It was at that time that, on account of hunger, people began to eat each other as one eats the flesh of a slaughtered animal; they hunted each other like animals and ate each other; they started because of hunger, but afterwards continued with their cannibalism out of habit. The first cannibal was a Zulu called Ndava, who lived near the place where the city of Durban now stands. And then after a few years the persecutions and sufferings from the east climbed over the Maloti Mountains and entered Lesotho, and there too cannibals came into being because of hunger. This is the worst of all the evil things of those days, and that too arose because of Chaka, originator-of-all-things-evil.
When Chaka reached Mathuli’s place, he turned back, and he gathered together the cattle of the nations he had scattered, and placed them in cattle posts in that very land which now had no inhabitants; all the black ones were kept together in one cattle post, and so too with the yellow, the fawn-coloured, the red-and-white, and so on. When he reached home, he released his old regiments from their bonds of bachelorhood, and he gave them the cattle which were to provide them with livelihood; he also gave them the young women who tended the fields and cooked for them, and thus fulfilled his word when he said that he would arrange the marriages of such regiments. He gave them what he had taken from other people.
The day Chaka returned from the south, where were the Maqwabe, Mafuze, Bathembu, Machunu, Makhuze, BakwaMachibisa, Mabomvu and Bathuli? They had been wiped out from under the sun, and had gone where Zwide’s nation had gone. On his return only animals could be seen in the veld, but there was not a single human being to be seen; they had all been wiped out, finished, no more.
It was at that time, when Chaka was returning from the south, that Moshoeshoe’s messengers came to him with tributes from their king who, through the mouths of these messengers, announced that he was not a king but was Chaka’s subject, adding that he knew of no other king than Chaka. Chaka received those gifts with joy, and never thereafter entertained any thoughts of attacking Moshoeshoe. Instead he decided to make him his subject-king in whose land his armies, deployed to fight on this side of the Maloti Mountains, would camp. He was very flattered by Moshoeshoe’s words, and he repeated them often in his heart, saying: “Moshoeshoe says he knows no other king besides me! So, the people have already begun to say that I am the only king on earth, even though I have done nothing yet, for these recent events are but trifles! How then will it be the day I accomplish my purpose as I have conceived it? What will they say on that day!”
Chaka once more went to make war. This time he attacked the Mangwane of Matiwane who were now living right up against the Maloti. He scattered them with ease; in fact, they fled even while Chaka was still on his way. In their flight they fell upon the Mahlubi of Bungane (Pokane), fought and scattered them, so that the Mahlubi were the first to climb over the Maloti, something they did under great pressure since the Mangwane were hot on their heels. In order that the reader may understand how extreme was their suffering during that flight, we should state that the fugitives left behind their aged as well as their children, indeed even their wives and their sisters, when they were overcome by fatigue on the way, because there was no time to do anything about it. That same Matiwane was the fox that caused much trouble at Thaba-Bosiu. The difaqane in Lesotho began with the coming of those Mahlubi and Mangwane.
After this war, Chaka did not go out to battle in person any more, and his regiments and their generals went by themselves, while he remained at home. Mzilikazi was by now at the head of all of Chaka’s commanders, with Manukuza as his next in command. Moselekatse was the one who led the armies in many of the expeditions to the north, and on every occasion he brought all the spoils to the king; but, even though Chaka gave him quite a large share, he could never satisfy his greedy heart. The most important problem, however, was that Moselekatse did not want to be ruled and to have to do somebody else’s will instead of his own, to fight for someone else instead of fighting for himself, to bring the spoils to someone else instead of capturing everything for himself, to bring renown upon the garland of kingship on someone else’s head instead of his own. He felt a great sense of grievance, telling himself that his efforts were as useless as the sweat of a hunting dog which was always sucked up by its fur. Secondly, Moselekatse was already grown up and was a mature man who yearned much for marriage, whereas the king had not yet thought of releasing him from his duties as a commander. For these reasons he decided to establish his own kingdom far away from Chaka, where he could run his own affairs.
One day he was sent again to the north to go and destroy a petty king and capture all his cattle. Moselekatse went and did as he was told, and on the way he found an excellent opportunity to talk to the troops under his command: “Men, what are we going to gain by working with such diligence for Chaka, and exposing ourselves to death for his sake? He will never make us kings, and, besides, he does not give us our fair share of the war spoils; we capture the cattle at the cost of our own blood while he sits at home with his many women, and yet when we get back home he chooses the miserable-looking ones and gives them to us while he keeps for himself not only the largest number, but also the best-looking ones. Here we are today, with our hair beginning to turn grey, yet we have not yet been given permission to marry. He has his women, but we shall only be released when we are no longer much use, and marriage is no longer a pleasure. Furthermore, Chaka kills us. Besides, Chaka is a human being just like all other human beings, he is no miracle, he is no god, what he does we can also do; he has taught us how to fight and that is enough. We are now able to part from him, to throw off the yoke of servitude from our necks, and create a kingdom all our own where we shall be kings and princes. How do you view this matter which I am talking about?”
