HRM KING MZILIKAZI II Profile
There is now a Sovereign Monarch in Matabeleland/Mthwakazi since the public announcement on 26 September 2015 at the Large City Hall in Bulawayo. This is 122 years since the fall of the Kingdom and the permanent disappearance of its previous Sovereign Monarch King Lobengula Khumalo.
His name is HRM Raphael Stanley Khumalo
In our culture, kingship is understood as both a Spiritual as well as Traditional office. In order to hold this office, one must be qualified spiritually and traditionally. The Spiritual is permanent and superior because it is of God and can override any other factor. In our culture God is Supreme. Tradition and culture are lower because they are derived from the practice of men over the years and do change.
King Mzilikazi II’s claim to the Mthwakazi/Matabele throne is based on the following:
Stanley Raphael Khumalo who is King Mzilikazi II comes from the “Right” Prince/Crown Prince uHlangabeza who was born of King Mzilikazi by Queen Mwaka Nxumalo “Izala Nkosi”. Mwaka was from the Ndwadwe Royal House, a factor that qualified her to the position of Queen or “Undlunkulu”. In our culture, though the King could marry many wives, there was only one who was honoured as Queen “Undlunkulu”, the rest were called “izanciza ze” Nkosi or concubines. These other houses or wives had very little, if any role to play on the issues of royalty or the kingship. That was the preserve of the Royal House “Undlunkulu”. To be born a king on its own was not enough, you had to be born of the right mother. In King Mzilikazi’s case, two able boys were born of this House: Nkulumane and his young brother Hlangabeza. Anyone involving themselves in this matter outside these two “yisigangi” and can only be driven some ulterior motives. After some mishaps in Bulawayo that saw Prince Nkulumane being anointed as King by some indunas while his father was still alive, King Mzilikazi instructed his son to leave the Kingdom in order to establish his own. Nkulumane obliged, His descendants are found in the Rustenburg area of present South Africa and so is his grave. That left Hlangabeza as the sole candidate for the Kingship of King Mzilikazi and Mthwakazi/AmaNdebele.
However, Hlangabeza did not ascend the throne because of Lobengula’s ambition for power. He was later murdered by Lobengula who found it difficult to call himself “King” as long as Hlangabeza was alive. “Wayesithi isithunzi sika Hlangabeza sisitha ubukhosi bakhe” that was what happens when you are not qualified spiritually, and because of that you end up killing people. Fortunately, Hlangabeza’s son Khuhlumba, who is King Mzilikazi II’s great grandfather survived. He ran away and found refuge with a Tshuma family in the present Nata area of Tsholotsho. He was forced by circumstances to use the Tshuma surname as a disguise. The hiding and the adoption of new surname in order to survive was common during King Lobengula’s reign because of his witch hunting, murderers and killings. This is well-known fact. In our case, this is how the true lineage of the Ndebele Kingdom as well as the true Spirit of Mzilikazi/Ndebele Kingship was preserved by God Almighty.
Lobengula had no claim to Mzilikazi/Ndebele throne whatsoever. He was born by Fulatha Tshabalala, a non-royal and a maid to the Queen Mwaka (“umthanyeli”). Oral history has it also that there were issues surrounding his birth. These were however swept aside in order to preserve royal dignity.
In the Khumalo kingships, the spilling of blood in times of peace is taboo and it carries a curse. Hence the name given to Mzilikazi as a future King “uMziligazi” which would be literally translated as “one who avoids bloodshed” for a lack of proper words. Lobengula is the only Khumalo king who rose to the throne through a bloody civil war and by force. This is against a long and peaceful history of Khumalo dynasties. Lobengula is the only Khumalo king who killed his brother and many of them (“ingqungqulu emadolo abomvu ngokuguqa ezingazini zabafowabo”) he also killed his subjects easily and that made him to be much feared instead of being loved. He is the only Khumalo king who practised a caste or class system (amahole, abenhla, abezansi) after learning it from his British friends. It is a system of divide and rule much like apartheid and tribalism and it is commonly practised by weak and illegitimate leadership. This could have divided the nation so delicately built by King Mzilikazi, but God’s Grace kept it together. Up to today some of his proponents still suffer from this hangover of superiority and inferiority by mere surname. He is the only Khumalo king who ever ran away from the enemy and disappeared forever leaving his subjects behind.
So what God is restoring is the Mzilikazi/Khumalo kingship legacy. However, the Kingship is not a clan thing. It is not a Khumalo heritage programme. It is far much bigger than that. It is servanthood from God to serve over many, equally and with respect as a Servant Leader. The ancestral kingship line declares ”Amen” to God’s choice and grace because God is Supreme.
Lobengula's kingship was lost the same way he gained and maintained it, through bloodshed. Lobengula and his kingship both disappeared (kwanyamalala) forever. It cannot be revived or restored. Culturally “akabuyisangwa uLobengula”. His end and his grave are not known.
King Mzilikazi II is God’s choice and God’s anointed for the revival of the Ndebele Kingdom destroyed by the British in 1894 after a severe war where a lot of lives were lost, and genocide committed. He is also the spiritual choice of the Khumalo Kingship ancestry line. However Spiritual things are spiritually discerned. They are not common knowledge to everybody, instead to many they are foolishness. These facts have been verified spiritually, several times over and there's no doubt to this truth. Anybody is free to check these and other facts if the so wish. The word of God says, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, bit it is God’s purpose that shall prevail”. Prov 19:21
“Ubukhosi bulezimpawu zabo”. Impawu lezi (specific characteristics and signs) have never in our time been as evident on anyone as they are on HRM King Mzilikazi II. A King in our culture must have the “spirit” of kingship or else his kingdom cannot last long. It is because of this spirit that we say in our culture; “a king is born and not chosen by man”. Some true leadership, some God given wisdom, some courage and some humility, faith and love are ver essential.
The purpose and mission of HRM King Mzilikazi II is, by God’s grace to fully and completely restore the Matabele/Ndebele/Mthwakazi Kingship and Kingdom and all the land lands that were under his predecessors, King Mzilikazi and King Lobengula. The purpose and Mission of HRM King Mzilikazi II is to restore total freedom and total sovereignty to every individual citizen of Mthwakazi Kingdom. This is a God initiated and driven purpose. It will not fail because God cannot fail and its time now.
Our full and complete restoration is a statement that our colonisers were wrong when they totally disregarded our humanity, ownership of our lands and our governing systems. It is a witness to all earth that God the Creator of all, the almighty was right by choosing to trust us with our own space (land) and resources. That the All Knowing, All Wise God trusted us enough to let us live all alone as Africans in Africa without a “Big Brother”.
Our full and complete restoration will give us the confidence that, finally our colonisers have fully comprehended that we too are fully Human. And that now they at least accept that we are “somehow” equal Brothers and sisters, and we can co-exist in love. We can and should be respected even with our lands and self-determination. If the Almighty God can trust us thus far, what then is man.
Our full and complete restoration will give us as amaNdebele/Mthwakazi, the opportunity to show case who we are and a chance to add to the beauty and goodness of humanity. It will allow us the grace to contribute to the economy of the world.