ANDILE NTINGI: A potted history of Transkei’s chiefs and kings
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A few days after Bhaca king Madzikane II Thandisizwe Diko was linked to irregular procurement of Covid-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) by the Gauteng provincial government, a friend sent me a text asking how many kings there are in the former Transkei homeland.
As a Xhosa-speaking South African, I am used to this question from friends and acquaintances, who are confused about the number of kingdoms and chiefdoms in the area. Before I gave my friend a long historical answer, I first dealt with the Diko kingship, though as far as I was aware the Bhaca were historically a chiefdom, not a kingdom.
That Diko, husband of presidential spokesperson Khusela Diko, was not a king (ikumkani) but a chief (inkosi) was later confirmed by the Eastern Cape department of co-operative governance & traditional affairs and some members of the Bhaca royal family, who issued a statement saying the tribe had not had a king since the death of King Ncapayi in 1846.
When my parents relocated from Cape Town to the former Transkei in 1978, the region had four recognised kingdoms and a number of chiefdoms, such as the Bomvana, Bhaca, Mpondomise and Hlubi. The four kingdoms were the Xhosa, Thembu, Mpondo Qawukeni (eastern Mpondos), and Mpondo Nyandeni (western Mpondos).
There was also a group of people known as Mbo, an immigrant tribe that fled KwaZulu-Natal during the Mfecane wars between 1815 and 1840 and settled among the Xhosa, Thembu and Mpondo. The Mbo who settled among the Xhosa in 1818 in Gcuwa (Butterworth) to seek protection from King Hintsa ended up assuming the identity of the Mfengu.
Like the Mfengu, the Hlubi and Bhaca are immigrant tribes from KwaZulu-Natal, which also crossed the Mtamvuna River to settle in the former Transkei, the present-day eastern part of the Eastern Cape. Over time, through intermarrying and mingling, all the tribes in the former Transkei ended up speaking Xhosa, which is today spoken by about 8.2-million people in SA.
During the period that my parents settled in Transkei, the area was ruled by eastern Mpondo king Botha Sigcau, who was the homeland’s first prime minister. He was rumoured to have written the constitution of Transkei with his deputy, Kaiser Daliwonga Matanzima, an attorney and Thembu chief.
When Sigcau died in 1979 he was succeeded by Matanzima as leader of Transkei. Though a chief, Matanzima was promoted to paramount chief of the western ...
As a Xhosa-speaking South African, I am used to this question from friends and acquaintances, who are confused about the number of kingdoms and chiefdoms in the area. Before I gave my friend a long historical answer, I first dealt with the Diko kingship, though as far as I was aware the Bhaca were historically a chiefdom, not a kingdom.
That Diko, husband of presidential spokesperson Khusela Diko, was not a king (ikumkani) but a chief (inkosi) was later confirmed by the Eastern Cape department of co-operative governance & traditional affairs and some members of the Bhaca royal family, who issued a statement saying the tribe had not had a king since the death of King Ncapayi in 1846.
When my parents relocated from Cape Town to the former Transkei in 1978, the region had four recognised kingdoms and a number of chiefdoms, such as the Bomvana, Bhaca, Mpondomise and Hlubi. The four kingdoms were the Xhosa, Thembu, Mpondo Qawukeni (eastern Mpondos), and Mpondo Nyandeni (western Mpondos).
There was also a group of people known as Mbo, an immigrant tribe that fled KwaZulu-Natal during the Mfecane wars between 1815 and 1840 and settled among the Xhosa, Thembu and Mpondo. The Mbo who settled among the Xhosa in 1818 in Gcuwa (Butterworth) to seek protection from King Hintsa ended up assuming the identity of the Mfengu.
Like the Mfengu, the Hlubi and Bhaca are immigrant tribes from KwaZulu-Natal, which also crossed the Mtamvuna River to settle in the former Transkei, the present-day eastern part of the Eastern Cape. Over time, through intermarrying and mingling, all the tribes in the former Transkei ended up speaking Xhosa, which is today spoken by about 8.2-million people in SA.
During the period that my parents settled in Transkei, the area was ruled by eastern Mpondo king Botha Sigcau, who was the homeland’s first prime minister. He was rumoured to have written the constitution of Transkei with his deputy, Kaiser Daliwonga Matanzima, an attorney and Thembu chief.
When Sigcau died in 1979 he was succeeded by Matanzima as leader of Transkei. Though a chief, Matanzima was promoted to paramount chief of the western ...