The troops agreed with him since they were tired of the endless marches and endless wars in which most of them succumbed to disease and hunger and the enemy’s spear. Yet they also cautioned him, saying: “If Chaka should know our plan, we shall become food for the wolves in no time at all. If we are truly serious, we ought to proceed straight ahead now on our fight, and not go back to him any more.”
But Moselekatse drew their attention to certain things: “In the first place we must have wives, and they must be Zulus. That means that we have to go back home and fetch the young women of our regiment, because we cannot take as wives the dogs of foreign nations. They too are grown women now and they are crying for marriage, and will understand at once that we are making them into human beings by taking them out of their bondage. As regards Chaka’s anger, you should remember that among all his armies, the most efficient and best trained are those ones which are under my command; his warriors will come to us with very little hope of victory because they know me well, and besides I know that even Manukuza has had enough of this heavy yoke.”
Among these regiments of Moselekatse’s, a warrior who fell by the spear in the heat of battle was considered fortunate by his comrades for having died in the manner expected of a male child from Zululand. They had grief in their hearts, and were moved to tears as they wondered when they would come to an honourable end to their suffering.
When he came close to Zululand, Moselekatse sent some of his people secretly to go and smuggle out some young women, and at the same time he sent messengers driving an ox with a beautiful yellow colour to Chaka to inform him that he was near but was unable to travel fast because of the large number of the cattle he was bringing back with him. Unfortunately they drove that ox too hard and it became tired on the way, and they slaughtered and ate it. Ndlebe told Chaka that that was a lie, there were no such cattle coming, and that Moselekatse had decided to turn against him. Chaka, in his anger, sent numerous troops under the command of Manukuza to go and kill Moselekatse and all those with him; but Manukuza, instead of fighting Moselekatse, found an excellent opportunity to escape. He fled with those armies and went far away beyond the Zambezi, where he established his own nation, the Machakana. That very Manukuza was the father
of Gungunyani.
The young women of Moselekatse’s age group trilled their ululations when they heard his invitation, and they said: “We have long been asking when such a hero would come forward! We suffer under Chaka’s rule, and we all grow old without knowing the joys of marriage.” The women of those days were strong and could run fast. Moselekatse thus departed with young people only who had no children to slow down their progress. He climbed over the Maloti Mountains in the same direction taken by his own people, the people of Zwide (towards Bopedi). He found the nations of the Basotho, the Batswana and the Bapedi living in peace with their weak little spears, and he played havoc among them with the Zulu spear which stabbed once and killed. He destroyed the nations in a manner never known before. Whenever he came into a village he killed the men, the women and the children, but incorporated the young into his regiments. He burned the villages and the crops, and would also burn the grass in the fields where he camped for the night. This meant that between him and Chaka’s armies which came in pursuit, there was not a single person, no cow, no animal, and not even a grain of sorghum or of maize, nothing to eat, only charred ruins all around. For that reason Chaka’s armies which were chasing him were not able to go far because of hunger.
Moselekatse ran on in that manner destroying all the little nations among whom he passed, until he reached Kudumane in Botswana; and it was through him that the Masarwa and the Bakgothu came to know Chaka’s name, even though they were taught it in a cruel manner, by being killed. Afterwards he migrated to Bulawayo in Inyathi. That is to say that the conflagration which had been lit by Chaka in the east crossed the Maloti through Moselekatse, destroyed those in the centre while just singeing those in the extreme west, leaving them as casualties. There is nothing that will survive in the path of a wildfire, and so both the Mokone and the Mosotho died, both the cow and the lion.
When he saw his armies returning without having killed Moselekatse, and he heard, besides, that Moselekatse had defected with his armies, Chaka was extremely angry, and he ordered the commanders of the armies which had gone in pursuit of Moselekatse to be burned alive in a blazing wood fire; he said that was the kind of death they deserved since they had deliberately allowed his enemy to escape, and it was obvious that they themselves had already become corrupted by that evil spirit of rebellion.
CHAPTER 21
Concerning Nongogo and Mnyamana
CHAKA’S THOUGHTS were in turmoil, and his anger was almost driving him insane when he saw how Moselekatse and Manukuza had defied him. From that day on his spear destroyed the Zulu with the same viciousness as the enemy, making no distinction. Furthermore, from that day Chaka never again promoted anybody to the position of commander; instead he would appoint a person to lead the armies when they went out to attack, and then demote them when they returned home, and then the next time he went to war again he would appoint a different person. His heart was full, and he was choking with rage, and he killed many innocent people for fear that they would do as those two evil ones had done.
In those days spears were obtained with great difficulty, for they were made from ironstone which was very tough indeed. Just around that time people far away near the Zambezi, as they were digging ochre, unexpectedly discovered a stone which was easier to work with in making spears. News of that stone gave Chaka the pretext to kill many people who had done no wrong, while cleverly disguising his intent.
There was one outstanding brave who worked for Chaka with all his heart, and without any evil motives, and all of Chaka’s armies were very fond of him. His name was Nongogo. When Chaka saw how his armies loved Nongogo, he was seized with envy, because he wanted them to worship him alone. So he called Nongogo. On arriving at the king’s place Nongogo left his spear outside the city walls as was proper, and as soon as he came in view of the king he shouted his praises:
Bayede Nkosi yamakhosi!
