| Inkosi Ya Makosi Zwangendaba Jele | |
| Inkosi Ya Makosi Zwangendaba Jele | |
| Succession: | King of the Ngoni Nation |
| Reign: | 1815–1848 |
| Regnal Name: | Zwangendaba Jele |
| Predecessor: | Unknown Jele |
| Successor: | Gwaza Jele |
| Royal House: | House of Jele |
| Father: | Jele |
| Religion: | Traditional religion |
| Birth Date: | 11 July 1760 |
| Birth Place: | KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa |
Zwangendaba Gwaza kaZiguda Jele Gumbi, commonly known as Zwangendaba (1785–1848) was the first king of the Ngoni and Tumbuka people of Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania of the Jere Ngoni Clan from 1815 to 1857.[1] [2] He passed away in July 1848 and his son, Gwaza Jele, inherited his position soon after his death.[3] [4] [5] [1] He was the older brother of Somkhanda kaZiguda Jele who was also known as Gumbi and founded the Gumbi clan in Kwazulu-Natal in areas of Pongola.[6]
Zwangendaba was a King of a clan of the Nguni or Mungoni people who broke away from the Ndwandwe Kingdom alliance under King Zwide. After defeat of the Ndwandwe forces under his command, Zwangendaba gathered his clan and fled the area. This dispersal of the northern Nguni clans was called the Mfecane. Zwangendaba led his people, then called the "Jele", on a wandering migration of more than 1000miles lasting more than twenty years. Their journey took them through the areas of what is now northern South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi to the western part of Tanzania, where Zwangendaba set up a base at Mapupo. The Ngoni, originally a small royal clan that left Kwa-Zulu Natal, extended their dominion even further through present-day Tanzania, Malawi, and Zambia when they fragmented into three separate groups following his death.
Using many of Shaka's warfare methods of rule such as rigid discipline in military and social organisation, he knitted his nation and the people conquered along the way into a cohesive unit. With his people he migrated north into tropical Africa. The migration proceeded across the Zambezi in 1835 on a day when there was a total eclipse of the sun. King Zwangendaba was alleged to have used some mythical Nguni esoteric knowledge and occult science, and thus on reaching the Zambezi, the waters of the river were reputed to have parted and opened to make way for him and his people (this has been likened to the parting of The Red Sea). Advancing north, ravaging the countries they crossed, they eventually arrived in the south west of what is now Tanzania. On the death of Zwangendaba in 1848, the Ngoni split into three groups, one main group settling in Malawi, one in Songea (Tanzania) and a third group migrated north to Mbogwe in Usumbwa where they fought with the famous Mirambo of Unyamwezi.
The current king of the Ngoni is his great-great-grandson, M'Mbelwa V.[7] [8] [9] [10]