165-YEAR-OLD ZULU CHIEF

Northern Advocate, 4 May 1926, Page 6

165-YEAR-OLD ZULU CHIEF

TEST FOR LEADERSHIP. A WALK THROUGH FIRE. Incidents of early South African history arc recalled by “Little Chaka,” aged 105, son of Dingaan, the famous Zulu King and captain in the famous “Tiger” iinpi, who has just purchased a plot of land at Klipspruit, where he will spend the closing stages of an adventurous life. “Little Chaka” was born on the lands at the joining of the Tugela and Buffalo Rivers, and grew up in the Royal kraal until the time came for him to enter a regiment, as all the young men of Royal blood did. It was then, however, that he was put to the supreme tost by Dingaan. In order to prove that ho was a worthy son of his father he was ordered to walk through fire. “A great fire was lighted and trees piled on it,” the old warrior recalls “Through this I had to walk to prove I was worthy of leading men. As 1 walked I fell, and my chest was burnt to the bone. I got up and walked through and Dingaan, my father, said I was a man strong enough and brave enough to catch a lion barehanded. He said I was a born leader.” “Little Chaka” was then given a command in the famous “Ingwe, ” cr “Tiger Regiment,” so named by Dingaan because, to test their valour, 'ho had sent them out unarmed to catch alive a leopard and return to the Royal kraal with it. This they accomplished. For a short time “Little Chaka” was one of Dingaan’s bodyguard, and then he was given to Mpande, Dingaan’s brother, who later took his place. “Little Chaka” was then 17 or 18 years of age.

THE BLOOD RIVER BATTLE. “Before I left the Royal kraal I had seen Piet Relief and men come and speak with Dingaan,” “Little Chaka” told the Rand Daily Mail. “I heard them ask for land, and I heard them promise to return to Dingaan the cattle they had taken. Then one day, while I was with Mpande, a messenger

came and told ns of the killing of Belief and his men.” When the avenging Andrics Pretorius and his men routed the Zulu impis at Blood River in 1838, an event still annually celebrated by the. Boers on “Dingaan’s Bay,” “Little Chaka” was at the Royal kraal. On his return to Mpande he was given by Mpande, who allied himself with the Voortrokkers, to Andrics Protorius to prove Mpande’s good faith.

“With the very assegai with which Dingaan’s capita in stabbed Piet Relief to death,” said the Old Zulu, “the same man stabbed Dingaan. The captain called my father out and then, drawing the short stabbing spear from beneath his leopard skin, stabbed at Dingaan. But Dingaan did not die and his regiments killed the slabber and broke his assegai.”

From the time “Little Chaka” forsook the “Tiger” impi and joined the Voortrckkcrs his life was even more adventurous. Ho was given to Martinas Steyn who later, though slavery had been abolished, sold “Little Chaka” to Ryk Odcndaal. For many years the Zulu lived in the Cape Colony, but finally moved with his master to Kroonstad, then scarcely a village. In the Boor War he was a guide to the Scottish regiments. “Little Chaka’s” most cherished possession is an old ramrod given to him by a farmer long before the Boer War, when the muzzle-loader was replaced by the breech-loader. “This I would not sell for f!S,” he said. Though frail with age, “Little Chaka” hopes to live long yet, and he intends to cultivate his little plot of land without.assistance.