Langalibalele
Langalibalele was born in the Umzinyati area in Utrecht in 1818. The chief of the AmaHlubi tribe described by Bishop Colenso as “tall and in good condition, with dignity and grace in his actions which so commonly, amidst the most savage nations, proclaim the king.” In keeping with African tradition, where the name of a child is invariably dictated by the
circumstances surrounding the child’s birth, he was accordingly named Langalibalele, which loosely translated means ‘boiling hot’.
Legend has it that he was born at a time when the country was gripped by a severe drought ands, this child of drought, would grow up to become a famous rainmaker. After a skirmish with Zulu king Mpande in 1848 he settled his people around the Klip River and a few years later, made an appeal to the Lieutenant Governor Martin West for help. In response, the
Government replied by moving the Amahlubi, together with the related Putini tribe down into the midlands, to an area north of Giants castle. The idea was that these two tribes would act as a buffer between the marauding Bushmen and the settlers. The Langalibalele tribe at this stage numbered some 7000 people but by 1873 their numbers had increased to 94000.
According to history, Langalibalele’s troubles started with the discovery of diamonds in Kimberley where young men from the tribe were recruited to mine these precious stones. As part of their wages, these men were paid with guns which became a threat to the status quo between the colonists and the local indigenous population.
In an attempt to stop this increasing ‘inequality’, the colonial government passed a law declaring it a crime for a “native” to own a firearm without a license. Magistrates were instructed to compile a register of firearms to which the amaHlubi
complied. There follows two stories of what happened next. The first, that when the firearms were returned to the amaHlubi many were found to have been tampered with or damaged, some even confiscated which cause much anger and a air of
mistrust in the registering process. The second story, obviously the one favoured by the government officials, was that the amaHlubi refused to send their firearms in for registration. The magistrate of Estcourt, John MacFarlane and Langalibalele clashed over the issue after the latter failed to comply with MacFarlane’s injunction. In 1873 two government messengers from Pietermaritzburg were sent to inform Langalibalele to make himself available to appear before Theophilus Shepstone,
Peaceable means having failed to secure the obedience of the chief, on 29th October 1873 the Government called up for active service a number of volunteer regiments, backing them up with the military. The following day, Thursday, a large force moved out of Pietermaritzburg and headed for Fort Nottingham where they arrived on the Saturday afternoon. The military units that took part were a Troop of 45 Pietermaritzburg Carbineers led by Captain Allison, a troop of 35 Karkloof Carbineers led by Captain Charles Barter and about 500 armed loyal Africans. The operation was under the command of Colonel Durnford Royal Engineers, later to be killed at Isandhlwana on 20 January 1879.
The plan was to throw a cordon around both tribes that stretched from Champagne Castle in the north to Giants Castle in the south. At the same time two flying columns would close off the Bushman’s Pass at the summit of the Drakensberg to prevent Langalibalele escaping to Lesotho. Upon its approach, Langalibalele left the women, children, old men, and some warriors to
protect them, and with his cattle he and the young men fled by way of the Bushman’s pass over the Drakensberg towards.
On learning this, the armed party, pushed on as fast as they could up the Giant's Castle pass and then along the crest of the mountains to the top of the Bushman's pass to intercept the fugitives. They arrived there after the chief and his attendants had gone on, but before the cattle and the men with them had quite reached the summit. The volunteers had orders not to fire first, and Major Durnford, who wished to communicate with the chief, requested Mabuhle, the principal man with the cattle, to send for him. Mabuhle made pretence of doing so and, while the volunteers were waiting, the warriors were taking up commanding positions behind rocks on one side of them. At the same time threatening gestures and language, coupled with taunts, were used towards them. This naturally caused much uneasiness, especially among the younger men. Major Durnford ordered them to fall back to a better position, but before they could do so, the Hlubis opened fire on them, and three young volunteers, by name Erskine, Bond, and Potterill, the first named a son of the colonial secretary, the interpreter Elijah Kambula and another black man fell dead.
His trial, held over six days, started on 16 January 1874 and was South Africa’s first treason trial. In what is believed to have been a travesty of justice.
The prisoners were tried according to Bantu law, and were not permitted to have counsel. Such a court was ill qualified to secure respect by Europeans for decisions, for the Bantu members could not be supposed to act impartially. Langalibalele was found guilty, convicted of murder, treason and rebellion and exiled to the Cape Colony, banished to Robben Island for life in 1874.
The details of these occurrences were published in England and, as it happened to be a time when nothing of an exciting nature was taking place in Europe, a large amount of
attention was bestowed upon Natal. The ease with which the rebellion had been suppressed caused many to think that the danger had really not been as great as represented. To shorten the conclusion to this story Lieutenant-Governor Pine and the colonists were condemned as being as unnecessarily severe. Bishop Colenso, as always the champion of the Bantu, came out in favour of Langalibalele being unfairly treated all of which resulted in and it was considered absurd to suppose that Langalibalele meant to rebel, for what could he gain by such a course? In December 1874 Sir Benjamin Pine was relieved of
office.
Langalibalele died in 1889 and his body, as befits a king, was wrapped in a leopard skin, sewn tightly in a freshly slaughtered ox hide and, accompanied by a large impi, the funeral procession made the seven day journey to Bekuzulu at Giants castle. Some of the impi went in search of a suitable grave site and, having found it, proceeded for two days
excavating a tunnel under a rock. Together with eight clay pots of beer and eight
slaughtered goats he was interred in the tunnel.
The “sun who was boiling hot” had set at last!
His grave, kept secret by the amaHlubi for over 60 years, lies within the borders of the Giants Castle Game Reserve and has been visited by one of his most illustrious blood decedents, Nelson Mandela. Langa, the oldest township in the Western Cape, was named after him in 1923.
The amaHlubi won more than 8,000 hectares of their land back in 2000 under the government land restitution. They are still demanding restitution from the British government in terms of the 1875 proclamation by Queen Victoria, which promised to compensate them for their losses during the Battle of
Langalibalele. In October 2004, the then British High Commissioner to South Africa, Ann Grant, handed over a chair, a leopard skin cape and a staff, symbols of monarchy taken by the troops, back to King Langalibalele II.
II.
Langalibalele
“At dusk we off-saddled for the first time after saddling up at Fort Nottingham on Sunday evening. We also had our first feed of biscuits after 48 hours fast. Later on we marched to the camp at Meshlyn, reaching it at 3am on Wednesday morning, and at once fell asleep \by our saddles.”
Taken from Trooper John Otter Jackson’s account of the first attempt to capture Langalibalele.
“….to the place where major Durnford had off-saddled. We found the major had had a fall over the precipice and had put his collarbone out. Major Durnford fainted and stayed below all evening.
….Erskine was the first to fall , poor Bond was next and Potterill fell last. As we turned the corner Varty’s horse fell…he caught Erskine’s as it passed but had not gone far when it also fell. Fannin and Speirs stayed with him whilst he took the saddle off the dead horse and put it on to the Major’s led horse.
Trooper Albert Robert Button’s account.