Africa-Press – Zambia. Today, February 5, marks 128 years since Nsingu, known as Nsingu in siZulu and Nsingo in ciNsenga, son of the first Mpezeni, Jele, was executed at dawn by the British forces of Cecil John Rhodes and his British South Africa Company.
After surrounding the Ngoni headquarters on February 3, 1898, British forces captured Nsingu the following day, February 4. He was sentenced to death in a hastily organized sham court-martial. At dawn on February 5, he was executed. Two of his wives asked to be killed alongside their husband, and they were shot and buried next to him. What crime did Nsingu commit? He refused to allow Rhodes’ British forces to seize their land, the Chipata.
Today, 128 years later, as we honour Nsingu and the heroic Ngoni warriors for their courage, selflessness, and patriotism, we can compare this with the cowardice, treachery, betrayal, selfishness, and dishonesty that currently dominate and characterise the leadership of our homeland.
As we go to the polls on August 13, there is a need to restore the courage, honour, and dignity of Nsingu and the Ngoni warriors to our homeland by electing a leadership that embodies the selfless and patriotic spirit of Nsingu and those young heroic Ngoni warriors.
These were principled individuals who, unlike our today’s political opportunists, did not fear defeat. All that mattered was whether the cause was just or not, not whether it was popular and winnable. Like Nsingu and those young Ngoni warriors, for us, there is no choice between being principled and unelectable and electable and unprincipled. We should win because of what we believe in.
But who was Nsingu, and what led to his ultimate sacrifice? After discovering gold south of Chipata, in what is now Zimbabwe, Rhodes and his company executives believed there must also be gold further north in the Chipeta region. Rhodes began claiming that the Chipeta was part of his territory.
The Ngonis refused to surrender the Chipeta to him, asserting it was their land. By mid-1897, it became clear to the Ngonis that they would face a military attack from Rhodes’ British forces. This greatly worried Mpezeni and the Ngoni elders, who well understood the superior strength of the British forces based at nearby Kotakota in what is now Malawi.
While the ageing Mpezeni and his indunas pondered how to respond to the imminent British attack, his son Nsingu made it clear that only over his dead body would Rhodes take their land and minerals. He began organising a force of young Ngoni warriors to defend their homeland. L
By early December 1897, when Rhodes’ British forces attacked the Chipeta, Nsingu had assembled a warrior force of approximately 10,000 young Ngonis armed with the assegai, the short stabbing spear developed by Shaka.
Although the Ngonis had acquired a few guns through trade, they realised these were insufficient to counter the superior firepower of the British forces. Moreover, gunpowder and ammunition would have to be sourced from the very people they were fighting. They had no choice but to rely on the assegai.
This war was profoundly uneven. Yet the Ngonis mounted a courageous and tenacious resistance, even managing to defeat the British forces in the battle around the village of Induna Kapatamoyo. But the British forces returned with a vengeance and exterminated every living creature in that area. For two months, vultures were hovering the village of induna Kapatamoyo feasting on the carcases.
When the Ngoni headquarters fell on February 4, 1898, and Nsingu was executed on February 5, the ageing Mpezeni fled to hide in the hills around Feni. He was eventually captured, arrested, and imprisoned at Fort Manning. Upon his release from prison, the depressed old man did not live long. He died in 1900.
While in prison, Mpezeni asked the Dutch Reformed Church to assist with education, agriculture, and evangelization in Chipeta.
At the end of this two-month war in 1898, the Ngonis possessed 12,000 heads of cattle. This represented considerable wealth, and all that was needed was increased trade for the Ngonis to have the resources to build schools, hospitals, and other infrastructure necessary for development. But by 1900, only 2,500 heads of cattle remained after Rhodes and his company’s looting. They claimed these were reparation payments, for a war they themselves had started and won!
A new and complex era such as ours requires principles more than ever. It requires far greater awareness. This awareness is built by combining experiences of the past and the present with a vision of an anticipated future. It must be built by synthesizing all revolutionary thought, the best ethical and humane ideas of all authentic religions, the sum total of the teachings of many political thinkers, and many progressive schools of thought.
Political ideas are worthless if they are not inspired by noble, selfless sentiments. Likewise, noble sentiments are worthless if they are not based on correct and fair ideas.
We have chosen to defend certain principles that are of tremendous value at a time of confusion, unbridled populism and opportunism in our country and in the world, a time when many politicians are feathering their own nests and are ready to congregate around outright criminals, thieves, and crooked tenderpreneurs who have misappropriated public funds without delivering on their public works contracts. Crooks, scoundrels, hyenas, and jackals are regrouping without shame. What would Nsingu and his young Ngoni warriors do to such elements?
Eternal glory to the selflessness, principledness, courage, honesty, and incorruptible spirit of Nsingu and the young Ngoni warriors!
Aluta continua!
Fred M’membe President of the Socialist Party and People’s Pact 2026 Presidential Candidate
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