership of the Nzama People in Kranskop, KwaZulu-Natal, 1880s to 1928

ABSTRACT

The Nzama were an independent chiefdom, but because of the colonial divide-and-rule strategy, they ultimately were made subservient to the rival Ngubane chief, who then connived with the local white magistrate to install his son Tshutshutshu as his successor. This brewed tensions between the Nzama leaders and Chief Tshutshutshu. Their differences ended up in court, but the white authorities sided with Tshutshutshu. The friction between the Nzama and the Ngubane has continued for decades but is generally reduced to the term izimpi zemibango (faction fights), a catch-all term that fails to address the underlying causes of the conflict and its long historical roots. This article deals with the interventions by the Natal colonial state in the areas to the south of the uThukela River, where Kranskop and Greytown are located, before the outbreak of the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879 to highlight what changed after the war. Within this it explores the different ways in which the Ngubane and Nzama people were treated, which intensified tensions and held within it the seed for the outbreak of the izimpi zemibango between the 1880s and 1928.

KEYWORDS:

• Anglo-Zulu War
• chieftaincies
• colonial intrusion
• leadership disputes
• Kranskop

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 J. Lambert, ‘From Independence to Rebellion: African Society in Crisis, c. 1880–1910’, in A. Duminy and B. Guest, eds, Natal and Zululand from Earliest Times to 1910: A New History (Pietermaritzburg: Shuter and Shooter, 1989), 379.

2 D. Welsh, The Roots of Segregation: Native Policy in Colonial Natal, 1845–1910 (Cape Town: Oxford University Press, 1971).

3 J. Lambert, Betrayed Trust: Africans and the State in Colonial Natal (Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 1995), 23.

4 Lambert, Betrayed Trust, 28.

5 D.J. Sithole, ‘Conflict and Collective Violence: Scarce Resources, Social Relations and the State in the Umzinto and the Umbumbulu Districts of Southern Natal during the 1930s’ (Honours thesis, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1992), 9.

6 Today the Nsukaze area is part of the iLembe District Municipality, but Kranskop and Greytown fall into the uMzinyathi District Municipality.

7 J. Guy, Theophilus Shepstone and the Forging of Natal: African Autonomy and Settler Colonialism in the Making of Traditional Authority (Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2013), 74–81, 97–117; Welsh, The Roots of Segregation, 7–15; and R.H. Smith, ‘The Labour Resources of Natal’ (Master’s thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 1945), 119–130.

⁷Sithole, ‘Conflict and Collective Violence’, 9.

8 J.B. Wright and C.A. Hamilton, ‘Traditions and Transformations: The Phongolo-Mzimkhulu Region in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth-Centuries’, in A. Duminy and B. Guest, eds, Natal and Zululand from the Earliest Times to 1910: A New History (Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press, 1989), 58; and Lambert, Betrayed Trust, 23–24.

9 Lambert, Betrayed Trust, 24.

10 Guy, Theophilus Shepstone, 53, 57.

11 Sithole, ‘Conflict and Collective Violence’, 9.

12 For further discussion of this, see Pietermaritzburg Archive Repository (hereafter PAR), CNC 108A, File 94/4/4 N7/9/2, ‘The Native Administration Bill’; T.A. Nuttall, ‘Class, Race and Nation: African Politics in Durban, 1929–1949’ (PhD thesis, University of Oxford, Oxford, 1991), 126–127, 245–246; P. Maylam, ‘The Changing Political Economy of the Region, c.1920–c.1950’, in R. Morrell, ed., Political Economy and Identities in KwaZulu-Natal: Historical and Political Perspectives (Durban: Indicator Press, 1996), 98; J. Sithole, ‘Tale of Two Boundaries: Land Disputes and the Izimpi Zemibango in the Umlazi Location of the Pinetown District, 1920–1936’, South African Historical Journal, 37, 1 (1987), 89; D.J. Sithole, ‘Land, Officials, Chiefs and Commoners in the Izimpi Zemibango in the Umlazi Location of the Pinetown District in the Context of Natal’s Changing Political Economy, 1920 to 1936’ (Master’s thesis, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998), 38–43.

13 PAR, CNC 211, File 941–980, ‘Petition of Mabhengwana Nzama to Native Commissioner (Magistrate) for the Kranskop District’, 8 October 1921, 3.

14 PAR, Colonial Office (London), CO 179, 15, No. 117, ‘Report by Theophilus Shepstone’, 14 August 1848; Lambert, Betrayed Trust, 25.

