Mpande's - University of Zululand Institutional Repository

-80-
military imizi.' Esiklebheni assumed the significance and ideological
weight of an ancestral establishment, and became an evocative and sacred
site. It was at Esiklebheni and Nobamba that the new recruits to the Zulu
army spent the first period of their training. 3 These establishments
reorientated new recruits towards the idea of a Zulu nation united under a
Zulu king.
The training period created the opportunity for non-Zulu recruits to come
to identify with the Zulu king and ancestors.' An important symbol of the
unity of the amabutho and their intimate connection with the king,
however, was inkatha (a coil of grass and medicine plastered with the
vomit and body waste of the men of the amabutho)5 Inkatha was the
legitimacy of the king's authority and the power to construct an inkatha
was vested on him alone.
The first experience of many of the recruits to the Zulu amabutho was
gained between the ages of thirteen and sixteen as udibi (carriers) for the
men ofthe amabutho. Others amongst the ranks ofthe udibi had been
,
,
,
,
K.c., Stuart Papers, File 9, Notebook 3, Evidence ofXubu; K.c., Essay Papers, "Zulu
Royal Regiments," 2 February 1912, p. 128; J.SA, Vol. 2, p. 253, Evidence of
Mayinga, 9 July 1905; AT Bryant: Olden Times in Zululand and Natal, p. 642.
K.C., Stuart Papers, File 61, otebook 31, Evidence ofNdukwana, 1 May 1903, p.3;
J.S.A., Vol. 3, Evidence of Mpatshana, 28 May 1912, p. 316.
J.SA, Voi. I, Evidence ofBaleni, IQ May 1914, p. 21; K.C., Essay Competition.
"Some Places ofHistorical importance in Natal and Zululand", 1942 (by Thomas
Dlamini).
K.C., Stuart Papers, File 41. "Historical Notes", Evidence ofSocwatsba, 16 Marcb
1907, p. 11.