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| Sidojiwa Khumalo a.k.a Sidojiwa LOBENGULA |
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Sidojiwa was born at Nsindeni in about 1888, the youngest of the four 'royal' sons of Lobengula who survived into the
White Settler Occupation
period. His mother was Ngotsha, a sister of Lozigeyi
Dhlodhlo, she was presumably one of the younger wives as she lived on as a
pensioner until 1955. A young Shona slave who had charge
of Sidojiwa at the time of the war of 1893-4 gave his reminiscences some sixty years later and claimed that the two youngsters tried to get to Gazaland on foot but Sidojiwa's age does not seem to fit with the story, which is rather muddled chronologically
anyway.
Being that much younger than Nguboyenja, Sidojiwa was not sent to Cape Town after his father's death and he probably lived in the Insiza District with his mother under the control of a guardian, former induna
Masongo, who married his mother. |
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In 1900 Njube visited him and raised the question of taking him south to be educated but nothing came of this.
In 1903 he was reported to have run away from his guardian's home and in 1906 he was described as
'unruly'. Because of this, the Native Department decided that he should not be allowed to go to Cape Town to school, as he wanted, but should be employed as a messenger at the Bulawayo office. This was agreed but whether it was ever implemented is not certain, for the next that is known
of Sidojiwa is that he was attending the Anglican Church School in the Bulawayo Location. He then repeated his request to go to Cape Town but the Chief Native Commissioner still advised against it on the ground that he might have 'Ethiopian' sympathies and be under Nguboyenja's
influence. |
The Administration then debated the arguments for and against giving him
permission in view of the fact that there was no direct way of stopping him if he found the money himself by selling his
cattle. Therefore, it was decided to sound out his relatives and the
Chiefs. The general response was to prefer him to be educated in Southern Rhodesia
(now Zimbabwe) rather than to go to South Africa but there was no great interest and many Chiefs simply left it to the Administration:
'Sidojiwa appears to hold some social influence among the older natives but no political, and there is little interest exhibited in his movements or
destiny'.
In reporting all this the Chief Native Commissioner Matabeleland said that Sidojiwa's real interest in leaving Bulawayo was that he disliked being taught with, and treated the same as, the hole; and, therefore, a school in Mashonaland would be
acceptable.
This was agreed and a place was found for him at government expense at St Augustine's, the
Anglican mission school near Penhalonga.
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Sidojiwa settled down happily and, in accordance with government wishes, applied himself to carpentry and building as well as his academic studies. The school was satisfied with his progress over the next two years, although, it was said, he showed no special
ability.
Early in 1912, however, Sidojiwa (who now called himself Kenneth, although not yet baptized) was thrashed in front of the whole school over trouble with girls; not unnaturally he then wanted to leave the school but his teachers and the Chief Native Commissioner said he should stay on until September at
least. In fact he went home for a holiday in June and never returned; and the Chief Native Commissioner did not object in view of his mother's husband having just
died. |
| Little is known of Sidojiwa thereafter, but it is possible that he worked for the Native Department in Bulawayo again. If so he would appear to have resigned from that, for in 1918 he claimed a pension from the government on the ground that he had reached adulthood (and already had two wives to support) and so deserved to be treated the same as his brothers; thereupon he was granted a pension, initially of £2 a
month. He then appears to have gone to live in the Gwelo
(now Gweru) District and to have played little or no part in Khumalo political activities, although there is one reference to his having appeared in the Insiza District area shortly before the Chiefs made one of their periodic requests for a Khumalo as
paramount. Also about this time, Queen Lozigeyi died and Sidojiwa claimed that he as her nephew and nearest-descendant, had been recognized as her heir and so had transferred from the Nsideni section to join the Bulawayo one for that
reason. Thereupon he went to the Queens' Kraal and allegedly took a shotgun, two mules and a carriage, although he denied
this. |
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| He later dropped his claim in face of Nyamanda's opposition but in a general compromise he received some of Lozigeyi's cattle for the use of the
family. Both in this particular episode and in the so-called movement for a national home, according to the Native Affairs Department, Nyamanda's 'motives are self-interest and self
aggrandisement',
and it is noticeable that Sidojiwa, unlike Tshakalisha, does not appear to have supported Nyamanda's various
manoeuvres. Not too much weight should be placed on this, however, as Sidojiwa does not appear to have had much contact with Albert and Rhodes when they returned in 1926; furthermore the revival of interest in
Nguboyenja, incapable of action as he was, indicates that either for reasons of the status or character Sidojiwa was not regarded by the Khumalos as of any importance or value to their cause. Consequently it is of no surprise that he appears not to have interested himself with Nguboyenja or the Matabeleland Home Society. Perhaps because of his obscurity one official in
the Native Affairs Department later thought that he had died in 1933 and that it was a son of the same name who drew a pension that had now been
doubled. But this was not so and Sidojiwa was present at Nguboyenja's funeral in 1944 but, significantly, played no part in the ceremonies, not even as
pall-bearer. |
He appeared in the news briefly in 1954 when he told a meeting of Chiefs in the Matopos that it was against custom and the family's wishes that Albert be reburied at
Entumbane; an
African journalist commented on the fact that at this meeting Sidojiwa sat in some obscurity
'like a nonentity whilst the chiefs looked like big somebodies apparently higher and more important in their eyes than this member of the Matabele royalty. Ye
gods!'
At some stage Sidojiwa removed from near Que Que (now
Kwekwe), where he had lived for many years, to the Marirangwe Purchase Area where he farmed with his son
Cephas, his four wives and twenty-nine other
children. He died on 13 July 1960 and now, as the last of Lobengula's sons, was bestowed with honour and importance that had not been his in
1ife. His burial was at Entumbane near to Mzilikazi and
Nguboyenja; and old Ginyilitshe Hlabangana, the Khumalo praise-singer who had been with the Insukamini at the Shangani, called on Sidojiwa's ancestors to receive him, 'the last fire in your great
line'. Other tributes, however, looked forward rather than to the past. |
| The Bantu Mirror said that he was a gentleman to all, a man of no tribal feelings at all despite his birth, and that the tributes. . . [to him] will act as a symbol of oneness of the African
people'. Even more pointed was the tribute of another Hlabangana of the new generation, Cephas, who said, 'He was a solitary link with
a glory that is past. The future needs such princes, though not of royal blood, to fight for the glory to
come.' The day before his burial Michael Mawema, President of the National Democratic Party, recently returned from Nyasaland where nationalists were already
referring to 'Malawi', was quoted as saying that 'Zimbabwe' was that glory to come. A new era had
begun. |
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| Other
documents related to this Profile |
| The
Khumalo Royal family |
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