15 Lambert, Betrayed Trust, 25.

16 C. de B. Webb and J.B. Wright, eds, James Stuart Archive of Recorded Oral Evidence Relating to the History of the Zulu and Neighbouring Peoples, Volume 5 (Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press and Durban: Killie Campbell Africana Library, 2001) (hereafter JSA), ‘John Shepstone to J. Stuart’, 12 March 1912, 297; PAR, SNA 1/9/6, ‘Brief Sketch of Zulu History: A Brief History of Each Tribe in the Province, The 1st to 7th Interim Reports of the ZDLC, 3 Nov 1902 to 11th Jan 1904’, CNC for Natal to SNA, undated.

17 JSA, ‘John Shepstone to J. Stuart’, 311.

18 PAR, SNA 1/9/6, ‘Chiefdom 74: Brief Sketch of History of Each Tribe or a Section of Each Tribe in the Province of Zululand for which the Zululand Lands Delimitation Commission was Required to Delimit Reserves’, 7th Administrative Interim Report (AIR) of the Zululand Lands Delimitation Commission (ZLDC), 11 January 1904.

19 Ibid.

20 PAR, SNA, 1/9/6, ‘Note 74 of the Brief Sketch of Each Tribe in the Province’.

21 Lambert, Betrayed Trust, 30.

22 See especially the Testimony of George Ryder Peppercone before the 1852–1853 Commission Appointed to Enquire into the Past and Present State of Kaffirs in the District of Natal, and to Report upon their Future Government, and to Suggest such Arrangements as will tend to Secure the Peace and Welfare of the District, for the Information of His Honour the Lieutenant Governor (Pietermaritzburg: J. Archbell and Son at the Office of the Natal Independent, Natal Government Gazette, 1852–1853); Lambert, Betrayed Trust, 43; Guy, Theophilus Shepstone, 182–193.

23 J. Lambert, ‘Violence and the State in Colonial Natal: Conflict Between and Within Chiefdoms’, South African Historical Journal, 31, 1 (1994), 150–156; Lambert, Betrayed Trust, 30–31.

24 Lambert, Betrayed Trust, 33–34.

25 Guy, Theophilus Shepstone, 303; Lambert, Betrayed Trust, 143–147.

26 PAR, SNA, 1/1/11, ‘T. Shepstone to the Natal Governor, January 1865; Guy, Theophilus Shepstone, 303.

27 PAR, SNA, 1/1/11 and SNA 1/1/30, ‘T. Shepstone to the Natal Governor, January 1865; Guy, Theophilus Shepstone, 304.

28 In present-day South Africa, this area lies in Umvoti District, in the Kwazulu-Natal Midlands. In 1994 the old province of Natal and the Zulu Bantu Authority of KwaZulu merged to form the new province of KwaZulu-Natal. In this paper, KwaZulu-Natal is used even though this is technically incorrect.

29 G.F. Houston and T. Mbele, ‘KwaZulu-Natal History of Traditional Leadership Project: Final Report’ (Durban: Human Science Research Council, 2011).

30 Sir Theophilus Shepstone (1817–1893) arrived in Natal in 1839, where he helped establish British rule and took charge of African affairs as secretary for native affairs until 1877. He shaped the policy towards Africans and was responsible for the creation of reservations to which the Zulu were confined under their own leadership and laws. Shepstone died in Natal in 1893.

31 PAR, CNC 211, File 941–980, ‘Petition by Mabhengwane to Kranskop Magistrate, Kranskop’, 8 October 1921.

32 Ibid., 2–5.

33 Ibid., 6–7.

34 Ibid., 1–2.

35 Ibid., 3.

36 Ibid., 6–7.

37 Ibid., 5.

38 Ibid., 7.

39 J. Laband and P. Thompson, War Comes to Umvoti: The Natal–Zululand Border, 1878–79 (Durban: Department of History, University of Natal1980), 34, 68–71, 121–3, 127.

40 Laband and Thompson, War Comes to Umvoti, 68, 73–76.

41 K. Breckenridge. “No Will to Know: The Rise and Fall of African Civil Registration in Twentieth-Century South Africa’, in K. Breckenridge and S. Szreter, eds, Registration and Recognition: Documenting the Person in World History (London: Oxford University Press, 2012), 365.

