150 Years of the Mockery of Justice
09/10/2023 – The Hlubi Nation from within and without the country, will this weekend gather for their annual cultural event to celebrate their cultural heritage as well as pay homage to the foresight and visionary leadership of Ngwenyama Langalibalele 1. Umgubho (observance of King Langalibalele’s struggles for liberation) is an annual event by isizwe samaHlubi at Estcourt. It was launched at the centenary of the rebellion. AmaHlubi all over attend this to remember what happened and revive their customs. Prominent figures from different sectors are allowed to grace the occasion.
INgwenyama Langalibalele kaMthimkhulu ruled over isizwe samaHlubi from the late 1830s until his death in 1889. Born in the early decades of the 19th century, he was the younger son of King Mthimkhulu kaBhungane and his wife Mntambose Mazibuko and was named Mthethwa at birth (in honour of King Dingiswayo kaJobe Mthethwa). Dingiswayo was mentored by King Bhungane. Langalibalele was very young when his father was killed by Matiwane kaMasumpa, King of the amaNgwane, in about 1818. His mother Mntambose fled with him and his older brother Dlomo to the upper Phongolo River, where her brother iNkosi Phuthini of the amaNgwe lived. Dlomo was later recognized as the heir of Mthimkhulu and ruled as INgwenyama yesizwe samaHlubi until he was killed on the orders of the Zulu king, Dingane kaSenzangakhona in the late 1830s. At this crucial point Langalibalele became the King of his people, and soon afterwards the army of King Dingane fought the Voortrekker forces of Andries Pretorius along the Ncome River in 1838, in the heartland of Hlubi territory. Following the British annexation of colonial Natal in 1842, the Mzinyathi River became the western boundary of the Zulu kingdom and the amaHlubi were divided between British and Zulu rule. In 1848 the Zulu king Mpande kaSenzangakhona sent a force to seize Langalibalele’s cattle, and the amaHlubi moved with their King across the Mzinyathi river to seek protection in the British territory of Natal. Initially settled around Ladysmith, where forcibly removed by Sir Theophelus Shepstone. They were placed in an official reserve, west of the village of Estcourt, on the upper Mtshezi River.
Here Langalibalele was able to reconsolidate a stable Hlubi ubukhosi led by the Hadebe ruling house and his people prospered as farmers for more than two decades. They competed with white farmers by selling surplus maize to the Colony. Some of the young men earned cash by working in local farms. The king and his isizwe had a lot of stock (cattle, goats, and horses). He was a proud King with independent spirit who refused to be submissive to the settlers. As early as 1850’s he was on loggerheads with colonial officials like Shepstone and Estcourt magistrates. He questioned new taxes imposed on black people. Just to mention but one incident, in 1869 he quarreled with Shepstone in public at Estcourt over the implementation of new marriage regulations. Shepstone warned amaHlubi present, ‘People of amaHlubi, you had better warn that man, or some day he will get you into trouble’. In 1871 some of amaHlubi refused to pay their taxes of their discontentment over the marriage regulations. The relationship between the King and settlers finally broke up. Rev. James Dube named his son John Langalibalele after the amaHlubi King because he loved his resistance spirit. Rev. Dr. J.L. Dube became the first president of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC) in 1912, later in 1923 became African National Congress (ANC). The ‘discovery of diamonds’ at Kimberley in the late 1860s brought new challenges for Langalibalele. Young men of amaHlubi walked about 600 km to Kimberly, it was a journey of three months. Many of them returned from work on the diamond fields with guns they had received in exchange for their
labour. This led to a tragic confrontation with the British government in 1873 when Langalibalele’s failure to comply with requirements to register firearms was seen as an act of rebellion on his part. When the rumours reached the new Natal Colony Lieutenant – Governor, Sir Benjamin Pine that Langalibalele was in communication with amakhosi in Basotoland and East Griqualand ordered that the king must be arrested and deposed his kingdom broken up. The settler government began to draw plans a military campaign against the kingdom. On 27 October the Colony’s Executive Council approved the plans. The military force (300 Volunteer regiments, 200 troop and thousands of black levies) marched from Pietermaritzburg to Fort Nottingham to surround the kingdom searching for the king. When a military force was sent to arrest the King, some of the colonial soldiers were killed during the ensuing conflict, along with several amaHlubi warriors on 4 November. On 11 November Pine declared a martial law (first in the southern tip of the continent) and issued a proclamation where the king was outlawed and isizwe samaHlubi disposed their land. AmaHlubi women and children were captured and distributed as labourers among white farmers. When Pine heard that some of amaHlubi cattle were hidden in amaNgwe areas, he ordered the force of levies to clear the people and the cattle and burnt down the homes of amaNgwe and amaHlubi. On 17 December amaNgwe were declared disposed of their land. Uproar followed as Langalibalele fled into Basutoland, where he was arrested by British troops on 11 Decembe at the betrayal of Kgosi Molapo’s (the senior son of King Moshesh) place. Molapo betrayed his father’s friend. The contingent left Basutoland on 21 December with the king and more than 200 amaHlubi. The king was tied with a rope on his waist, leg ironed and pulled by the horse. They reached Pietermaritzburg on 31 December, white women and children were invited to mock him; the humiliation of the king was a picnic to them. There were two trials the king, his seven sons and izinduna and 221 amaHlubi. Langalibalele was convicted of treason and rebellion in 1874 and sentenced to imprisonment on Robben Island in Cape
Town with his son Malambule. Due to the intervention of Bishop Colenso, the trial was shown to be a severe miscarriage of justice, but although Langalibalele was released from prison, he was not allowed to return home. He spent the next 12 years in exile on a farm at Pinelands outside Cape Town and was finally allowed to return to Natal in 1887. He lived the remainder of his life under surveillance in KwaMpumuza under iNkosi Tetelegu Zondi near Pietermaritzburg and died on 10 October 1889. He was buried according to the customs of isizwe samaHlubi, in the mountains close to his homesteads along the uMtshezi River. The first President of the democratic South Africa Dr. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela visited the place where the revolutionary, patriot, freedom fighter and defender of his people and land was laid to rest. There were six chiefdoms that were erected on amaHlubi land as a compensation for the loyalty, they still exist up to this day. The Legislative Council passed a law to empower the Lieutenant – Governor to assign prisoners to work in private individuals. More than 530 of amaHlubi were put into forced labour on farms in Pietermaritzburg and Estcourt. The elderly, women and children hiding in caves and forests were smoked out and killed. Amangwe were allowed to return to their location in August 1879
In 1875 amaHlubi were also allowed to return to their old location but not a single group and not under their own leaders. The remaining livestock after the ‘loyalists’ got their share was sold off at the public auctions