King of the amaHlubi Langalibalele was born near Utrecht in KwaZulu-Natal, at a time when British settlers began arriving in the area. His name means Bright Sun, derived from a severe drought at the time of his birth. The British, unable to pronounce his name, disrespectfully called him Long Belly.
He became king of the amaHlubi in 1836 after King Dingane killed his elder brother, Dlhomo, for defying him. Twelve years later, Dingane’s successor, King Mpande, attacked amaHlubi after Langalibalele refused to attend a meeting to which he had been summoned. AmaHlubi were then forced to flee across the Buffalo River into the Klip River area.
In 1850, the British who had seized control of the region in 1840, granted the 7,000 Hlubi refugees a stretch of land between the town of Estcourt and the Drakensberg, shrewdly using amaHlubi as a buffer to protect British cattle from the San hunters living in the mountains.
Over the next 25 years amaHlubi prospered. In 1873, threatened by this growth, the Estcourt magistrate enforced a recently enacted Gun Law, requiring amaHlubi men to register all the firearms they had received as payment for working in the diamond fields around Kimberley in the Northern Cape. AmaHlubi refused to register their guns recognizing the law as an effort to disarm them.
King Langalibalele was then summoned to appear before the magistrate to explain his people’s conduct. When Langalibalele refused to appear, his action was treated as rebellion.The force sent against amaHlubi outnumbered their entire kingdom by far. Despite their numbers the British had underestimated the difficult campaign and were forced to retreat.
Martial law was declared in the colony and troops were dispatched to hunt down Langalibalele who had fled to Lesotho before the real hostilities commenced. In the end, Chief Molapo, the son of King Moshoeshoe, handed him over to the British to avoid a war with the more powerful British imperial forces.Langalibalele was convicted of treason, murder and rebellion in 1874 during what some consider South Africa’s first Treason Trial.
He was then banished to Robben Island, off the Cape coast for life. Secretary of State for Colonies, Lord Carnavaron, forced the Cape Parliament to release him from the island in August 1875. He was then imprisoned on the farm, Uitvlugt near Pinelands in Cape Town, where Zulu King Cetshwayo would later be held. Langa township in Cape Town takes its name from these events.
He remained there until 1887 when he was allowed to return home, but was confined to Swartkop township near Pietermaritzburg where he died. In 1874 the Natal government abolished the Hlubi kingship in retribution for Langalibalele’s Rebellion. He is buried in Ntabamhlope, near Estcourt.
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