History of Eswatini
Artifacts indicating human activity dating back to the early Stone Age have been found in the Kingdom of Eswatini. The earliest known inhabitants of the region were Khoisan hunter-gatherers. Later, the population became predominantly Nguni during and after the great Bantu migrations. People speaking languages ancestral to the current Sotho and Nguni languages began settling no later than the 11th century. The country now derives its name from a 19th century king named Mswati II. Mswati II was the greatest of the fighting kings of Eswatini, and he greatly extended the area of the country to twice its current size. The people of Eswatini largely belong to a number of clans that can be categorized as Emakhandzambili, Bemdzabuko and Emafikamuva, depending on when and how they settled in Eswatini.
Origin and early settlements
The earliest known inhabitants of the region were Khoisan hunter-gatherers. They were largely replaced by the Bantu peoples during Bantu migrations. The Bantu hailed from the Great Lakes regions of eastern and central Africa. Evidence of agriculture and iron use dates from about the 4th century and people speaking languages ancestral to current Sotho and Nguni languages began settling no later than the 11th century in the modern Swazi country. Historically, the Bantu-speaking people of the southern part of Africa came from the Katanga direction and continued to expand to the south along the east coast of Africa. They settled in the area between the Drakensberg Mountains and the Indian Ocean, and like other Bantu-speaking communities, they brought with them cattle, seeds to cultivate, and handmade iron, wood, animal skin, and clay products.The Swazi people trace their origins to the Embo-Dlamini, a branch of the Embo-Nguni that originally settled in Tembeland, near present-day Delagoa Bay in Mozambique during the Bantu expansion. Within the Tembe territories, the Embo people were a small chiefdom led by Chief Langa. According to oral history, Chief Langa had two sons, Dlamini I and Hlubi, who led their factions of the Embo in different directions. Dlamini's followers, later known as the Embo-Dlamini or the Embo-Nguni of Dlamini, moved northward and formed the early Ngwane communities, from which the Swazi polity later developed. Hlubi's followers, on the other hand, expanded southward along the Pongola River and became the ancestors of the amaHlubi, a major Nguni-speaking polity in what later became Natal. The Embo-Dlamini lived across the Lubombo Mountains, establishing a base in what is today called Lavumisa in Eswatini under the brothers, Dlamini and Hlubi, who lived together in the area. In the early 1600s, the Embo-Dlamini began conquering and incorporating weaker clans under the two brothers before they split.
Most Nguni-speaking communities, including the Embo, were identified by their cattle-based economy, crop farming, and strategic settlement near water sources. Several scholars emphasise that the ethnic and political formation that is today called the Kingdom of Eswatini particularly emerged in the eastern Maputaland-Lubombo region. During their settlement in present-day Lavumisa, followers of the two brothers, Dlamini and Hlubi, were called EmaLangeni.
Other Embo communities, apart from the Tembe, that the earlier Swazi tribe were closely connected with in the area were the Nyaka people and Mngomezulu. Entirely, the region consisted of Embo-Nguni, Tsonga or Thonga people of Thonga-Nguni branch as well as the Dlamini or Embo-Dlamini or simply 'EmaLangeni'. Historian A. T. Bryant notes that some Swazi royal members, like King Mbandzeni, believed that the Swazi had historical links to, or emerged as an offshoot of, the Tembe-Thonga people.
Nineteenth-century British colonial records also linked the Tembe and Swazi chieftaincies. One document noted: “We observe that the words Kings are intended to signify the Kings of Swazi and Tembe.”
Portuguese explorers in 1589 recorded meeting a group of people in the Limpopo River region who called themselves "Vhambedzi" or "BaMbo". Historian J.S.M. Matsebula states that this was an earlier form of the present day Swazi people, who were identified by their use of reeds in the Zambezi River. He writes, it "infers that the Swazi people arrived in southern Africa through the use of reeds to cross the Zambezi River". This is also evidenced in their praise names: ..tsine lesavela eluhlangeni and nine beluhlanga referring to the Dlamini clan. The Vhambedzi or Vhambo were the Embo during their gradual movement southward to the Maputaland-Lubombo region. This is also evidenced in the fact that some early Bemdzabuko clans are surnamed Mhlanga.
In the Crocodile River region, the Nguni separated into Ntungwa-Nguni, Embo-Nguni and Embo-Dlamini, the earliest form of the current Swazi people. The Embo-Nguni continued with their movement southward until they reached Delagoa Bay between the Lubombo Mountains and Indian Ocean, becoming one of the small chiefdoms under the Nyaka east of the Maputo River and the Tembe west of the river.
Further Embo-Nguni splits were formed in the migration across the Pongola River, some settling between the Pongola River and Mfolozi River in present-day KwaZulu Natal and becoming the Ndwandwe, BakaNgwane and the Hlubi people. Other Embo-Nguni subgroups migrated to what is now Eastern Cape like the AmaMpondo in the Xhosa-speaking region.
Before the Swazi moved to the Pongola River to seek independence, they had for many years been settled on the Tembe River and submitted to Tembe chiefs, who were powerful and wealthy from coastal trade The Tembe commanded influence across the Lubombo Mountains and southwards to the Lusutfu River. The last small but influential group which followed in the early 18th century was led by Dlamini III, a son of Ludvonga I, who became king or iNgwenyama of the Swazi people approximately between 1720 until 1744. King Dlamini III moved from the coast to settle in the Ngwavuma area of the Lubombo Mountains, where his subjects included the Nyawo, Mngomezulu, and Matsenjwa. His praise names were Wena lowacedza Lubombo ngekuhlehletela wetfwele umfunti. He built his ceremonial homestead in the Ngwavuma and the administrative homestead was in Zibayaneni, east of Lubombo Mountains and to the Pongola River.. Dlamini III died in Zibayaneni in 1744 and was buried there.
