Dzata I – SINGO KINGDOM
Mwali instructed vhotshifhe to install one of Tshikalange’s sons, Hwami , as the new king. Hwami led his people across the Vhembe River and settled in the Nzhelele valley. Hwami’s royal kraal was on Mount Lwandali and was known as Dzata (known today as Dzata I). Hwami subjugated most Vhangona clans including their king, Raphulu.Hwami was, according to this version, succeeded by Dimbanyika. Dimbanyika was a hunter.
One day he went out hunting but never came back. But his two dogs went back home. A search party, led by one of his dogs, was dispatched the following day to look for him. The dog led the search party to a cave. The opening of the cave was filled with huge rocks which were impossible to move. After trying unsuccessfully to move the rocks, they were addressed by Dimbanyika. He told them to stop trying and that the cave would be his grave.
He instructed them to take Ngomalungundu and move the capital since nobody would be allowed to live on Mount Lwandali. He forbade people from eating fruits from Lwandali. He also gave instructions that the son of Rambwapenga and his descendants must remain on Mount Lwandali to tend his grave and to be guardians of Lwandali. Lwandali became known as Tshiendeulu, meaning royal graveyard. The son of Rambwapenga and his descendants became known as Netshiendeulu, meaning the owner/ruler/custodian of Tshiendeulu.
Dzata II – THOBELA KINGDOM
The Singo moved to the south west of Lwandali and built a new capital, Dzata II. Up to this day the descendants of Dimbanyika are not allowed to face the descendants of Netshiendeulu since it is believed that the descendants of Netshiendeulu possess supernatural powers bestowed by Dimbanyika. When Khosi Netshiendeulu goes to Dzanani to pay tribute to the Mphephu-Ramabulana King the two have to converse not facing each other. They are also separated by a wall, and they both need to have their backs against the wall that separates them. This practice is also due to the belief King Dimbanyika and the son of Rambwapenga (Netshiendeulu) could not see each other when Dimbanyika was trapped in the cave, and when he was issuing instructions.
The Mphephu-Ramabulana King is also, therefore, supposed to issue instructions to Khosi Netshiendeulu without the two seeing each other’s face.Dimbanyika was succeeded by Dyambeu. The remaining Vhangona clans, Vhambedzi and Vhalembethu of Ha-Mutele and Makhahani (Thulamela) were also conquered.Dyambeu died when he was attempting to subjugate the Vhatavhatsindi of Tshiheni and Tshiavha (where Lake Fundudzi is found).
Dyambeu is said to have underestimated the Vhatavhatsindi and decided to subjugate them without the use of Ngomalungundu. He, therefore, instructed the six Vhandalamo men who carried Ngomalungundu to hang it on a plum tree. Ngomalungundu is said to have fallen from the plum tree, touched the ground and cracked while the Singo were busy fighting the Vhatavhatsindi.
This led to the defeat of the Singo by Vhatavhatsindi, and the broken Ngomalungundu was taken by the Vhatavhatsindi. King Dyambeu was killed. This was the first defeat of the Singo by any of the Vhavenda clans.Vhatavhatsindi took Ngomalungundu to their royal kraal, Tshiheni.Mwali, the Great God of the Singo made contact with Tshishonga, the Chief Priest and gave him a golden pipe which had similar powers to those of Ngomalungundu.Tshishonga led the Singo army to conquer Vhatavhatsindi. The Singo army set up its base camp at a place known today as “Mudavhi wa Tshishonga” (Tshishonga’s field).
The Singo army defeated Vhatavhatsindi with the help of the magical golden pipe given to Tshishonga by Mwali. The Singo also managed to get hold of Ngomalungundu and took it back to Dzata.Through conquest the Vhangona and Vhambedzi came to revere and fear Ngomalungundu. They regarded this drum as the Voice of their Great God, Raluvhimba. By the late 19th century Vhavenda had to come to think of Raluvhimba and Mwali as interchangeable names for the same deity, although they had once been separate.
The Singo were, with time, absorbed culturally and linguistically by Vhangona and Vhambedzi clans, the clans they conquered. The conquerors’ descendants owe much of their present identity to the earlier inhabitants of Venda, Vhangona and Vhambedzi. It is believed that about 85% of present day Tshivenda words and vocabulary come from the original Tshingona. But the conquerors also transmitted a great number of Karanga traits.Today nobody knows where Ngomalungundu is.
Some say that King Thohoyandou took it with him when he disappeared without trace. Some people believe that Thohoyandou crossed the Vhembe River into Vhukalanga, and that is where he died. A museum in Harare, Zimbabwe, has the remains of an old drum, and the curator claims that it’s Ngomalungundu. The curator says that the drum was donated to Bulawayo Museum by a Venda-speaking man in the 1930s.(Article from soma Anthropology)
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