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Myeni clan history & origin:

The AbakwaMyeni belong to the Ntungwa-Ngüni group, and are closely related to the Mabasos. Their original home was inland of the Babanango Mount at the source of the Mhlatüze river, some 20 miles inland of present day Ulundi.

In the early 1700`s the Chief was dying and there arose a dispute as to who would succeed him. One of the claimants to the throne, Mlambö by name, settled the dispute by moving, with as many of the tribe that would follow him, to the area of Qwabeleland around Eshowe, ruled by the Chief of the Qwabe, where Mlambö and his followers were allocated some land.

Mlambö died there around 1754, leaving two sons, (twins) Ngwenya (senior) and Ntsinde (junior), and the two divisions of the new clan were called aba-kwa-Ngwenya and aba-kwa-Ntsinde, and they lived together in Qwabeleland for some time.

Ngwenya died around 1790 and was succeeded by his son Duma.

Not long after his succession Duma fell foul of some evil portent when a ground hornbill, – (inTsingizi) – entered the Kraal.

Duma, in the face of this evil, fled with the major portion of his clan, ending up in the hospitality of the Tembu Chief on the River Tseleni near the coast just north of present day Richards Bay.

And so began some 30 years of unsettled history of the Myeni, with Duma and his people moving to

emaTubatuba; then being chased out of there as far as the enGwavuma River to the East of Swaziland where they eventually settled as vassals to Chief Zondiwe of the Mngomezulu.

Meanwhile Maguma, heir to the other twin Ntsinde, had decided to follow Duma and also settled in the same area with his clan sometime around 1820.

These lands eventually proved barren, and when Vuma, grandson of Maguma saw that his Ntsinde people were starving he begged a Chief Mpande to adopt them, and so were permitted to move south and to occupy land on both sides of the Mkuze River around the eTshaneni Mount (Ubombo).

This land was originally the land of the Soshangane, but was now under the control of

Shaka`s cousin Mapita.