Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T02:08:33.805Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dingane's attack on Lourenço Marques in 1833

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Gerhard Liesegang
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The reasons for Dingane's attack on Lourenço Marques in 1833 may have been (a) the policy of expansion pursued by governor Ribeiro, which Machakane of Matola and perhaps Dingane himself may have tried to check, (b) lack of caution in treating Dingane, (c) perhaps also inability to meet Dingane's demands (this may have been due to economic difficulties after the partial breakdown of the slave trade in 1830), (d) the fact that Ribeiro probably maintained relations with Soshangana (which has been stressed by Lobato). Dingane seems to have regarded the governor as one of his subjects, although the Portuguese did not regard themselves as his subjects but as depending on MoÇambique.

In the period 1830–1838, the Zulu seem to have been more important for Lourenço Marques than any other Nguni group, as they were dominating many of the territories near it. In that period the Zulu empire included people of a language different from that of the majority, who do not seem to have been integrated into the Zulu nation through the national regimental system in the same way as Nguni groups subjected by the Zulu. In 1831–4 Zulu armies fighting near Lourenço Marques consisted of a few hundred Zulu warriors assisted by groups of auxiliaries (probably totalling 2,000–3,000 men) furnished by the local chiefs.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , October 1969 , pp. 565 - 579
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1969

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 John, William Colenso, Ten Weeks in Natal: A journal of afirst tour of visitation among the colonists and Zulu Kafirs of Natal (Cambridge, 1855), 224.Google Scholar

2 Felix, N. C. Okoye, ‘Dingane: a reappraisal’, J. Afr. Hist. x, 2 (1969), 237–52. I am indebted to Professor J. D. Fage for sending me an advance copy of this article and for some constructive criticism on an earlier draft which also benefited from helpful comments from Dr Shula Marks and Mr David Hedges. I also have to thank Janet Hinshaw and Peggy Luswazi for correcting my English.Google Scholar

3 Grandjean, cf. A., ‘L'invasion des Zoulou dans le sud-est Africain,’ Bull. de Ia Soc. Neuchâfteloise de Géogr. xI (1899), 75–7;Google ScholarLiesegang, G., Beiträge zur Geschichte des Reiches der Gaza Nguni im südlichen MoÇambique, 1820–1895 (Köln 1968), 51–2.Google Scholar

4 Alexandre, Lobato, Quatro estudos e uma evocaÇão para a história de Lourenco Marques (Lisbon, 1961);Google ScholarJohn D., Omer-Cooper, The Zulu Aftermath (London, 1966), 43;Google ScholarTeixeira Boteiho, J. J., História militar e politica dos Portugueses em MoÇambique de 1833 aos nossos dias (Lisbon, 1936);Google ScholarTheal, G. McC., History of South Africa from 1795 to 1872, V, 3rd ed. (1920), 128–40.Google Scholar

5 cf.Lobato, Quatro Estudos; [Henry Francis] Fynn, Delagoa Bay, in Theal, , Records of S.E. Africa, II, 479–488;Google ScholarFrancisco, Santana, DocumentaÇão Avulsa MoÇambicana do Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino, i (Lisbon, 1964), 902, 1104;Google ScholarNathaniel, Isaacs, Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa, ed. Herrman, L. (Cape Town, 1936–1937), II, 280–3. When Isaacs visited Delagoa Bay in June/July 1831, he found ii ships there, most of them American whalers.Google Scholar

6 Lobato, , Quatro Estudos, 123–8,Google ScholarSantana, , DocumentaÇão, I, 202–4, 255, 268, 535, 572 and passim; Lisbon, Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino (A.H.U.), MoÇ. Cxa 77, X. Schmid v. Belliken to GCG, 21 July 1826. Portuguese government staff in East Africa was stilL at that time generally paid with cloth supplied by the government, and mainly used it to trade with. Guns or muskets, a staple of the trade with the Makua in northern MoÇambique, do not seem to have been in demand at LourenÇo Marques at this time.Google Scholar

