Zambili Dlamini

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Queen Zambili
BornZambili Dlamini
Eswatini
SpouseKing Noziyingile Tembe
Issue Chief Ngwanase Tembe
House House of Dlamini
FatherKing Sobhuza I [1]
OccupationQueen Regent

Queen Zambili Dlamini was a Swazi princess who served as Queen regent of the Tembe Kingdom from 1886 until 1894 when her son Prince Ngwanase Tembe came of age and installed as the Chief of Tembe. [2] [3]

Zambili was the daughter of King Sobhuza I. [1] Her marriage to King Noziyingile made the Tembe Kingdom a political ally of the Kingdom of Eswatini under her brother King Mswati II and her royal Swazi lineage granted her legitimacy to give birth to the next heir of the Tembe chieftaincy. [4]

Regency (1886-1894) and relations with colonial authorities

Following the death of her husband King Noziyingile in 1886, Prince Muhena, a senior son of the Tembe, declared himself ruler of the Tembe Kingdom after being militarily aided by King Cetshwayo of the Zulu Kingdom. [4] However, Queen Zambili challenged this and used internal resistant forces to overthrow Muhena and took over to rule from 1886 as regent until Ngwanase came of age in 1894, becoming the Chief of Tembe. [4] Prince Makhuza established the parallel Makhuza-Tembe branch but was dissolved when the Portuguese colonial powers recognised Ngwanase as the legitimate leader of the Tembe Kingdom. [5]

As regent, she halted the long-standing tribute historically paid by the Tembe to the Zulu kings. [6] She faced considerable internal challenges during her time as regency, including a period when several southern chiefs in the east Lubombo region and north of the Mkhuze River stopped paying tribute to her after her husband King Noziyingile’s death. [2]

Zambili also confronted growing pressure from the Portuguese colonial authorities based in Lourenço Marques. The Portuguese demanded taxes from the Tembe (Maputa) Kingdom, threatening to burn the royal homestead when she refused to pay. [6] Zambili rejected these demands on the basis that the Tembe Kingdom had never historically paid tribute to the Portuguese, and she emphasised that during Noziyingile’s reign, the Portuguese government itself paid tribute to the Tembe for access to Inyaka Island. [7]

Fearing Portuguese and Zulu expansion, Zambili sought diplomatic protection from the British colonial government in Natal colony. [2] She dispatched envoys requesting assistance in a boundary dispute with Portugal and asked that her the British crown her son Prince Ngwanase in the same manner they had recognised King Cetshwayo. [6] At the end the Portuguese changed their mind and began supporting her regency against Prince Makhuza Tembe and her son Prince Ngwanase was eventually recognised as the legitimate Chief of Tembe. By April 1889, Zambili was recorded by the British as someone who had mended relations with the Portuguese colonial officials; and her homestead was found to have a Portuguese flag hanging outside the main hut. [2]

The legacy of the Tembe Kingdom persists today through the Tembe Tribal Authority, [8] which represents the continuation of the kingdom’s chiefly lineage within South Africa’s modern traditional leadership system, particularly the KwaNgwanase line and the Makhuza line which got incorporated into the modern Tembe Tribal Authority. [9]

References

  1. 1 2 "Note on the above kings of Tongaland" (PDF). University of Cape Town.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Mthethwa, Dingani. 2002. The Mobilization of History and the Tembe Chieftaincy in Maputaland: 1896–1997 (PDF). MA thesis, University of Natal.
  3. ↑ Mathebula, Mandla (2017). "Some notes on the early history of the Tembe, 1280 AD–1800 AD (PDF)". New Contree. 78: 102.
  4. 1 2 3 Kloppers, Roelie J. (2003). The History and Representation of the History of the Mabudu‑Tembe (MA thesis). University of Stellenbosch.
  5. ↑ Lummis, Trevor (1996). "The Colonial State and the Rise to Dominance of Ngwanase, 1896-1928" (PDF). Phambo Seminar Papers.
  6. 1 2 3 British Parliamentary Papers, C6200 (10 July 1887)
  7. ↑ Newitt, Malyn (1974). Towards a History of Modern Mocambique, Rhodesian History. Volume 5. Page 33 to 47
  8. ↑ Peace Parks Foundation. "Tembe Elephant Park" . Retrieved 11 November 2025.
  9. ↑ "Tembe Elephant Park". Tembe Elephant Park Official Site. Retrieved 10 November 2025.
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