The meaning of uMtwana's passing.

The (untimely) death of Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi has been received with mixed emotions by South Africans from all walks of life.  There have been varieties of political grandstanding, ranging from outright disparaging remarks about his life to remarks about him having been one of the most outstanding leaders of South Africa. The Presidency has characterised him as "an outstanding leader in the political and cultural life of our nation". The most brutal exposition of who he was outside a formal narrative ignited by the government came from the editor-in-chief of City Press, Mondli Makhanya, who simply said he was "a chief apartheid collaborator and a mass murderer". The brute truth is Buthelezi was complicit in what the apartheid state sought to achieve, and this aspect of him is receiving attention in many renditions. 

What might not be receiving attention is a definition of his death beyond 'ukutshalwa ko mtwana (the burial). Buthelezi was one of the leaders who held together an inherently cracked yet unity-branded Zulu-nationalist constituency of our nation-state.  Recently, we saw the 'Zulu Nation' within the 'South African Nation' losing to a COVID-19-related death its longest-serving monarch, King Goodwill Zwelithini Ka Bhekuzulu. That it was a profoundly untimely death is confirmed by the fierce contestations for the throne following the King and his wife's deaths. Interior to iSizwe sa maZulu, this represents a fragile centre that might take a long to hold. 

The losses of the King, the Kingdom's Prime Minister, and influence in the centre of South Africa's fledgling democratic order necessitates a definition of the death. The politics of tribalism have been picking an inconvenient momentum for a while, which has had the unfortunate consequence of positioning Kwa-Zulu Natal as a province where identity politics have grown beyond conscientious politics. It would seem the 'ideology' is fast becoming 'just being Zulu'. The spillover of this development has been a concretisation of 'village-boy-origin' politics where urban politicians have climbed on the bandwagon of defining themselves in 'village-boy-origin' terms, as we have seen in the rest of Africa. 

The loss of individuals, through death or otherwise, at the political centre of the political order, the establishment, and elder statesmanship circles of KwaZulu Natal, arguably a province with influence over South Africa's largest ethnic majority, makes the death of Buthelezi a subject of political analysis interest. In any case, one of his successes as a political figure is positioning Zuluness where it currently is, albeit denied by politicians from 'other' ethnic groups. The brute truth is, with Jacob Zuma's star waning and shining every time he goes to court, otherwise, it is limited to his eNkandla homestead, and no leader the stature of Buthelezi and Zuma in the horizon, a palace battle managing King MisuZulu Ka Zwelithini, the potential vacuum of leadership in KwaZulu can be defining to the broader politics of South Africa. 

"In the emerging consensus that 'democracy should be defined as the arrangements with which a society agrees to govern or rule itself,' the Zulu Kingdom can arguably be classified as a democracy to the extent that those who are called Zulus have accepted the various authorities converging in the position of King. As a democracy-type or form, the Zulu Kingdom has, over the years it existed, carried the structures and systems of 'isizwe sa Mazulu' through time. It has built common interests that have become the currency of its politics and thus shaped those that share a common membership to it as a society and has established what the future of that Kingdom should look like regarding its theories, values, and purposes". Buthelezi has been at the centre of engineering this 'democracy'; it has been accepted as a reality if the budget for the monarchy and the general cultural posture of Zuluness is an indicator of progress. 

Dying at a time when the Zulu Monarchy is contested, and like many human development matters, at any point of institution rebuilding, such as creating a kingdom continuity system, those that will ascend the position of influence Buthelezi occupied will start with some pre-existing custom to influence any new departure. The question is, where or who commands the institutional memory from which such customs will be harvested? "Historical accounts of similar moments in the history of Zulus show that such contests were resolved through battles, some of which were violent and bloody". Being ‘ivikel'sizwe' (defender of the 'nation') he was, and with the many 'abavikel'sizwe' having been busy contesting the 'inner circle' position and status, the recreation of a true 'KwaZulu establishment' will require more than genius from King MisiZulu and his advisers on who becomes the next Buthelezi. 

As I opined in an earlier rendition, "The battle for the Zulu throne, arguably the biggest monarchy in Southern Africa, if not the Southern Hemisphere, can easily qualify as a 'proxy battle' for the soul of South Africa's largest ethnic group and, by extension South Africa itself. In a country with a tradition of operating as a nation with common interests, the instability of one of the largest ethnic groups, which arguably sees itself as a distinct nation, will impact the overall stability of South Africa as both a democracy and an aspirant nation", the battle for the Premiership of the Kingdom will be no less of a risk. As I concluded earlier, "The growth of ethnicity as a vector of political power analysis amongst Africans points to a need to find a balance between the growing into a determinant substrate of South Africanness by Zuluness, or any other, and the need to entrench the resolve to deal with the national question outside the limitations of race and ethnicity".

Given that "King MisuZulu is the convergence point of ruling and governing in the Zulu Kingdom, and his person has become one of the maces of African Kingdoms", this is the time for him to say and do something with which 'uZulu omnyama' must listen to. This is because once the 'other-contesting-for-the-throne' group storm the stage of AmaZulu history with ideas for an alternative 'Zulu Nation or Zuluness', the defense of the Kingdom may take a trajectory whose impact will be on an otherwise fragile South African democratic order. CUT!!!