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Mtetwa Mthethwa Paramountcy | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| c. 1780–1817 | |||||||||
  Ndwandwe  Mthethwa Locations of the Mthethwa Paramountcy, and the rivalNdwandwe clan on a map of present-dayKwaZulu-Natal, South Africa | |||||||||
| Official languages | Nguni | ||||||||
| Government | Confederation | ||||||||
| nKosi | |||||||||
| Jobe kaKhayi | |||||||||
• 1806–1817 | Dingiswayo | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Established | c. 1780 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 1817 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
TheMthethwa Paramountcy, sometimes referred to as theMtetwa orMthethwa Empire, was a Southern African state that arose in the 18th century south ofDelagoa Bay and inland in eastern southern Africa. "Mthethwa" means "the one who rules".
According to Muzi Mthethwa (1995), the Mthethwas are descended from theNguni tribes of northern Natal and theLubombo Mountains, whose modern identity dates back some 700 years.[1] They are among the first Nguni-Tsonga groups who left theGreat Lakes inCentral Africa between 200 AD and 1200 AD. On arrival inSouthern Africa, they settled around modern-daySwaziland, mainly on theLubombo Mountains, before leaving in the 17th century to settle in modern-dayKwaZulu-Natal, in theNkandla region.
It consisted of roughly 30 Nguni chiefdoms, lineages, and clans. Unlike its successor, theZulu Kingdom, the Mthethwa Paramountcy was a confederation.[2] After Zulu chiefShaka kaSenzagakhona (better known as Shaka Zulu) became king, he forged a nearly homogeneous nation with a single king (nkosi).
The Mthethwa Paramountcy was consolidated and extended under the rule ofDingiswayo. The chief entered into an alliance with theTsonga to the north in the early 19th century and began tradingIvory[3] and other things with thePortuguese inMozambique. About 1811, the Buthelezi and a number of other Nguni groups, including the then still marginal Zulu clan led bySenzangakona, were integrated into a sort of confederacy with the Mthethwa clan predominating.
Dingiswayo was killed in a battle with theNdwandwe in 1817. The Mthethwa Paramountcy was then superseded by theZulu Kingdom under Shaka, a former lieutenant in the Mthethwa army. Many military and administrative institutions, including the system of age regiments (amabutho) that later characterized the Zulu kingdom were utilized by Mthethwa, although an older theory that credits the Nyambose rulers of Mthethwa with the introduction ofamabutho is no longer accepted because of evidence for the widespread existence ofamabutho going back into the 18th century and perhaps earlier. The Mthethwa were amongst the first Nguni Chiefdoms to use guns.
28°30′54″S31°50′55″E / 28.51500°S 31.84861°E /-28.51500; 31.84861
