MPANDE

Mpande (1798-1872) was the third king of the Zulus. The first three rulers of the Zulu empire had been brothers, sons of Senzangakhona, a less than illustrious chief in the Natal of the 19th century.

PHOTO CAPTION: Mpande. SOURCE: EA Library.

Shaka, the first brother, founded the powerful Zulu state. At a fairly young age and after a reign of some dozen years (1816-28), he died by the hand of Dingane, his brother, with the help of other assassins. Dingane himself ruled for another 12 years (1828-40), only to die ignominiously in a foreign land.

In his time, the foundations of Zulu military power were severely shaken by the Voortrekkers’ demonstration of superior organisation and the effect of concentrated fire-power from a defensive position on the traditional massed charge perfected by Shaka for his disciplined regiments.

The third brother, Mpande, came to the Zulu throne in 1840 and ruled for some 32 years. Mpande’s accession to the Zulu throne was the result of his brother Dingane’s attempt to have Mpande murdered. Getting wind of Dingane’s plan, Mpande fled with 17,000 followers and thousands of cattle.

Mpande joined forces with a Boer commando, which set out to find and kill Dingane. Though unsuccessful, Mpande was recognised as king by the Natalia Volsraad. Dingane moved north, and was later killed by allies of the Ngwane. Mpande remained a vassal in the eyes of the Boers until the British occupation of Natal in 1842.

Mpande would cede Zulu land to both Boer and Briton in the following years. Since the Zulu kingdom remained intact for some 60 years (1818- 79), Mpande ruled for more than half the Zulu state’s life span. He is the only Zulu king to have died peacefully in old age, attributable to the fact that his son, Cetshwayo, was clearly in command of the Zulu state from the mid-1850s. Mpande’s reputation remains one of indolence and incompetence. Yet the judgment is belied by his achievements in securing both his own power and maintaining the measure of independence of the core of the kingdom over which he ruled. Mpande assembled possibly the largest Zulu army ever. He was not above using violence to maintain his rule, murdering his brother, Gqugqu, in 1843. He launched successful campaigns against the Hlubi and Swazi, while maintaining amicable relations with the Boers until 1861.

Unlike Shaka and Dingane, who had no offspring, Mpande had many children. His sons were much more militant than he. The leading rivals among the sons were Cetshwayo and Mbuyazi. They were leaders of two contending royal parties. Cetshwayo’s “uSuthu” and Mbuyazi’s “isiGqoza.” Internal strife in the Zulu kingdom mounted throughout the early 1850s, as most Zulus threw their support behind either of these two factions.

The battle between Cetshwayo and Mbuyazi came to a head at Ndonda-Kusuka in 1856, where Cetshwayo’s uSuthu humiliated Mbuyazi’s isiGqoza. Mbuyazi was killed during the battle, and Cetshwayo was recognised as Zulu paramount chief shortly thereafter. From then on, his father seems to have been a mere figurehead. Cetshwayo’s ambition seems to have been to revive the lustre and glory of Zulu military prowess exactly at the time the Natal colonists were rearing to ambush the Zulu kingdom. Cetshwayo, as it turned out, would be the last real Zulu king.

Mpande was not a dynamic leader, like the brothers preceding him. He appears to have had a greater interest in overseeing the affairs of his immediate family than in military adventures and state intrigue. One could posit, however, that it was Mpande’s relatively quiet government, his inward nature and his desire to avoid conflict with Europeans that allowed for the survival of the Zulu state through the turbulent changes in the Natal of the 1840s and 1850s.

WANDILE F. KUSE