Hlubi – Timeline

isiZulu version

The Making of the Hlubi Archive: a work-in-progress timeline

This timeline provides a guide to the available materials that speak to the Hlubi past. These materials include recorded oral accounts, colonial documents and items of material culture, as well as published and unpublished written accounts. Some of these materials are already available in the Hlubi archive on EMANDULO, can be accessed elsewhere online via a link in the timeline, or are available in a publication. The timeline also features major events pertinent to Hlubi history.

Others are materials that EMANDULO seeks to locate or be given. To contribute material to the Hlubi archive and the work-in-progress timeline please contact 500YearArchive@gmail.com.

1836

19 March 1836

Thomas Arbousset and Francois Daumas visited Batlokoa kgosi Sekonyela waMokotjo at Merabing in the Mohokare valley, and nearby Hlubi migrants are mentioned in passing by Arbousset in the 1842 French account of their expedition.

1840

14 February 1840

Proclamation of boundaries between the Republic of Natalia and the Zulu kingdom. The vast expansion of the Republic included nearly all the land considered part of Hlubi country along the uMzinyathi river and its tributaries.

1843

4 May 1843

British annexation of Natal as a colony.

5 October 1843

Anglo-Zulu treaty signed with King Mpande kaSenzangakhona, with a new boundary along uThukela and uMzinyathi rivers that divided the former Hlubi territories between the Colony of Natal (south of the uMzinyathi) and Zulu kingdom (north of uMzinyathi).

1844

1 June 1844

James Allison visited Hlubi nkosi Langalibalele kaMthimkhulu, and described him in a report to the Wesleyan Methodist Mission Society.

Late-1844

Langalibalele sent emissaries to Grahamstown to request Wesleyan missionaries in the eastern Cape to send a representative to the Hlubi nkosi.

1848

mid-March 1848

After King Mpande seized numbers of cattle belonging to the Hlubi Nkosi Langalibalele, the latter appealed to the British colonial government in Natal for permission to move his people into the colony. [KZN Archives: CSO 44, No. 37, Statement of Hadebe to T. Shepstone, 21 March 1848]

May 1848

Four envoys of King Mpande warned Nkosi Langalibalele of his eminent destruction: “Plait yourself a rope that will raise you from the earth to avoid the king’s vengeance, but so long as you remain on its surface you cannot avoid him. You may think of assistance from the frogs [meaning the British] but this hope is also a vain one, as you will find to your cost. Your destruction is inevitable. Your rocks and caves will not save you. Your cattle which you have sent away for safety shall become the inheritance of those to whose care they are entrusted when you shall be no more.” Quoted by Colenso in his published defence of Langalibalele. (C.1141 (1875): 2)

Following this threat Langalibalele immediately sent another appeal for asylum to the Natal authorities, but once again there was no response. (C.1141, page 1)

early-August 1848

Langalibalele and his adherents crossed the uMzinyathi river into Natal and moved into the upper uMnambithi valley of the Klip River District, approximately 80km south of the uMzinyathi river.

c.September 1848

Secretary for Native Affairs, Theophilus Shepstone visited Langalibalele at uMnambithi and announced the Natal government’s plans to resettle the Hlubi and amaNgwe south of the iMpofana river, close to the settlement of Fort Nottingham.

Langalibalele refused to move his people.

1849

April 1849

Theophilus Shepstone and a force of African police travelled to uMnambithi to order Langalibalele and his people, along with the amaNgwe, out of the Klip River District and into the uKhahlamba foothills.

12 July 1849

Lt. Gov. Martin West authorised the Secretary of Native Affairs to collect a hut tax of seven shillings for each hut inhabited by Africans in Natal.

Spring 1849

Less than six months after the Hlubi defied him, Shepstone forcefully expelled all the Hlubi from uMnambithi.

CREDITS

FHYA would like to acknowledge the commitment of Iziko Museums of South Africa, Killie Campbell Africana Library of the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the KwaZulu-Natal Museum to making their holdings openly accessible and the generosity of their staff in making this presentation possible. Presentation prepared by FHYA in 2023, using materials collected by Steven Kotze in partnership with Lailah Hisham (Iziko), Senzosenkosi Mkhize (Killie Campbell Africana Library of the University of KwaZulu-Natal), Justine Wintjes and Dimakatso Tlhoaele (KwaZulu-Natal Museum), Zukisa Madyibi (Walter Sisulu University), Thozama April and Sinazo Mtshemla (University of Fort Hare) and Robert Hart (Duggan-Cronin Gallery, McGregor Museum). Archival curation prepared by Benathi Marufu with assistance from Debra Pryor. Visual curation, page design, and development by Vanessa Chen with assistance from Makhosi Mkhize and Studio de Greef. Technical support provided by Hussein Suleman. Written content produced by Steven Kotze and Carolyn Hamilton, drawing on, amongst other things, recent research by John Wright and Carolyn Hamilton. Editorial and conceptual support by Carolyn Hamilton. The FHYA is especially grateful for the ongoing research support of Muziwandile Hadebe and the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Archives, and would further like to thank Mwelela Cele, Patricia Davison, Nessa Leibhammer, John Wright and Gavin Whitelaw for their assistance and advice during the preparation of this curation. Our presentations are archived here. If you wish to make a contribution, use this link.

EMANDULO

EMANDULO is an experimental digital platform, in ongoing development, for engaging with resources pertinent to southern African history before colonialism across what is today eSwatini, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, and the Eastern Cape.

Online from: 13 November 2023