Ngwane III succeeded his father King Dlamini III's death. Ngwane III, after whom the country was named KaNgwane and his people becoming known as BakaNgwane, is considered the first King of modern Swaziland. He crossed the Pongola River and built the royal home in the Magudu hills and moved again to live in Mzinsangu, near the Litshe laNgwane, and built his ceremonial homestead, Zombodze. Ngwane III absorbed the Nkambule, Manana, Nkonyane, and other clans as he consolidated his power.< He also built Hhohho as an administrative centre, governed by Mndindane Shiba. Ngwane III's praise names were Imamba letalela emacandza lalishumi nakubili itidlele, in reference to his killing of all his male children. The Swazis were in constant conflict with their neighbours, the Ndwandwes under King Zwide kaLanga, a very capable war leader. This pushed the Swazi further north, with Ngwane III establishing his capital at Shiselweni at the foot of the Mhlosheni hills. His only remaining son, Ndvungunye, was spared and ascended the throne in 1780 following his death. Ndvungunye was married to the two KoNtjingila sisters, Lojiba Simelane and Somnjalose Simelane, after the Simelane clan escaped the Ndwandwe wars to Swaziland following the death of their chief, Mabonya Simelane, in a battle with Ndwandwe forces after the mid 18th century. Somnjalo bore King Sobhuza I. Ndvungunye had his royal kraal at Shiselweni at the foothills of the eMhlosheni mountains. He died in 1815 after being struck by lightning, and his son Sobhuza I, nicknamed Somhlolo,, became the king. Sobhuza married the daughter of Ndwandwe King Zwide, Tsandzile Ndwandwe, who gave birth to King Mswati II, as part of ending the wars between the two nations. Under Sobhuza I, the Ngwane people eventually established their capital at Zombodze in the heartland of present-day Swaziland. In this process, they conquered and incorporated the long established clans of the country, known to the Swazi as Emakhandzambili.
The first person to document the history of Eswatini was John Gama, who noted in 1898 that most sources of his information about Swazi history were elders, like Macungela Nhlabatsi, who was already a grown up man during King Sobhuza I's reign. The second was Theophilus Shepstone, a British South African official who was in Eswatini from 1887 to 1899 as King Mbandzeni's adviser. The third was linguist James Stuart who lived in Eswatini from 1894 and 1899. The fourth was journalist Allister Miller, who founded the Times of Swaziland in 1897.
From the late 20th century, early Swazi history was further documented by the emergency of writers like J.S.M. Matsebula of A History of Swaziland editions and later through systematic oral-history research following the formation of the Swaziland Oral History Project in 1985.
Consolidation of the Swazi Nation (1740s–1868)
Swazis established a polity based on Kingship accompanied by Queen Mothers and during the minority of a crown prince a Queen Regent. Thus when Ngwane III died, LaYaka Ndwandwe, his mother, became the Queen Regent until Ngwane III's son Ndvungunye became the King in 1780, serving until 1815 when he was struck and killed by lightning. His administrative capital was in Shiselweni. He was succeeded by Sobhuza I after the regency of his Queen Regent Lomvula Mndzebele. Ngwane IV or Somhlolo, as Sobhuza I was also known as Sobhuza I, continued to expand the territory of Swaziland.The conflict of Swaziland and the Ndwandwe kingdom led Somhlolo to move his capital from Zombodze in Shiselweni to the centre of Swaziland at another kraal called Zombodze. Somhlolo who became king in 1815 consolidated the order of the Ngwane state by incorporating the Emakhandzambili clans into his kingdom adding to the Bemdzabuko or true Swazi. Somhlolo was a strategic leader between 1815 and 1839 a period including the Mfecane period of Shaka Zulu a Zulu illegitimate child of Senzangakhona who created his kingdom from the
Mtetwa polity established by Dingiswayo. Sobhuza used his diplomatic skills to avoid conflict with Shaka by allying with him when it suited him. As a
result, Swaziland was left unaffected by the Mfecane wars. Somhlolo was succeeded in 1839 by his son Mswati II who is known as the greatest of the Swazi fighting kings.
Mswati inherited an area which extended as far as present-day Barberton in the north and included the Nomahasha district in the Portuguese territory of Mozambique. Mswati continued to expand Swazi territory and the clans added to the
nation were considered Emafikamuva. During his reign, the territory of Swaziland was expanded northward and his capital was at Hhohho in the northern part of Swaziland. Mswati improved the military organisation of the regiments in Swaziland. His regiment was Inyatsi and he danced the sacred incwala at Hhohho instead of the common Ezulwini valley as his predecessors. Mswati was a powerful king who attacked other African tribes to acquire cattle and captives. Within Swaziland, his force was used to limit the power of the Emakhandzambili chiefs. Mswati made land grants in 1855 to the Lydenburg Republic though the wording of the sale is vague. The Boers at the time were fairly weak and could not act upon the land concession. Mswati continued to fight with other African tribes across the land and beyond in areas such as Zoutpansberg and Ohrigstad. His death in 1865 brought about an end to the conquest by the Swazi kings. Mswati was succeeded by Ludvonga, however, he died in his youth and as a result Mbandzeni was chosen by the Swazis National Council instead, and King Mbandzeni appointed Chief Manzini Mbokane as one of his leading tribal advisors. Chief Manzini Mbokane was a father of Ntengu Mbokane, and Chief Mbokane was the leader of the King's Advisory Council, which was later called Liqoqo.