A 57-year-old woman from Lupane, Khanyekazi Eghter Khanye, has openly disputed reports that the late Ndebele King Lobengula was buried in Zambia.
This comes after local media published reports suggesting that King Lobengula’s grave had been located in Zambia, dispelling rumours that the king disappeared after the Battle of Pupu in 1893.
Recently, a Zimbabwean delegation comprising government officials, historian Pathisa Nyathi, and King Lobengula’s descendants embarked on a fact-finding mission to Zambia. Khanye, in an interview with CITE, disputed this version, arguing that King Lobengula’s grave is located in Lupane.
“I disagree with Phathisa, including the Zambian crew. I am sure of this; I know where Makhobolondo’s bones are, and I urge Phathisa to correct this to avoid misleading people and getting Zambians to encroach on territory that is not theirs. I saw them approaching the territory before I knew about this matter,” she said.
“I am a seer,” she declared. “When I was a young girl, King Lobengula showed me where he is and how he passed on. I grew up knowing this truth and information, and I told my father about it, who said I should not tell anyone this information.”
Khanye claims to have received revelations from King Lobengula when she was about 12 years old but refuses to disclose certain details, citing their sensitivity.
When pressed to substantiate her claims, Khanye said she could only share them with the Khumalo clan.
“There is a place where he wants his bones to be kept, but I cannot reveal such information as we are talking about a king,” she said.
“I don’t heal nor have the ancestral spirits, but my father told me I was born ‘ngembethe ingubo yami,’ and I was born in the mountains known as Mambo mountains,” said Khanye.
“I could foretell the future from a young age. When I was eight years old, I knew there was going to be a war. I even know where some people died and those whose spirits are not at rest.”
She further asserted her familial connection to the event, stating that her great-grandfather, Fusi Khanye, buried the Ndebele King.
Contacted for a comment, Phathisa Nyathi dismissed Khanye’s claims.
“She doesn’t know anything, and she should keep quiet because she doesn’t know anything. She thinks we are crazy; a person of my caliber going all the way for nothing. They know him very well on that side, and I knew this information way back, but we needed confirmation from other people.
“The king gathered all the people and they told us; he lived four years, there is a mountain, we never saw the grave but we were shown the mountain where he lived, and when the time comes for us to know the grave, we will know it, there is no problem, we have our African Science to know these things,” he said.
Nyathi said they are currently getting more information from other people.
“The Tongas saw him; he was not flying, there were no airplanes, he was walking on the ground, they saw him, and he reached Zambia, and there was a war when the Ngoni were attacked by the whites, we all know that, and the livestock were taken and sold in Harare; it’s all very clear, but it was not new to me, it was only new to other people who accompanied me.
“It was said the King disappeared, but don’t be fooled by such terms, there was a reason why they said the King disappeared because they were going to follow him, and we held onto that, but it will be very foolish of me to keep saying he disappeared,” said Nyathi.
