DINGISWAYO

Dingiswayo (circa the 1770s- 1818) was a northern Nguni leader who is credited with the development of the age-regiment system of tribal army organisation. This system led to a highly efficient fighting strength, and to the rise of Dingiswayo’s tribe, the Zulu, to greatness under Dingiswayo’s successor, Shaka.

By the beginning of the 18th century the fertile lands occupied by the Nguni language group peoples were becoming overpopulated. The pressure led to deep rivalries and skirmishes among the many small clans. Dingiswayo, eldest son of the Mthethwa chief Jobe, believed that the age of these small independent chiefdoms was passing and that the future lay with large political units. His ambition led him to plot the assassination of his father. Exiled when the plot was discovered, he returned to his homeland in 1805 to take over the chieftainship from his brother.

Tradition had it that when he returned to his homeland, he was, to the wonder of his tribesmen, riding on a horse and carrying a gun. Neither had ever been seen in Zululand before. It was at this time, also, that he gave up his original name Godongwana, and took the name “Dingiswayo” instead.

Dingiswayo’s policy was to unite a number of clans and to make others tributaries to his chiefdom. The adventurer Henry Fynn, who lived in Zululand in the 19th century, recorded in his “Diary” that Dingiswayo believed “that it was not the intentions of those who first came into the world that there should be several kings equal in power, but that there should be one great king to exercise control over the little ones.” It is interesting to note that at that time the Zulu were a small, insignificant tribe, mainly notable for their good tobacco. They constituted only one of the many tributaries of the Mthethwa confederacy.

Dingiswayo soon realised that the stability of the larger political unit which he had now formed demanded a drastic reform of the traditional military organisation. Instead of organising his fighting strength on the old territorial basis, he formed military regiments composed of men of the same age and recruited from all the separate clans of the kingdom as soon as they attained adulthood. They were stationed at one or the other of the royal households, and owed their allegiance to the king alone. This provided not only a more efficient fighting force, but helped unify and consolidate the kingdom by bringing men from different areas and uniting them in a common loyalty. Thus was laid the foundation on which future Zulu unity and predominance were laid when Shaka, who had been one of Dingiswayo’s military commanders, took over the leadership of the Mthethwa-Zulu confederacy after Dingiswayo’s death in 1818.

The results of Dingiswayo’s military innovations went beyond military concepts to affect social organisation. He abolished circumcision and the ceremonies attached thereto; in their place, he substituted his age-regiments, which involved long periods away from home and delayed marriageable age. He also promoted trade with the Portuguese in Delagoa Bay, importing some European goods, a practice he encouraged his people to copy.

Dingiswayo was a bringer of new things, an innovator whose new political and military ideas were to bring about a revolution, which was the foundation on which the great Zulu empire was built. He was indeed one of the far-sighted men of his time in history.

DONALD MTIMKULU