7 For a contemporary description see Santana, , DocumentaÇão, I, 1104, II 04 1829. It seems that the number of the company's employees dwindled, perhaps for reasons of economics, from seven in 1829 to three in 1833.Google Scholar

8 Santana, , DocumentaÇão, ii (1967), 407.Google Scholar

9 Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino, Lisbon (A.H.U.), MoÇ. Cxa 7, G. Ramos to GCG Abreu e Menezes, 2 Dec 1813; Cxa 58, Ramos to Menezes, 20 June 1814. The people of Mafumo were assisted by Colela of Moamba, whose father seems to have had the same dominant position which Machakane of Matola held over chiefdoms near LourenÇo Marques from about 1823 to 1830.

10 Owen, W. F. W., Narrative of Voyages to Explore the Shores of Africa, etc. (London, 1833), ii, 21–3;Google ScholarTheal, , Records, IX, 41, 46–8 (Whitworth to Nourse, 29 Apr. 1824, information derived from the Rev. Threlfall). Cardinas died on 23 Febr. 1824. Lieutenant Antonio Pedro Teixeira, who had taken over the command after Cardinas's death, was killed in Tembe before his successor Belliken arrived.Google Scholar

11 A.H.U. MoÇ. Cxa 7, G. Schmid v. Belliken to GCG, 22 Mar. 1825; cf., Lobato, Quatro Estudos, 116.Google Scholar The description of these events in Jackson Haight, M. V., European Powers in South-East Africa (1796–1856), 196, is not quite correct.Google Scholar

12 Vansina, J., ‘A comparison of African kingdoms’, Africa, xxxii (1962) 332. For a definition of state'Google Scholar see Garner, J. W., Political Science and Government (New York, 1928), 52.Google Scholar Evidence on the structure of chiefdoms is to be found in Junod, H. A., The Life of a South African Tribe (London, 1927), I, 409–10.Google Scholar

13 Cf., Omer-Cooper, Zulu Aftermath, 27;Google ScholarLeonard, Thompson, ‘Cooperation and conflict: the Zulu kingdom and Natal’, in: The Oxford History of South Africa, I (Oxford, 1969), 336 seqq. for a summary of the explanations proposed until 1965.Google Scholar

14 Lobato, , Quatro Estudos, 100–3. The invaders were not Swazi as Lobato supposed. It is also possible that they belonged to an army sent by the Mthethwan king.Google Scholar

15 Owen, , Narrative, i, 93–5, 542–4.Google Scholar

16 Owen, , Narrative, i, 142;Google ScholarGottschling, E., ‘The Bawenda’, J. Roy. Anthr. Inst. xxxv (1905), 366;Google ScholarBarnes, J. A., Politics in a Changing Society (London, 1954), 3.Google Scholar

17 Teixeira, C. A. J., ‘DescripÇão dos Rios da Bahia de LourenÇo Marques’, Arquivo das Colonias, ii, no. 8 (1978), 64.Google Scholar

18 Fynn, , Delagoa Bay, 482.Google Scholar

19 Broadbent, S., The Missionary Martyr of Namaqualand (London, 1857), 83.Google Scholar

20 Isaacs, , Travels and Adventures, i, 229; II, 19–21;Google ScholarGardiner, , Narrative of a Journey to the Zoolu Country in South Africa Undertaken in 1835 (London, 1836), 90;Google ScholarTeixeira, , DescripÇão, 64.Google ScholarOwen, , Narrative, i, 263, says ‘…with Matchakany [Machakane of Matola] was a messenger from the Zoolos…’ describing a visit in August 1823. I take this to refer to Soshangana's or Zwangendaba's Nguni as on p. 271 of the same volume.Google Scholar

21 Santana, , I, 932, 1 04 1829. Saguate is a word of Indian origin.Google Scholar

22 But there are British sources on the trade between Shaka and the Portuguese, e.g. Isaacs, , Travels, I. 59.Google Scholar

