Chief Bokweni Mamba, 1920s

Born in 1876 and dies in 1940, Chief Bokweni Mamba was the son of Matja I and chief of the Mamba clan who dominated southeast Swaziland at the start of the colonial era in the 1880s.

At that time they celebrated their own Incwala, the ceremony of kingship. However concessionaires needed one king and one authority to validate their concessions and the British only recognised one king, of the iNkhosi Dlamini clan. The Mambas then gradually lost power. Chief Bokweni accepted the situation with public grace and died a respected man in 1940 with 46 wives and about 5000 followers. In the photo he is wearing a necklace of lion claws, probably from an animal that he had killed himself, with a spear.