RESERVE - Tribal History: Lion of the north

In the days before the arrival of Europeans in this area, the Zulu, Swazi and the BakaNgomane (meaning the people of Ngomane) were too occupied with their own local operations to come into conflict with each other, but conflict was inevitable as power changed hands.

It was later written that King Sobhuza I laid the foundations of the Swazi nation and at the time of his death in 1839 his kingdom stretched from Pongola up to Barberton and from the Lebombo Mountains to Carolina and Ermelo. He was succeeded by King Mswati II, the great fighter king of the Swazis who managed to unite the various clans into one nation under one ruler. Immediately after Mswati ascended the throne he began with raids as far as Zimbabwe. It was also during this time that the Swazi’s first made contact with Europeans.

Mswati’s people were known as bakaMswati, meaning “the people of Mswati” while among the Europeans who had by then moved into the Transvaal, they were known as the Swazis and their land as Swaziland. At that time, the foothills of the Drakensberg, westwards from Malelane and Low’s Creek to the Barberton Mountainlands were occupied by the Mbayi tribe, also known as the Maseko people, who were held in subjection by, but were not incorporated with the BakaNgomane.

The rich traditions of the Swazi people still permeate the area. LEFT & CENTER: Modern Swazi’s often still live in traditional grass huts and follow old traditions. RIGHT: Iron has been mined in the area for centuries. Here a Swazi traditional ironsmith tends to the task of making a spear the way they have been made for centuries.

Oral tradition has it that the Mbayi left curious souvenirs of their occupation, which is very much in evidence in the Songimvelo and Mountainlands Reserves, south and east of Barberton. Along the gravel slopes below the mountains from Barberton to Hectorspruit, a distance of over 80 km, all loose surface stones were gathered and stacked in neat piles about two meters in diameter and about a meter in height. Many of the early settlers believed this was done in the course of cultivation of land, but the soil is too gravelly to permit cultivation and there were no signs of bush clearing. Older tribesman offered an explanation that the chiefs of the Mbayi instructed the young men to collect these stones to keep them occupied and to restrain their fighting ardour. However, Dr Cyril Hromnik attributes some of these structures to activities of the Dravidians.

Mountainlands has been witness to many battles over territory by the different tribes. The Swazi regiments drove the Mbayi from this area a couple of times and a battle which took place near Low’s Creek, at the north eastern corner of Mountainlands, between the Swazi regiments and the Mbayi was so fierce that the creek ran red with the blood of the slain. After this battle the Swazi named the creek the red (or blood) river (Mantibovu) and the mountain Mbayiyane, meaning the mountain of the EmaMbayi.

Mswati II also attacked the Bapedi tribes living south of the Crocodile River and the Kaap (Umlambongwane) Rivers, who fled into the present day Kruger National Park and into the mountainous area of Crocodile Gorge (Mphakeni) and the Three Sisters mountains (Mbayiyane).

This great king built a line of military outposts from west to east along the “Little Crocodile River “(Kaap River). At each outpost he stationed some of his regiments to watch and stop the Bapedi returning to their old haunts. But as soon as the Swazi army retreated, the Bapedi returned to reoccupy their old stomping grounds.

The outposts were Mbhuleni, on the upper Komati River at the foot of the Mkongomo Mountains, south of Badplaas, and at Mekemeke, just east of the Mbayiyane Mountains (Three Sisters), situated east of Mantibovu (Low’s Creek). From Mswati’s further attacks on various tribes it is clear that he had a formidable army. The death of Mswati II in July 1865 ended the era of Swazi conquest, territorial expansion and resulted in unification of various people into one nation.

But his death also lead to the fleeing of many people from wholesale killing as described in “Short history of the natives tribes of the Transvaal”: On the death of Mswati many natives fled from Swaziland to escape being sacrificed and sought protection of the Transvaal Authorities in the Barberton District. Among these were two wives of Mswati, viz:

Nyanda alias Mac-Mac who established herself on the slopes of the mountains overlooking Low’s Creek; and Nomqciza alias Nompete, who occupied the ground extending from the southwest of Barberton to the Crocodile River. These two chieftainesses were joined from time to time by their followers or their refugees from Swaziland and have remained there ever since.

Today most people in the Barberton area are still Swazi and their traditions are strong van vibrant even in modern times. Most of these Swazi’s still consider themselves subjects of the Swazi king under the old tribal system.