23 Grandjean, A., L'invasion, 75, 79;Google ScholarMyburgh, A. C. (The Tribes of the Barberton District, Pretoria, 1949, 108) seems to be the only recorder of oral tradition mentioning the activity of Dingane in the hinterland of LourenÇo Marques.Google Scholar

24 Lobato, , Quatro Estudos, 120–44;Google ScholarSantana, , 1, 940; ii, 626.Google Scholar

25 The interpreter was Henry Francis Fynn (cf. Isaacs, , Travels, ii, 10–12).Google Scholar

26 Santana, , II, 229–31, 714.Google Scholar

27 A.H.U. Cod. 1425, f. 6, 29 Apr. 1830; Santana, II, 425.

28 Anselmo José do Nascimento had already been in LourenÇo Marques in 1823 (Lobato, , Quatro Estudos, 107),Google Scholar was met with by the British in Matola (Owen, , Narrative, 1, 262 seq.), and served as an interpreter when Owen drew up his treaty with Makhasana of Maputo in 1823. By 1830 he was the owner of a ship.Google Scholar

29 A.H.U. MaÇo 14, G. Ribeiro to GCG Brito, no. 38, 30 Oct. 1830, summarised partly in Santana, , II, 439.Google Scholar

30 Santana, , II, 425.Google Scholar

31 Ibid. 434–5.

32 Ibid. 438. Ribeiro's envoys had returned on 6 August.

33 The soldier who had brought this present was killed three years later. (Santana, , 1, 224).Google Scholar

34 A.H.U. MaÇo 23, G. Ribeiro to GCG, no. 51 (probably from 15 May 1831); Ribeiro had also got the help of the chiefs of Magaia, Chirinda, Moamba, and Tembe. In March the chief of Maputo had apparently planned to help Matola, and Ribeiro boycotted trade with him (MaÇo 23, letter dated 15 May 1831, without number). In the end of July peace had been made with Matola and negotiations opened with Maputo (Santana, , ii, 949–50).Google Scholar

35 A.H.U. MaÇo 23, G. Ribeiro to GCG, 29 Aug. 1831, no. 57. Ribeiro also says that Dingane had also asked the British for help, but that they did not turn up. This is not quite true (cf., P. R. Kirby, Andrew Smith and Natal (Cape Town, 1955), 72; Okoye, 225, footnote 31). Okoye also describes the action Dingane had planned earlier that year against Cane, and the origin of the bad relations between Dingane and the British traders.Google Scholar

36 Santana, , i, 182.Google Scholar

37 Ibid. 181.

38 Ibid. 212.

39 Ibid. 224. This is on page 53 of an account entitled ‘A Guerra dos Reis Vatuas vizinhos de LourenÇo Marques em 1833’. This is a MS report, certainly written before 1839, describing the events in L.M. between 26 July 1833 and ao July 1834, and now in MaÇo I A of MoÇ. in the A.H.U. Lobato identified its author as Antonio José Nobre, the agent of the company (Lobato, , Quatro Estudas, p. 130).Google Scholar

40 Page 2 of the MS.

41 Santana, , I, 209.Google Scholar

42 Isaacs, , Travels, II, 282.Google Scholar

43 Santana, , I, 223–4.Google Scholar

44 Santana, , I, 223, p. 51 of MS.Google Scholar

45 The leaders of the troops were ‘Sumisso’ and ‘Naniia’ or ‘Nandiia’. (Nobre's MS report, pp. 39, 50). Sumisso's death became known on Feb. 1834. He was said to have kept some of the spoils of the war for himself (ibid. pp. 59–60). From March onwards, Seduto and his brother Machanfana were transmitting Dingane's orders.

