Mawa kaJama

Zulu princess (1770s-1848)

Mawa kaJama
Born	Mawa kaJama c. 1770s Zulu Kingdom
Died	1848 (aged around 75) Colony of Natal
House	House of Zulu
Father	Jama kaNdaba

Mawa kaJama (c. 1770s – 1848) was a Zulu princess who was a prominent opponent of her nephew King Mpande. After Mpande began a purge of his opponents in June 1843, Mawa fled with up to 50,000 refugees to the British Colony of Natal, significantly depopulating the southern portion of the Zulu Kingdom. After negotiating a treaty with the British, she established and led a permanent settlement on the Umvoti River.

Biography

Mawa was born in the 1770s in the Zulu Kingdom.^[1] A princess in the Zulu royal family, she was the youngest daughter of King Jama.^[2]^[3] According to oral accounts recorded by James Stuart, Mawa was bald as an adult and had artificial hair stuck to her head with red clay.^[4] She lived in the kraal of Izintontela, located on the Mamba River near Ntumeni and later relocated to the future site of Gingindlovu.^[5] It is unlikely that Mawa was ever married.^[6]

When her nephew Shaka became king in 1816, he appointed her as the royal liaison to the military settlement of Ntonteleni.^[2]^[3] She held this position until 1840, when King Dingane – Shaka's brother and successor – was overthrown by his brother Mpande.^[1] Mawa was an opponent of Mpande's reign, instead supporting his brother Gqugqu's claim to the throne.^[1] Fearing a coup from Gqugqu's faction, Mpande had his brother executed in June 1843 and began purging his supporters.^[7] Mawa immediately fled with around 2,000 to 3,000 other supporters and crossed the Tugela River into the British Colony of Natal.^[8]^[9] She was joined by 30,000 to 50,000 refugees, depopulating much of the southern portion of the Zulu Kingdom;^[1]^[10] according to British colonial official Abraham Josias Cloëté, nearly all kraals as far north as Nseleni had been deserted.^[11]

This event is remembered in Zulu oral histories as the "Crossing of Mawa", and is emblematic of the population drift from the Zulu Kingdom into Natal, with historian John Laband writing that "by the mid-1840s the British in Natal ruled over more Zulu-speakers than did Mpande in the Zulu kingdom".^[7] Soon after their arrival in Natal, Mawa negotiated a treaty with British colonial authorities, allowing her refugees to establish a permanent settlement along the Umvoti River near Verulam.^[1]^[12] With Mawa leading it, this settlement "became a point of refuge for those opposed to Mpande".^[13]

Along with the refugees, Mawa also brought 3,000 royally-owned cattle to Natal.^[7]^[14] In 1846, after Mpande requested that Martin West – the lieutenant governor of Natal – return these cattle to the Zulu, West empowered local chiefs to seize the cattle.^[14]^[15] However, rather than returning the cattle to the Zulu, the chiefs distributed them amongst themselves.^[15]^[16] Due to their lack of clear ownership, these cattle became known as puzela, which later became a Zulu term for "low, immoral people, having no homes, street-walkers".^[17]

Mawa died in Natal in 1848.^[1]^[12]

References

Citations

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Sheldon, Kathleen (2011-01-01), "Mawa (c. 1770s–1848)", Dictionary of African Biography, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5, OCLC 770668294, retrieved 2023-10-07
^ ^a ^b Lipschutz & Rasmussen 1986, p. 140.
^ ^a ^b ASAUK 1992, p. 5.
^ Stuart 1976, p. 100.
^ Samuelson 1929, p. 245.
^ Weir 2000, p. 202.
^ ^a ^b ^c Laband 2018.
^ Mahoney 2012, p. 72.
^ Hughes 1995, p. 83.
^ Sheldon 2016, p. 178.
^ Gibson 1903, p. 94.
^ ^a ^b Campbell 1921, p. 205.
^ Hamilton 1998, p. 57.
^ ^a ^b Dominy 2016, p. 50.
^ ^a ^b ASAUK 1992, p. 6.
^ Hughes 1995, p. 83–84.
^ Colenso 1861, p. 408.

Works cited

Biennial Conference: Papers. Vol. 2. African Studies Association of the United Kingdom. 1992.
Campbell, Killie (1921). Mangati ka Godide (PDF). Durban: Killie Campbell Africana Library.
Colenso, John (1861). Zulu-English Dictionary. Pietermaritzburg: P. Davis & Sons. ISBN 978-0-576-11609-1.
Dominy, Graham (2016). Last Outpost on the Zulu Frontiers: Fort Napier and the British Imperial Garrison. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-09824-6.
Gibson, James Young (1903). The Story of the Zulus. Pietermaritzburg: P. Davis & Sons.
Hamilton, Carolyn (1998). Terrific Majesty: The Powers of Shaka Zulu and the Limits of Historical Invention. London: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-03820-2.
Hughes, Heather (1995). Politics and Society in Inanda, Natal: The Qadi Under Chief Mqhawe, c.1840-1906 (PDF). London: University of London.
Laband, John (2018). The Eight Zulu Kings: From Shaka to Goodwill Zwelithini. Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball Publishers. ISBN 978-1-86842-839-7.
Lipschutz, Mark R.; Rasmussen, R. Kent (1986). Dictionary of African Historical Biography (2nd ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-06611-3.
Mahoney, Michael R. (2012). The Other Zulus: The Spread of Zulu Ethnicity in Colonial South Africa. Durham: Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-5309-6.
Samuelson, Robert Charles Azariah (1929). Long, Long Ago. Knox Printing and Publishing Company.
Sheldon, Kathleen (2016). Historical Dictionary of Women in Sub-Saharan Africa (2nd ed.). Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4422-6293-5.
Stuart, James (1976). The James Stuart Archive of Recorded Oral Evidence Relating to the History of the Zulu and Neighbouring Peoples. Durban: University of Natal Press. ISBN 978-0-86980-073-7.
Weir, Jennifer (2000). Ideology and Religion: The Missing Link in Explanations for the Rise and Persistence of the Zulu State (PDF). Perth: University of Western Australia.