MEMORY LANE: Remembering the end of the Angoni-British war of 1898
By Gumbi Kaziguda Jele
ON this day, 128 years ago, Inyandezulu Mphezeni KaZwangendaba, the Ngoni King, officially agreed to meet the British to discuss peace talks during the 1897-1898 Angoni-British War.
The Ngonis led by HRH Prince Nsingo, a son of King Mphezeni and also his Crown Prince, had earlier on revolted, resisting the presence of whites in the Ngoni Kingdom.
That was in December 1897 and by January 1898 the British had managed to bring in reinforcements from neighboring Malawi to fight the Ngoni army.
By end of January 1898, the Angoni army was defeated and the following month, on the fourth of February, the leaders of the Ngoni army including Prince Nsingo were captured and placed in jails.
On the February 5, Prince Nsingo and his Lieutenants were Court Martialled and sentenced to death by a firing squad.
The group was executed by a firing squad in the afternoon of February 5, 1898.
Two wives of Prince Nsingo namely Indlunkulu (Queen) Mkuchwa Mbazima and Indlunkulu Zikhalo Ngulube had long escaped their villages following the capture of their husband.
A column under a British Officer, Lane Poole was used to hunt them down catching up with them along the Vubwi valley. The two were shot dead and buried in a shallow grave just there in the Vubwi valley.
By then King Mphezeni had by then long left his base and thus did not witness the public execution of his son and his peers.
The appearance of the Ngoni leader on the political scene after he had escaped his Chimphinga Royal Palace ultimately ended the war.
Following his appearance at the ruins of Chimphinga Royal Palace, the British command subsequently arrested him and took him to Fort Manning (present day Mchinji district in Malawi).
Later on, when intelligence reports indicated that Ngonis had armed themselves and were preparing to rescue him from captivity, he was again moved to a secret location in Vubwi.
This photo was taken in July 1899 when the Ngoni King was in captivity. He was then released in the same year of 1899 and allowed to continue ruling his people.
The death of Prince Nsingo and other Ngoni military men was a huge blow to King Mphezeni and had a profound impact on him. He never recovered fully and died in September 1900.
He had died around the Mpanga area under Inkosi Saili but the elders took his body to his capital, Lowengeni, where he was buried.
His mother, Indlunkulu Soseya, who was a very old woman in 1900 did not attend his funeral as she was based far away at the eDingeni royal palace. She too died in 1900 but in October.
Kalemba February 9, 2025