Category: clan Page 1 of 17

Perspective: ‘Kutumela’ is not our Family Name but an ‘Acquired Name’ – Do you know how your Family Name came about?

January 02, 2022

A. Introduction

Compliments of the new season!

It was on this day, January the 01st in 1939 that my late father was called upon to navigate the terrain, the seen world is. He passed on, on Sunday May 06th, 2012.

Here-under, is the way to commemorate a life well lived. Trust that you will enjoy taking a peak through my brain to appreciate some of the encounters I have had during my tenure being inducted into Divinity in the Spiritual realm (crossover while sleeping), which otherwise, would have been lost to history.

B. Background

Those of you who have before taken the time to browse through some of my writings re the Spiritual journey I have traversed, will remember that I often make the point to distinguish between practices characteristic of Traditional Medicine and Spiritual Healing.

The record here-under attempts albeit non-exhaustively, to capture some of the lessons learnt while being led on a voyage of discovery in the Spiritual realm right back to the fifteenth (15th) century.

Kindly note that for purposes of brevity, I will make certain to zoom in on the period starting in the seventeenth (17th) century for the simple reason that it was the time that impacted the turn of my family’s Royal heritage.

The nature of instruction taken as we traversed across the time warp is identifiable with empathy in that one is not just shown what transpired during the time of significance to the point at issue but is made to experience the conditions of the time e.g. when it is said that:

1. It was very cold/hot on that specific day, one is made to feel the exact temperature of the time of the day in question;

2. The subject under study was heart-wrenched, one is made to experience the heartache in the exact intensity;

3. The subject under study suffered excruciating pain e.g. after his hand was chopped off, one will jump out of bed to go through the pain in the exact depth of intensity until it subsides before one can go back to sleep etc.

C. About the Kutumela Family

The family arrived in Natal from Central Africa in the 15th Century. It arrived as a Royal Family, which led the Nyambose Kingdom.

The writer’s voyage of discovery in the Spiritual realm as he was inducted into his role as a Divine Interlocutor, interacted the Nyambose Kingdom during the reign of King Gqedje Nyambose, who was married to Ma-Dlamini, Jama ka Sjadu Inzipho Zimnyama Ziqhwayana! Herself a Royal Princess from ebuKhosini ba Kwa eSwatini.

Dingiswayo, a Chief of the Mthethwa (the one who rules) whose father was King Jobe KaKhayi (born Godongwana 1780-1817) left a legacy, which was known for two accolades viz.:

1. He trained young Shaka, an aspiring army General from a smaller and almost insignificant for its size, Zulu Chieftaincy; and the other,

2. His insistence on diplomacy as a tactic in conflict resolution.

It is for the latter reason that Chief Dingiswayo chose the route to negotiate with surrounding Kingdoms and Chieftaincies to submit to the Mthethwa than armed conflict or conquering.

However, on the other hand, young Shaka was wired differently as he was prone to armed conflict as a way to find his way with others.

When Dingiswayo was assassinated in 1817, Shaka and his militia ‘returned’ to proceed with the plans to amalgamate the various Kingdoms and Chieftaincies to found one great Kingdom, the Zulu Kingdom under his leadership.

Only, his methods were diametrically opposite to those, which were employed by Dingiswayo i.e. his demonstrably incessant obsession with armed conflict.

Shaka’s ambutho/warriors approached my great grandfather, King Gqedje Nyambose’s Royal Crown Kraal, to persuade him to submit to Mthethwa’s plans to subdue and relegate Nyambose Kingdom to Chieftaincy under the Mthethwa.

The amalgamation was purposed to found one great Zulu Kingdom under the leadership of King Shaka. However, King Gqedje Nyambose refused to budge!

The warriors then attacked his Royal Crown Kraal in the still of night, beheaded him and took his head to Shaka as proof of their conquest.

Salibona, King Gqedje Nyambose’s son (who later came to be known as Mongepoo), protested to submit by bowing down to the man who maimed/assassinated his father, King Gqedje Nyambose.

While my great grandmother, Queen Ma-Dlamini, her son Salibona together with those who were loyal to King Gqedje Nyambose’s Kingdom fled, some remained behind as they relented and availed themselves to be frog-jumped into the Mthethwa and were thus, rewarded with Chieftaincy for their obedience.

In their flight, Queen Ma-Dlamini and those loyal to the Kingdom, led by Salibona went over a high hill, where they met with Chief Musi, who also protested submitting to Shaka’s reign.

The exercise to climb over the hill, thus earned the Nyamboses who refused to submit to Shaka’s reign of terror under the Mthethwa, the name Gudumbela (to go over the hill/those who went over the hill).