46 A.H.U. 2a secÇão, MoÇ. Pasta I (1834–5), Pegado to Margiochi, 17 February 1835, no. 9, incl. no. I: G. Dario Rodrigues de Vasconcellos to Governo Provizorio, 8 Oct. 1834.

47 Santana, , i, 224 (pp. 54 and 6I of MS).Google Scholar

48 Grahamstown Journal, III, no. 134, 7 08 1834,Google Scholar from a letter dated Umzimvubu, 27 June [1834]. Fynn probably spoke to the soldier, José Antonio Banadaque, and a slave of the company. Conversation may well have been conducted in Zulu. (Fynn's letter is reprinted in Stuart, J. and Malcolm, D. McK., The Diary of Henry Francis Fynn, Pietermaritzburg, 1950).Google Scholar

49 Grahamstown Journal, 111 (1834), no. 146, 9 October from a letter dated Port Natal, 3 Sept. 1834.Google Scholar

50 Okoye, , 229.Google Scholar

51 A.H.U. MoÇ. MaÇo iA, Marinho to Bomfim, 16 Nov. 1840, mcI.: ‘Acontecimento do dia de junho do corrente anno [1835]’ written 5 June 1835.

52 That Zulu were present is repeated by Ribeiro's successor Vasconcellos: A.H.U. Pasta 1(1834–5), Pegado to Margiochi, no. 9, 17 February 1835, incI. reports dated 8 and 9 Oct. 1834. Hewetson, who accompanied the Zulu missionary, F. Owen, wrote from Delagoa Bay on 20 May 1838, ‘Dingaan, the Zoolu tyrant, attacked this place, and killed the late governor, about five years ago’ (Missionary Herald, Cambridge, Mass., xxxv (1839), 110).Google Scholar

53 Santana, , I, 224–5 (page 57 of Nobre's MS). He was killed on 22 Nov., forty days after Ribeiro's death.Google Scholar

54 Theal, , The Portuguese in South Africa (London, 1896), 258, 279.Google Scholar

55 Nobre, , MS, p. 67.Google Scholar

56 A contingent from Magaia was expected too but did not come forward. The troops which took possession of LourenÇo Marques in 1833 were called together in the same way (Santana, , 1, 222, 226;Google ScholarNobre, , MS 15, 66–68).Google Scholar

57 Santana, , 1, 226Google Scholar (Nobre, , MS, p.69).Google Scholar

58 Dingane wanted 2,691 ‘manilhas de pescoÇ’ and I 500 packages of beads ‘of their kind’ (A.H.U. MoÇ. Pasta I, 1834−5, Pegado to Margiochi, 17 Feb 1835, incl. no.2 letter from Vasconcellos and Soares.) In Sept. 1833 Nobre had given 522 manilhas and 200 packages of beads. (Santana, , I, 221.)Google Scholar

59 A.H.U. MoÇ. MaÇo I A, Marinho to Bomfim, 16 Nov. 1840, incl ‘Acontecimento do dia 3 de junho do corrente anno [1835]’.

60 Teixeira, , DescripÇão, 64.Google Scholar

61 In 1835 the Swazi or Unguani were still tributary to the Zulu (Gardiner, , Journey, 167–8).Google Scholar In 1836, 1837, and 1838 the Zulu were fighting against them; in 1840 the Swazi killed Dingane. (sMiss. Herald, xxxiii (1837), 121; xxxvi (1840), 385, 503;Google ScholarBryant, , Olden Times in Zululand and Natal (London, 1929), 321–4).Google Scholar

62 South African Archival Records, Transvaal, no. I, Notule van die Volksraad etc. Deel I, 70−1. Wars between Zulu and Swazi had apparently only begun again in 1846 (cf. South African Arch. Records, Natal, no. 2, 71–2, 100, 121, 122, 132, 141–2).Google Scholar

63 Augusto, de Castilho, O districto de LourenÇo Marques no presente e no futuro, 2nd ed. (Lisbon: Mattos Moreira, 1881), 46.Google Scholar