Wena Ngonyama enzipho zibukhali!
Wena odla amadoda.
Bayede Baba!
Bayede Zulu!
Bayede, O King of kings!
You, Lion with sharp claws!
You who devour other men.
Bayede, Father!
Bayede, Zulu!
And then he threw himself on the ground and crawled on his stomach with his face close to the ground, which was the manner in which Chaka was greeted. He crawled on till he came near Chaka, and he stood there ready to do to the king’s utmost satisfaction anything whatsoever which he might command, no matter how difficult it might be, or else die while attempting it rather than come back having failed.
And when he was near, Chaka said: “Take two hundred warriors and go where I bid you. I understand that in some country which I do not know, yonder to the north, there is iron ore for making spears which is both easy to obtain and easy to work with. I am sending you on a secret scouting mission to find out if this is indeed so, and also to bring these stones. You must also study the method used to mine and smelt it.”
The manner in which Chaka spoke made Nongogo realise at once that Chaka was cleverly sending him to his death; he was sure that someone had slandered him before the king. He returned from the king with a very sore heart and went where he was being sent, to a place he did not know. He was also unhappy at the small number of men the king gave him for this mission.
On the way many nations fought against him, killing his men, so that he even sent messengers to Chaka asking him for reinforcements; but Chaka refused, saying that the men he had were enough. Nongogo pressed on until he reached that place and brought back that stone. During his return journey, one day he had to fight a furious battle. He had found himself surrounded, at sunrise, by a large army. The Zulus had then stood back to back in a circle and defended themselves like men. By the afternoon, there were more of the enemy killed than remained alive, while Nongogo was left with only ten warriors to whom he continually shouted words of encouragement, urging them to line the ground with many enemy warriors before they fell down, so that they should go down like the true sons of Chaka. The enemy were in no doubt that they could kill all those Zulus and finish them, but it was obvious that, by the time the last Zulu went down, they would probably themselves have only one man left, and that would not be of any use; and so they left them to go their way.
Nongogo and the ten were afraid to go back by the same road they had taken on their outward journey, and so they went west in order to avoid meeting any people. They went through deserts where most of them died of thirst, and only Nongogo and one other man escaped. Those two trudged on with their feet swollen and their soles cracked, and they were weak from hunger and thirst, and fatigued by the journey and by fighting. Nongogo’s entire body was covered with sores, and he would most likely have died first, but his strong will kept his soul within his flesh till he was able to present himself again before his king. They came into Zulu territory unable to walk properly, barely able to touch the ground with the soles of their feet. They were so emaciated that many who had known them as they had been before would never have recognised them now. Indeed, so wasted were they that even the animals of the veld did not take any notice of them. A lion would come and sniff at them and then pass on unconcerned; the hyena would also sniff at them and then go its way, because they were no longer people, but mere skeletons.
On the eve of their arrival they could see the royal city at a distance; they saw the regiments at their games, healthy, vigorous young men in their prime; and at that sight Nongogo’s companion cried when he thought that, even though they loved Chaka so much, he cared nothing for them. He cried also when he pondered over the troubles they had been through, to which most of them had succumbed. The sun set before they could reach the city, and so they slept again in the open. That man fell asleep for ever, and did not see the rising of the next day. Nongogo got up at sunrise and shook off the dew that had lain on him, and when he looked at his friend he saw that there was white dew on his eyelashes and on his upper lip, and his eyes had rolled backwards;
his face was turned in the direction of Mgungundlovu, the royal city. His life was a thing of yesterday. And now the weight of the entire grief of their journey became the burden of Nongogo’s heart alone, and his eyes became dim and he could not see clearly, and his ears were blocked and there was a throbbing ache in his heart; his legs and knees shook and he was unable to walk.
When the afternoon shadows began to lengthen, he arrived at the city, and he passed through the city gates with no one saying a word to him. He went to the king’s house which was near the council place and he asked to see the king and was granted permission. And as soon as he came within Chaka’s presence, he mumbled some indistinct words because even his jaws had become stiff, and then he crawled on his stomach to go to Chaka, and his spear had not even been taken from him as required by law. When Chaka first saw him he was extremely frightened, because he resembled the tikoloshe he once saw at the river when he was bathing, and he wondered why it was visiting him on this day, in broad daylight, and in full view of all the people.
When Nongogo came to Chaka he stood up unsteadily, unable to keep his body erect. Chaka took a quick look at him, and he realised that the spear he carried was a Zulu spear. And then he looked at Nongogo and saw that his blanket was in tatters, and his body was full of open sores oozing pus. The blood from those wounds and from his travel-torn feet had left a trail as it dripped, right up to where he stood, next to Chaka. Nongogo took his spear and gave it to Chaka, and then he produced the little stone he had been sent to look for, and he gave it to Chaka also; and then, maintaining complete silence, he removed his tattered clothes, and his wasted body was seen in its entirety by Chaka and the men of his court.
Nongogo mumbled: “I have tried to fulfil your command, O King.”
Chaka: “Nongogo! Is that you, Nongogo?”
Nongogo: “It is I, your servant, O King!”
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