Gudumbela under the leadership of Salibona, thus joined forces with Chief Musi and served under him as his warrior. As we trekked up North, we came across Sotho and later, Tswana influences in and around Tshwane.

Three significant events occurred:

The first was that we were labelled Matebele, meaning ‘those who came from far away places’ – and of course, due to our Nguni background, to us the word sounded, amaNdebele;

The second was that the Tswanas in Tshwane Tswanafied Gudumbela so that it then became ‘Kutumela’; and

The third was that the Kutumelas were hit hard by another breakaway when a small group left to found their own clan and called themselves, ‘Muthwa’.

In isiNdebele, the prefix ‘So’ means ‘Father of’. Hence, Kutumela’s clan name is ‘So-Muthwa’, ‘Father of Muthwa’.

D. Chief Musi had five sons viz. Dlhomo, Mzilikazi, Manala, Nzunza and Mthombeni.

Upon the passing of Chief Musi, Dlhomo and his followers returned home to Natal, likewise Mzilikazi trekked further up North and landed in Matabeleland in the then South Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Manala remained around Hammanskraal, while Nzunza and Mthombeni trekked towards the then Eastern Transvaal (now Mpumalanga).

It was later that Mthombeni decided to together with his following, trek further towards the North, thus leaving his brother Nzunza behind in the Eastern Transvaal, to land in Zebediela.

Mthombeni was thus, deemed to have abandoned his brother, Nzunza – who was very aggrieved by Mthombeni’s decision to breakaway.

In isiNdebele, ukugega is to abandon. That is how Mthombeni came to earn himself the name, Gegana, resulting from his having abandoned his brother in the Eastern Transvaal for Zebediela.

It was interacting with the Pedi influences in and around Zebediela, that Gegana later sounded – Kekana.

Salibona-Mongepoo trekked with Mthombeni as his loyal and most trusted warrior.

A visitation from a King of the BaPedi, Kgoshi Kgabi, elicited the relationship between Kgoshi Kekana and his Royal family and how Salibona-Mongepoo as a warrior, was often borrowed to help Kgoshi Kgabi ward off his enemies, with the result that Salibona-Mongepoo was rewarded with a bride.

However that may be, the purpose of the visitation was to give instruction to the writer to approach Kgoshi Madimetja Sello Kekana III, with a direct order, purposed to:

1. Give the writer as a descendant of Salibona-Mongepoo recognition in the Traditional Council as an iNduna; and also,

2. To allocate a designated piece of land for the writer to locate his people.

Quite fascinatingly, the writer found upon approaching Kgoshi M.S Kekana III that he was already briefed by his Ancestors of the writer’s impending visit, albeit unaware of what the purpose was. Stuff you’d never see on TV, I promise!

To that extent, my family’s lineal clan names thus, follow: Gqedje – Nyambose – Kutumela -Salibona-Mongepoo-Somuthwa!

D. Nyambose Kutumela Somuthwa Royal Crown Kraal put in context:

1. King Gqedje Nyambose was married to a Royal Princess from the eSwatini Kingdom, uMaDlamini.

2. My great grandfather, Figlan from the Eastern Cape (Caucasian), was married into the Swati Royal Kingdom.

3. Out of that union, my maternal grandfather, Davidson Figlan and his sibling, MamSwikini were born.

4. A well-known Traditional Healer from Naledi Section in Mamelodi Township, known as ‘Ndishi’ Seale happened to provide his services to the Figlan household in the Eastern Cape, and was thus, rewarded with a bride, MamSwikini (affectionately known as Makhulu)

5. MamSwikini’s brother, Davidson Figlan who also was of mixed race, was a migrant worker who accordingly, hailed from the Eastern Cape and settled with my maternal grandmother in Riverside in the East of Pretoria. He worked for Steel Works, which later came to be known as Iron and Steel Corporation (ISCOR).

6. My maternal grandmother, Rosie Figlan (nee’ Manyisa), who had hailed from Barberton in the Eastern Transvaal (now Mpumalanga Province) traces the roots of our maternal side of the family to Mozambique.
E. Connection between St. Manyisa and vhaVenda Kingdom as was led by King Nevhutalo Ramabulana III

1. My mother’s maternal grandfather, my great grandfather was a Practitioner of Traditional Medicine and Spiritual Healing.

2. He was a trusted healer of the Ramabulana Royal Household during the tenure of King Nevhutalo Ramabulana III.

1. Manyisa family and Ramabulana Royal House entered into an agreement of an arranged marriage between my grandmother, Ouma Rose to be married into the Ramabulana Household.

