Sobhuza I of Swaziland

Sobhuza I (Ngwane IV) Dlamini (ca. 1780 - 1839?) was king ("ngwenyama") of KaNgwane, now known as Swaziland, from 1805(?) to 1839(?). Born around 1780, his father was Ndvungunye (Mavuso II, a.k.a. Zikhodze), and his mother was Somnjalose Simelane.

Biography

Few of the dates concerning Sobhuza I's life are secure, being based on interpretations of oral tradition. The Rev. A. T. Bryant, whose "Olden Times in Zululand and Natal" (1929) was the standard reference on Northern Nguni oral historical tradition until the late 1970s, dates Ndvungunye's accession to kingship to 1797, suggesting a birth date for Sobhuza at about that time. However, Bryant derived that date from his view that Ndvungunye died and Sobhuza succeeded in 1815, from which he mechanistically counted back eighteen years, which he had set as an arbitrary standard average length of a royal reign. Modern scholarship has pushed estimated dates of Sobhuza's birth and accession to the kingship backward in line with general reinterpretations of oral traditions about Northern Nguni state formation and the rise of the Zulu Kingdom, and placed the date of Sobhuza's death at 1839, rather than 1836 as Bryant had argued. [Bonner (1983), Jones (1991), Bryant [1929] ] Dating of Sobhuza's birth to ca. 1780 derives in part from his generational association with Dingiswayo of the Mthethwa and Zwide of the Ndwandwe, and in part from the fact that by the mid-to-late 1830s he was an elderly man who could not travel on foot. [Kuper [1947] , Jones (1991)] When Sobhuza became "ngwenyama" remains uncertain, with estimates ranging from 1805 to 1815. [Jones (1991), Matsebula (1987)]

Sobhuza's mother Somnjalose was the younger sister and "inhlanti" co-wife to her elder sister Lojiba Simelane, Ndvungunye's senior wife. Lojiba had no male children herself. Sobhuza, as son of her sister co-wife, was considered Lojiba's classificatory son under Ngwane royal kinship and succession principles. While Sobhuza thus became Ndvungunye's heir and successor, Lojiba rather than Somnjalose became "ndlovukati" (senior queen, queen mother) upon his accession. Sobhuza appears to have been fully adult at the time of his succession, since there was no regency. At some point during his reign Somnjalose succeeded Lojiba as "ndlovukati" (see Mswati II). [Kuper [1947] , 13]

Preservation and consolidation of the Ngwane state

The reign of Sobhuza I marked a crucial phase in the history of Swaziland. As Sobhuza began his reign, KaNgwane was a realm centered in territory along the Phongola River to the south of modern Swaziland, whose northern reaches encompassed today's southern Swaziland. KaNgwane was ruled by kings of the Dlamini clan ("isibongo"), who had earlier ruled an area in and around the Lubombo Mountains to the east. It was only under Sobhuza's grandfather, Ngwane II , ca. 1750, that the Dlamini kings conquered the area Sobhuza inherited, incorporating more than a dozen smaller chiefdoms led by chiefs from other clans.

Early in Sobhuza's reign, the Ngwane kingdom faced strong risks of conquest by the more powerful Ndwandwe and Zulu kingdoms to the south in the 1810s and 1820s. Sobhuza moved the main royal centers northward into what is now central Swaziland, with many of his followers relocating as well. The former royal centers in Shiselweni became southern outposts.

After moving the center of Dlamini royal power to the north, Sobhuza led the conquest of many local chiefdoms. KaNgwane became a kingdom comparable in scope and power to those of the Zulu, the southern Sotho, or the Pedi. Thus, although kingship held by Dlamini royalty long predated him, in many respects Sobhuza I was the founder of modern Swaziland, along with wife Tsandzile Ndwandwe and their son Mswati II, from whom the country's name comes.

Sobhuza I had three wives, the first of whom, Tsandzile laZidze, bore him Mswati II and Mzamose Dlamini. (Zidze was the siSwati version of the name of the Ndwandwe king Zwide, and laZidze means "daughter of Zidze").

References

*Bonner, Philip (1983). "Kings, Commoners, and Concessionaires". Cambridge University Press.
*Bryant, A. T. (1965). "Olden Times in Zululand and Natal: Containing Earlier Political History of the Eastern-Nguni Clans" [facsimile reprint of 1929 original] . C. Struik.
*Jones, Huw M. (1993). "A Biographical Register of Swaziland to 1902". University of Natal Press.
*Kuper, Hilda (1980). "An African Aristocracy. Rank Among the Swazi" [facsimile reprint of 1947 original] . Africana Publishing Company for the International African Institute.
*Matsebula, J. S. M. (1987). "A History of Swaziland", 3rd ed.