Colonial Intrusion and the Dispute over Leadership of the Nzama People in Kranskop, KwaZulu-Natal, 1880s to 1928

ABSTRACT The Nzama were an independent chiefdom, but because of the colonial divide-and-rule strategy, they ultimately were made subservient to the rival Ngubane chief, who then connived with the local white magistrate to install his son Tshutshutshu as his successor. This brewed tensions between the Nzama leaders and Chief Tshutshutshu. Their differences ended up in court, but the white authorities sided with Tshutshutshu. The friction between the Nzama and the Ngubane has continued for decades but is generally reduced to the term izimpi zemibango (faction fights), a catch-all term that fails to address the underlying causes of the conflict and its long historical roots. This article deals with the interventions by the Natal colonial state in the areas to the south of the uThukela River, where Kranskop and Greytown are located, before the outbreak of the Anglo-Zulu War in 1879 to highlight what changed after the war. Within this it explores the different ways in which the Ngubane and Nzama people were treated, which intensified tensions and held within it the seed for the outbreak of the izimpi zemibango between the 1880s and 1928.