Natan Gamedze - Family Background

Family Background

Gamedze's grandfather was the king of Swaziland. But the British, who had colonized southern Africa and created the states of Swaziland, Basutoland, and Bechuanaland, drew their own borders which lumped diverse ethnic groups into the same state. The British also chose a rival royal family to rule Swaziland, compensating the Gamzede clan with ministerial positions. Gamzede's father lost the title of "king" but became known as "paramount chief", and was also named minister of education and ambassador to the EEC countries.

Scholarly history of Swaziland shows that the independent chiefdom or small kingdom ruled by members of the Gamedze clan was initially conquered and incorporated into the growing Ngwane kingdom ruled by members of the Dlamini clan sometime in the late 18th or early 19th century, long before British colonization. The Gamedze clan is classified among the Emakhandzambile category of clans ("those found ahead") according to Swazi royalist tradition, meaning that they were on the land prior to Dlamini immigration and conquest, as opposed to the Bomdzabuko ("true Swazi") who accompanied the Dlamini kings, and the Emafikemuva ("those who came behind") who joined the kingdom later. Emakhandzambile clans initially were incorporated with wide autonomy, and often in part by granting them special ritual and political status, but the extent of their autonomy was drastically curtailed by King Mswati II, including the Gamedze, whom Mswati attacked and subdued in the 1850s.