Chobe District (2)

Jeff Ramsay | Tuesday August 17, 2021 06:00

In our last instalment we had noted that by the 1600s Vekuhane settlement in the middle of Zambezi-Chobe-Linyandi (or Linyanti) region had led to the establishment of Intenge polity under a ruler named Ikuhane who was the son of Intenge, who thus took the title Munitengwe. Ikuhane is said to have been succeeded by Lilundu-Lituu, followed by the female ruler Mwale and Shanjo or Singongi. During this early period, the Vekuhane were both matrilineal and matrilocal in their social organisation.

Some local traditions maintain that during Munitengwe Shanjo's reign the Vekuhane lived for a period together with the Wayeyi and Lilebe's Hambukushu peoples in the Goha or Gcoha Hills. The three communities are reported to have come together to escape the raids of a notable 17th-century Aluya ruler named Mwanambinyi.

It has also been stated that Shanjo died while leading his people from Goha to the Linyandi marshlands, where he was succeeded by a son, (perhaps actually a biological nephew) named Mafwira I, who due to his unpopularity was soon deposed by a junior brother named Nsundano, who is also remembered by his praise name Liberenge, meaning “the Peeler”. This is shortened from his longer praise "Nsundano, Liberenge, Chisunda manyika, wakasundenkanda nebuta" - "Nsundano, the Peeler, the Pusher of countries, who pushed away countries with an arrow." Both names reflect Munitengwe Nsundano's reputation as a war leader who captured many cattle while attempting to defend Intenge’s borders against further incursions by Matoka and Aluya.

The modern history of the Vekuhane and their neighbours can be said to have begun during the reign of Munitengwe Liswani I, whose rule coincided with the arrival of the Makololo of Sebetwane into the region. In c. 1835 Sebetwane, having already conquered and captured large numbers of Batawana, settled at Naliele (or Nalolo located in Western Zambia) and later Linyandi. From these locations he over the next two decades acted as overlord ruling much of the middle Zambezi as well as northern Botswana.

Liswani was thus forced to act as Sebetwane’s vassal or subordinate. From his base at Kazungulu, he co-operated with Sebetwane by providing him with boats (mekoro) with which the latter crossed the Chobe and Zambesi rivers to conquer the lands of the Matoka, Maila, and Aluya. The Makololo made the Aluya their vassals while calling them Barotsi or Malozi.

Varying accounts agree that Liswani subsequently fell out with Sebetwane, resulting in him seeking refuge and alliance with the Amandebele of Mzilikazi. After the Amandebele withdrew from the region, Sebetwane is said to have made overtures to Liswani to visit Naliele and make peace.

Against the advice of his subjects, Liswani took up the offer only to be treacherously executed by Sebetwane following his arrival. Thereafter Sebetwane placed Liswani’s nephew Nonkwena on the throne, who thereafter ruled as Munitengwe Liswani II.

Accounts of the execution of Liswani I dovetail with the fate of another local ruler killed by Sebetwane, a Wayayi induna named Kuratau. According to Wayayi sources, Kuratau had also facilitated the Makololo in crossing the Chobe-Linyandi only to be murdered so he would not be able to assist any others.

In his later years, Sebetwane ruled from Linyandi village, while Liswani II remained as a Makololo vassal at Impalira island. There he was under the direct authority of a Makololo induna named Isuswa, who stayed at the village of the same name. Other prominent Makololo indunas placed over Vekuhane, whose place-names survive include Banyai, Mukumba, Kabulabula, Mutwametzi, Kwenani, and Sebetwane's son and successor Sekeletu, who stayed at Sesheke.

In 1840 Sebetwane's kingdom was weakened when many Batawana escaped from Makololo captivity and returned to Ngamiland via Chobe. Thereafter, under the leadership of Kgosi Letsholathebe I, they emerged as powerful regional rivals to the Makololo.

From the mid-1800s - ivory, skins, and ostrich feathers from Chobe were traded for guns, wagons, and other articles from the Cape Colony. The known European presence in the Zambesi-Linyanti region dates back to David Livingstone's well-publicised 1851 expedition to Sebetwane, who was then residing at Linyandi.

The expedition had been organised at the by-then venerable Mokololo ruler’s invitation. Observing how Letsholathebe and other Batswana rulers to his south were gaining power by trading ivory and other game products for guns in 1850 Sebetwane sent out three parties of emissaries. One brought 13 brown cows to Letsholathebe, another 13 black cows to the Bakwena ruler Sechele, and a third 13 white cows to the Bangwato ruler Sekgoma. Accompanying each of these gifts was a request that the road to the Makololo also be opened to the Europeans in return for access to the hunting grounds in Chobe.

While Sekgoma was initially reluctant, Sechele backed by Letsholathebe, proved eager to forge a partnership with Sebetwane through his missionary, David Livingstone. Previously, in 1849, Sechele had also arranged for Livingstone, along with the well-t-do gentleman hunter William Cotton Oswell and African American former slave George Fleming to “discover” Lake Ngami by accompanying a party of Bakwena into Ngamiland. It was through such indigenous agency that Livingstone's career as Victorian Britain's most celebrated African explorer was launched.