African Kingdoms

Mtetwa (Bantu Clan State) (Africa)

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The pre-history of Africa contains a far longer period of human habitation than any other area on Earth, thanks to it being the cradle of humankind's evolution. South Africa consists of a series of undulating plateaus which cover much of the region and extend northwards into Central Africa's Angola. The Kalahari desert forms a central depression in the Southern African plateau, while scrubland and grasslands cover much of the region's remainder.

Indigenous natives belong to one of two language families: Khoisan or Bantu. The former were first to be established, having inhabited the region for millennia. They were displaced in many areas by Bantu speakers who were largely responsible for spreading the African Neolithic and who now dominate large areas of Central Africa and southwards of that.

Regional archaeological and historical enquiry has been extremely uneven, with Namibia being the least-intensively studied while South Africa is at the opposite end of that scale. Establishing a coherent historical framework of events is an often controversial process with little universal agreement.

The Mtetwa (or Mthethwa) clan state was a Bantu-formed tribal group which developed in what today is the union of South Africa. The Swazi may already have had an identity of their own by the time they arrived in the region. The late fifteenth century has been mentioned, certainly some time before the rise to power of the Zulu in the early nineteenth century.

As an Nguni group their arrival in eastern parts of South Africa followed a migration through today's Mozambique from northern parts of East Africa. The Ndwandwe were closely-related and probably followed the same migration path and timescale.

The case for the Mtetwa is less clear, but as a very similar group they probably followed the same migratory path in the 1500s-1600s, and then the process of formation in the 1700s. As with the Ndwandwe, kings or chiefs carried the title nkosi.

Under Somveli ka Dingiswayo, if not earlier, the Mtetwa formed a regionally-powerful confederation of which the then-minor Zulu state was part. It was Dingiswayo who took in a young Shaka Zulu who then created a great Zulu empire. Unfortunately for Dingiswayo his chieftaincy had already been ended by Ndwandwe, so Shaka conquered them and absorbed both territories into his new domain.

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(Information by Peter Kessler and the John De Cleene Archive, from Urban Africa; Histories in the Making (Africa's Urban Past), David M Anderson & Richard Rathbone (Eds), from Africana: The Encyclopaedia of the African and African American Experience, Anthony Appiah & Henry Louis Gates (Oxford University Press, 2005), from The New Atlas of African History, G S P Freeman-Grenville (Rex Collins, London, 1991), from Times Atlas of World History (Maplewood, 1979), and from External Links: Encyclopaedia Britannica, and History World, and South Africa (Rulers.org).)

1700s

Dlamini of the Nguni settles his followers near the River Pongola where it cuts through the Lubombo or Lebombo mountains. These early Swazi have journeyed into the area along with the Ndwandwe, a closely-related group. Most likely the Mtweta are similarly closely-related. Dlamini himself is of a clan which bears either his name, Dlamini, or that of a predecessor.

The Lubombo or Lebombo mountains form a north-south spine which reaches the River Limpopo and the intersection between the borders of South Africa, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe, while also providing today's eSwatini kingdom with its eastern border

? - 1753

Nguni paramount chief of Mtetwa.

1753 - 1771

Son. Paramount chief of Mtetwa.

1771 - 1789

Son. Paramount chief of Mtetwa.

1789 - 1807

Son. Paramount chief of Mtetwa.

1790s - 1800s

The Zulu are just one of a patchwork of small chiefdoms in pre-colonial South Africa. Others include Ndwandwe and Mtetwa. Up until now, for around a century, all have lived in relative peace by leading an agricultural existence which has remained untroubled by excessive warfare.

Shaka kaSenzangakhona (to give him his full name) is universally recognised as the founder of what would become known as the 'Zulu nation', ruling from about 1817 until he was assassinated by his half-brothers in 1828

1807

Son. Paramount chief of Mtetwa.

1807 - 1818

Brother. Paramount chief of Mtetwa.

1818

Son. Final paramount chief. Conquered by Ndwandwe.

1810s/1820s

During his chieftaincy Zwide of the Ndwandwe conquers the Mtetwa paramountcy while also, in his earlier years, being responsible for killing the Zulu chief, Senzangakhona (in 1816).

1816 - 1828

In the space of twelve years Shaka turns the small Zulu chiefdom into an empire which surpasses anything his father or the neighbouring tribes had envisaged. He goes from settlement to settlement, persuading with his spear the northern Nguni chieftains to join the newfound empire.

The Zulu under Shaka became the dominant force in the south-eastern corner of Africa, creating a tribal empire from a mixture of persuasion and intimidation, plus a certain amount of warfare

This time of empire-building is called the Mfecane, or 'the crushing'. Those who refuse to cooperate can chose between death or exile, and the latter flee to the foothills of the Drakensburg Mountains (many of them Nguni, which also causes the Swazi to set up their own Nguni state in the same mountains).

In those mountains they find the hunter-gatherers who are known as the 'sand people' who record their arrival in rock paintings which survive to this day. The same conflicts result in the formation of the Basuto state. By that time Mtetwa has already been conquered and absorbed by Ndwandwe (before 1825).