2. The objective of the move was so my grandmother would birth a child in favour of the Royal Household, who would thus, be gifted for Royal blood and Ancestral gifts of Traditional and Spiritual Healing owed to a prestigious family.

3. Upon getting wind of the betrothal, Ouma Rose fled to Pretoria, at which place she met and got married to my maternal grandfather, Davidson Figlan – the untold consequences for my grandmother’s flight from an arranged marriage conclusively concluded customarily between two families, were to as a result be felt by her progeny, breathing through the wound until my braving the task to heed the Ancestral Calling to break the generational curse by accepting and rectifying the wrongs of the past to bring the family back to its former glory.

D. How does a third born son elevate to ascend to the Throne and be Chosen to be favoured with Ancestral gifts of Healing:

1. My father had prior to birth accepted the challenge to take up the Ancestral instruction and also to reclaim the family’s disrupted Royal heritage.

2. However, perhaps through Enculturation and as a consequence of his devout Christian convictions upon delivery to the seen world, he abdicated.

3. His inclinations to Psychiatry as his fervent field of study was a consequence of his innate affinity with his life’s purpose – one of the most complex fields of service in Spiritual Healing, is to discern mental illness from Ancestral Calling mainly because the symptoms identifiable with both are the same.

4. Hence, Mental Institutions are inundated with people who are yet to gain insight of their condition to be identifiable with a Spiritual Calling while on the other hand, inDumbas (experienced healers’ compounds) are inundated with people who are mad as hell.

5. That should tacitly explain the proliferating emergence of Pastors who, among others, shave grown and some married women’s pubic hair publicly, making congregants ingest reptiles and flammable liquids etc.

6. While my eldest brother had also agreed before birth, he rejected the calling upon birth.

7. It was for that reason that he was named after both my paternal and maternal grandfathers.

8. It was intended that he would by taking Ancestral instruction, be well suited to both resuscitate the family’s disrupted Royal heritage, bring both families back together again and also, bring to bear, the fruits of the arranged marriage between Manyisa and Ramabulana Royal Households – but it was not to be.

9. It was however, while the Kutumela family had resolved to look to the next generation for a suitor to take up the challenge that my great grandfather, Manyisa approached me before birth and I accepted and saw the gig through.

10. When the Kutumela family found out about it, an altercation I was made privy to ensued but in the nd, Manyisa put his foot down that while the bones were the Kutumelas’, it was his blood which coursed through my veins and that in the event that they had gifts they wished to favour me with, they would have to all come after him because he was the first to pick me!

11.. The Kutumelas expressed concern about my possible rejection of their gifts BUT I was likewise, made privy to my response thereto, thus: ‘I intend to reject nothing but accept everything from everyone’ (loosely translated),

12. My grandfather, Manyisa eventually rose through the ranks to attain Sainthood – a fact that none of the Gobelas (experienced Healers) was willing to disclose to me because doing so harboured the consequence to acknowledge as Healers that their Guardian Angels are junior to mine, their initiate.

13. It was for that reason that my paternal grandfather sent me to the Senior of the two Zion Christian Churches (ZCC) – the Dove Saint Engenas ZCC, for the simple reason that contrary to public perception, the Dove ZCC is more Senior than the other and because of the fact of their Seniority and that their Guardian Angel too has attained Sainthood, they would not have qualms pronouncing the fact to me and also, to reveal to me, the gravity and specific capacities of my Spiritual gifts.

D. In conclusion,

While gifted by his maternal side of the family for Divinity/Divine Healing Powers of the Holy Spirit as a Spiritual Healer, His Royal Grace (HRG), Lucius Somuthwa Kutumela is a direct descendant of His Royal Grace, King Gqedje Nyambose and is the one chosen and anointed to rekindle and re-establish the Kingdom of Nyambose! Kutumela-Somuthwa! – A task he accepted graciously.

N: B

1. A book is near completion to cover HRG Lucius Somuthwa Kutumela’s existential experience participating in a voyage of discovery as was led by the family’s Elders stretching right back into the 15th Century when the Nyambose clan landed in Natal to elicit fact from fiction on the question of Perception vs Reality as it relates to the fact of existence.

2. It was because of the fondness that King Gqedje Nyambose had for the affable Chief Dingiswayo that eventually, through my grandfather Salibona Joseph Kutumela, my eldest brother was named Dingis – short for Dingiswayo; further

3. It was because of King Gqedje Nyambose’s choice of HRG Lucius Somuthwa Kutumela as his favoured successor to the throne, that upon birth, my grandfather, Salibona Joseph Kutumela likewise pronounced, thus (translated):

“That who will bear the name Somuthwa, is this one”!

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