42 PAR, CNC 211, File 941–980, ‘Petition of Mabhengwana Nzama to Native Commissioner (Magistrate) for the Kranskop District’, 8 October 1921, 8.

43 Ibid.

44 Ibid., 8–10.

45 PAR, SNA 1/1/284, File 474/1899, ‘Native Commissioner for the Kranskop District to the CNC for Natal’, August 1899.

46 Interview with MaShangase Nzama, 8 March 2016.

47 PAR, CNC 211, File 941–980, ‘Petition of Mabhengwana Nzama to Native Commissioner (Magistrate) for the Kranskop District’, 8 October 1921; and PAR, Kranskop Native Commissioner’s Papers (hereafter 1/KRK), 3/1/14, File 598/1914, ‘NC for Kranskop to the CNC for Natal’, October 1914.

48 PAR, 1/KRK 3/1/14, File 598/1914, ‘NC for Kranskop to the CNC for Natal’, October 1914.

49 Ibid., 3.

50 Ibid., 3–5.

51 Ibid., 4; PAR, 1/KRK 3/1/14, File 592/20/1915, ‘Testimony of Chief Tshutshutshu before the NC for Kranskop’, November 1915, 30.

52 PAR, 1/KRK 3/1/14, File 592/20/1915, ‘Testimony of Chief Tshutshutshu before the NC for Kranskop’, November 1915, 31–32.

53 PAR, 1/KRK 3/1/14, File 592/20/1915, ‘Testimony of Mabhengwane Nzama before the NC for Kranskop’, November 1915, 33.

54 PAR, 1/KRK 3/1/14, File 592/20/1915, ‘Testimony of Chief Tshutshutshu before the NC for Kranskop’, November 1915, 32–33.

55 PAR, 1/KRK 3/1/14, File 953/24/1915, ‘CNC for Natal to NC for Kranskop’, 23 November 1915.

56 PAR, 1/KRK 3/1/14, File 953/24/1915, ‘CNC for Natal to NC Kranskop’, 15 November 1915, 51; PAR, 1/KRK 3/1/14, File 169/14/1916, CNC for Natal to NC for Kranskop’, 29 March 1916, 68–69.

57 PAR, 1/KRK 3/1/14, File 592/24/1915, ‘Chief Tshutshutshu before the NC for Kranskop’, November 1915.

58 PAR, 1/KRK 3/1/14, File 592/24/1919, ‘CNC for Natal to NC for Kranskop’, 2 April 1919.

59 PAR, CNC 211, File 941–980, ‘Petition of Mabhengwana Nzama to Native Commissioner (Magistrate) for the Kranskop District’, 8 October 1921, 2.

60 Ibid., 3.

61 Ibid., 2–3.

62 Ibid., 2–5.

63 PAR, CNC 211, File 65/1915, ‘CNC for Natal to NC for Kranskop’, 3.

64 Ibid., 1.

65 Ibid., 2.

66 Ibid., 3.

67 Ibid., 1–3.

68 Ibid., 2–3.

69 PAR, CNC 211, File 953/15, ‘Responses of the NC for Kranskop to the Petition’, 22 July 1922.

70 Ibid., 2.

71 Ibid., 2–3.

72 Ibid., 1–5.

73 PAR, CNC 211, File 65/1915, ‘CNC for Natal to NC for Kranskop’, 16 August 1922.

74 PAR, CNC 211, File 941–980, ‘Magwabugwabu Nzama’s Affidavit to Kranskop Police’, 4 February 1924.

75 Ibid., 3.

76 Ibid., 3.

77 Ibid., 3.

78 Ibid., 3–4.

79 Ibid., 4.

80 PAR, CNC 211, File 953/15, ‘CNC for Natal to NC for Kranskop’, 6 February 1924, 3.

81 PAR, CNC 211, File 953/15, ‘NC for Kranskop to the CNC for Natal’, 15 March 1924.

82 PAR, CNC 211, File 2/1/6, ‘NC for Kranskop to CNC for Natal’, 29 December 1927, 3.

83 Ibid., 3–5.

84 PAR, CNC 211, File 953/1915, ‘SNA to CNC for Natal’, 5 January 1928.

85 Ibid., 2.

86 PAR, CNC 211, File 953/1915, ‘Notes of the meeting between the NC for Kranskop and Mabhengwane Nzama’, 3 May 1928.

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Siyabonga Nxumalo

Siyabonga Nxumalo is a research assistant and PhD candidate in the Department of History at the University of Johannesburg.