How Ndebele community settled in Buhera

Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Reporter
FOR nearly a century, people of Ndebele origin have been part of the Buhera community in Manicaland Province.

The community members voluntarily moved from Esigodini in Matabeleland South in 1927.

The late Chief Fish Gwebu made the great trek as the winds of change blew over the country due to colonialism.

A Chronicle news crew last Saturday visited the Gwebu community in Buhera where relatives of the late Chief traced how they ended up relocating to the heart of Manicaland.

The Chief’s grandson, Mr Nicodemus Mkhithika Gwebu (63) speaking at the homestead of Acting Chief Gwebu, said his grandfather and his people moved to Buhera after their land was taken over by the white settlers.

The late Chief lived in Buhera for 51 years, dying in 1978 at the age of 90.

The next in succession is his great- grandchild aged 12 years and at the moment there is an acting chief.

“We want to thank you for coming to listen to our story.

It will dispel a lot of myths that we have heard or read written on social media platforms of how we ended up settling in this area.

I remember my grandfather, telling me that I needed to listen attentively on how we relocated as this history will one day be needed,” said Mr Gwebu, who is a headman in the area.

He said their community’s migration to Buhera is deeply linked to the story of his grandfather who was their Chief back in the 1920s.

“My grandfather, Fish Gwebu, who was a Chief, was an educated man.

He was also a passionate farmer and he studied at Robben Island in South Africa before it was made a prison.

He was fluent in English and Afrikaans and it is not surprising that he was one of the paramount chiefs to be invited to Buckingham Palace by the British Queen in 1964.

We had those photos but not anymore,” he said.

Mr Gwebu said his grandfather and his people occupied prime land in Esigodini as they were already farmers.
Problems arose when white colonialists started eyeing the land.

He said whites used to move them and each time they cleared land at the new settlement, they were moved again and the process was continuous.

“So, it happened that my grandfather met a white man in South Africa who later became a Native Commissioner in Charter District (Chivhu) which also included Buhera.

The man was called Mbizo because of his love of the Ndebele culture.

He later invited my grandfather to settle in this area saying it had similar climatic conditions with Esigodini where our people lived,” said Mr Gwebu.

He said following Mbizo’s invitation, his grandfather sent two emissaries to assess the land and they confirmed what Mbizo had said.

Mr Gwebu said part of the emissaries’ mission was to establish if the local community could welcome them in the area.

“The first group came in 1923 and returned the following year and briefed him that the conditions were satisfactory.

He needed a second opinion and sent another team between 1924 and 1925 which confirmed what the first group had found.

The second group was called Izinyosi and was a group of men trusted by the Chief.

They confirmed that the area like Esigodini had clay soils and there were a lot of water bodies,” said Mr Gwebu.

He said from 1926 they started the great trek, arriving a year later.

“It took them a year to move from Esigodini to Buhera as they were moving and grazing their livestock along the way,” said Mr Gwebu.

The community also showed a Chronicle news crew some of the vintage farming equipment that their grandfathers used at the time.

This includes ox-drawn ploughs, which they say were so heavy that they were pulled by 16 to 32 cattle and a scotch cart made from timber and steel.

Mr Gwebu said the local community did not enjoy farming on clay soils saying it was difficult to work on such land.

He said this was an advantage for his grandfather and his subjects as they were used to working on such soils in Esigodini.

Mr Gwebu said most locals moved to areas with sandy soils thereby creating room for the newcomers.

He said his grandfather created good relations with the locals hence they did not have challenges in settling in the new area.

“I can say my grandfather is one of the first people to forge national unity.

He engaged the locals to seek permission to settle in the area and as such he was welcomed,” he said.

Mr Gwebu said the Ndebele community in Buhera does not believe there is another place they call home.

Acting Chief Gwebu said his grandfather lived in the area for 51 years and had nine villages under his jurisdiction.

He said some villages that fell under Chief Gwebu include Gwibila, Sojini, Mthimkhulu, Dlamini, Mlandeli and Mutava.

Acting Chief Gwebu said there were intermarriages between the newcomers and the locals.

“ is is our home and our biggest challenge is that we have expanded as a community but I do not have land to give to my people.

We still occupy the same pieces of land that were occupied by our grandfathers.

Also, there are misguided people who want to push us away but we have nowhere else to go.

This is our home that is why we have lobbied for the teaching of IsiNdebele at the local school.

We also wish we could have a Ndebele speaking official at the district registry so that our Ndebele names are not mis-spelt,” said acting Chief Gwebu.

Last week, Primary and Secondary Education Deputy Minister Edgar Moyo said Government was recruiting isiNdebele teachers for the Gwebu area in line with the national policy that no community and place should be left behind.

Historian Mr omas Sibanda said the Gwebu chieftaincy is one of the oldest chieftaincies within the Ndebele state.

He said a man called Frederick Courteney Selous who was in influential in the attack of the Ndebele State was rewarded with 200 000 cattle and was allocated Chief Gwebu’s land in Esigodini.

“ at is how they were pushed away in the 1920s and the district administrator (Native Commissioner) said the land that could be allocated to them was in Buhera.

Some of the affected people however, moved to Lupane, Plumtree and other places while the majority moved to Buhera.

When they arrived in Buhera they occupied a lot of places which fell under three chieftaincies.

Most of them occupied swampy areas which the local people did not like,” said Mr Sibanda.

He said the Ndebele people who already had skills in using ox-drawn ploughs, realised bumper harvests which shocked the locals.

Mr Sibanda however, said not all the Ndebele people who are in Buhera fell under the Gwebu chie aincy as some of them came from the Midlands seeking farming land.

“The Shona communities call them ‘madinga’ as they were seeking farming land,” he said.

Mr Sibanda said as a result of the migration, the Gwebu chie aincy in Esigodini was revived under the name Chief Mthonzima.

“These are just one and the same people.

So the Gwebu people in Esigodini and those who were led by Fish in Buhera are just the same community,” said Mr Sibanda

Article Source: The Chronicle