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History: From the Ntonjaneni Spring the road descends gently to the valley below. There, at the top of a rise, a minor road to the left leads to the Dinganestat Dutch Reformed Church Mission Station. A few kilometres further on is Mgungundhlovu, one of the most important historical sites in South Africa.
In 1828 Dingane murdered his half-brother Chaka, King of the Zulus, at his royal kraal, Dukuza, where Stanger is now. He then decided to build a new military kraal for himself in the Emakhosini Valley.
The site that Dingane selected for his kraal was extremely well chosen both from a strategic and from a geographical point of view. It lies on the slope of a spur of the Ntonjaneni Hills. The top of this spur, called Singonyama or Lion Mountain, provides a wide view over the whole of the Emakhosini valley. There was a good water supply : the Mkhumbane Spruit comes down from the Ntonjaneni Spring and passes the kraal site on its northern side, while the Nzololo Spruit flowed to the west of the kraal and entered the Mkhumbane a little lower down. Across the Mkhumbane is the hill known as Hiom’ amaButho or Arm the Soldiers Hill; at the northern end of this hill, next to the spruit, there is a spur called KwaMatiwane which Dingane used as a place of execution. The place Dingane chose for his kraal also had important historical and national associations, for the main entrance of the kraal lay in the direction of the grave of Zulu, also called Nkosinkulu, the founder of the Zulu dynasty to which Dingane himself belonged.
Nkosinkulu’s kraal was very probably also situated in the same vicinity. Dingane gave his kraal the name of Mgungundhlovu. Opinions differ as to the meaning of the name. According to H. C. Lugg it is derived from ungungu wendhlovu, which means The secret meeting of the King, and I refers to Dingane’s successful plot to murder Chaka.
James Stuart, on the other hand, expresses the view, based on Zulu tradition, that the kraal was called Mgungundhlovu because it had the shape formed by two elephant tusks placed on the ground, that the name means The Place of the Large Elephant, and that, by transference, it was applied to Dingane himself.

Dingane had a number of military kraals spread all over Zululand, and although he sometimes stayed at Khangela, near the present Eshowe, for a few months, Mgungundhlovu must be regarded as his capital. From here he dominated the Zulu empire built by Chaka. Impis were often sent from here to subdue recalcitrant sub-chiefs and minor clans. The history of this kraal as the embodiment of Zulu power and the records of Zulu customs and behaviour during the years 1828 to 1838 is therefore crowded and most fascinating, but only a few of the more interesting incidents directly connected with the kraal can be related here.
During Chaka’s wars of destruction the Amangwane clan, who were living under their chief Matiwane in the present-day district of Vryheid, were driven across the Drakensberg. They proceeded on a tour of plunder through Basutoland and finally crossed the Orange River into the Cape Colony where they were defeated and driven back by colonial forces. With a small remnant of his tribe Matiwane returned to Zululand, and proceeded to Mgungundhlovu to seek asylum with Dingane. At first Dingane feigned friendship, but then he suddenly ordered Matiwane to be taken to the stony hill across the Mkhumbane and killed. From that day onwards the hill was called KwaMatiwane and it became the Golgotha of Mgungundhlovu over which vultures hovered all day.
Dingane was regularly visited at Mgungundhlovu by English traders from Port Natal. Henry Fynn, Dick King and Nathaniel Isaacs came here bringing presents and bartering beads and other goods for ivory. In 134 the well-known traveller, Dr. Andrew Smith, came to Mgungundhlovu on a special visit from the Cape Colony. Capt. Allen Gardiner visited Dingane, begging him to allow a missionary to settle at Mgungundhlovu. The result was that the Rev. Francis Owen was stationed there. On Dingane’s instructions Owen erected his camp across the Mkhumbane on the hill Hiom’ amaButho
where the parsonage of the Dutch Reformed Church now stands. Owen laboured here for a little over a year.
The American missionaries George Champion, A. Grout, N. Adams, A. Wilson and H. Venable also paid visits to Dingane from time to time.
Visual Description: In its general lay-out the kraal was oval in shape, with the main gate at the lower end in the direction of the confluence of the two spruits. The circle was formed by two concentric hedges of mimosa stumps within which the huts were located. It is estimated that there were about 1 500 living-huts although Piet Retief places the number at 1 700. At the top there were three smaller kraals. A more detailed analysis of the organization of the kraal can best be made from a viewpoint on the top of the hill Singonyama looking in the direction of the main gate, i.e. northwards. Almost a hundred metres from the top of the hill stood three small kraals outside the enclosure of the main kraal. They were commonly known as the Ebheje or Bheje. The central kraal had eight huts and the other two, four each. Only members of the royal family lived here, while in the one on the left there were a number of grain pits. The upper part of the main kraal, separated from the rest by a high palisade, constituted the Royal Quarters or Isigodlo. It had its own carefully guarded entrances, and consisted of two main divisions—the black and the white. The black isigodlo on the right side, nearest to the Mkhumbane, was the personal quarters of Dingane and consisted of a complex of very large huts. Amongst them were Dingane’s two huts—his Ilawu or sleeping and eating hut, which rested on only one central pole, and his big hut or hail of audience, which, according to Piet Retief, had a diameter of six metres and rested on twenty-two (sic) pillars completely covered with beads. ( Compare Gardiner’s drawing.) In the open space adjoining these huts was a mound of earth which can still be seen, and from which Dingane could overlook the whole of the kraal. Besides his own huts there were the huts of the matron of his quarters, his favourite concubines and his personal maid-servants.
The white isigodlo, which was much larger, stretched for nearly a hundred metres in the direction of the Nzololo Spruit. Here, under the supervision of the Nkosikasi or headwoman lived the King’s three hundred or more concubines or Ndlunkulu. Their huts were usually in threes and the whole quarter was divided up by fences in such a way that it formed an intricate maze.
In the immediate vicinity of the royal quarters, outside the fences, there was a great midden, which can still be seen today. It was formerly erroneously designated as Dingane’s bath.
As Mgungundhlovu was a military kraal, the two horns running down to the main gate were the quarters of the Zulu warriors stationed here. There were altogether nine impis including the renowned ‘White Shields’. Each of the two horns housed four impis and each impi occupied its own area with the horn. Commanding each impi was an induna and over each horn was a chief- induna. As seen from above, Ndlela had the chief command over the right horn, and his hut was just outside the black isigodlo. Commander-in-chief of the left horn was Nzobo or Dambuza, whose hut was situated at the top of the section just below the western point of the white isigodlo.
At fixed distances amongst the barracks there were uMyango or storage-places for shields. These were built on poles in order to preserve the shields from ants and other insects. According to William Wood there were four of these altogether.
The oval kraal covered an immense area. At the lower end of this area on both sides of the main gate, there were large kraals in which great numbers of cattle were kept. At the top of this area, just below the isigodlo, was another great cattle-fold in which, according to Stuart, the cattle for slaughter or ‘the cattle for the mouth’, were kept. According to other writers this was the kraal for Dingane’s white cattle. This kraal could be entered by the king directly from the isigodlo by an entrance in front of which stood a guard’s hut. In this kraal the king bathed alfresco every morning. Here he also held his council meetings.
The open space between the above-mentioned kraals was called the isibaya or big cattle kraal and it was also used as a parade ground for the troops. At the top of this area, just below his kraal for the white cattle, Dingane had his seat on important occasions.
This, in short, was the general plan of Mgungundhlovu.
Colours:
Site Features: sloping site on a hill, several surrounding hills and a stone koppie above the site
Condition: Good
Construction Date: 1829
Materials: wood and grass
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