Labotsibeni Mdluli

Labotsibeni Mdluli (c. 1859 – 15 December 1925), also known as Gwamile, was the queen mother and queen regent of Swaziland and the wife of King Mbandzeni.

She was born at Luhlekweni in northern Swaziland around 1859, the daughter of Matsanjana Mdluli. At the time of her birth, her father was away fighting the people of Tsibeni in what became the Barberton district of the Transvaal — hence her name. This conflict, in which her father was embroiled at the time of her birth, was part of King Mswati II’s ongoing efforts to solidify his rule and consolidate the boundaries of his kingdom. Notably, the Mdluli clan, to which she belonged, was among the high-ranking members of the Swati aristocracy. This distinguished lineage would later become significant in determining the succession to the throne when one of her sons emerged victorious. Her father died circa 1870, and she came under the guardianship of her uncle, the Chief, also known as her 'babe lomncane' in Swati culture. Chief Mvelase, who also resided at the royal court of Ludzidzini which is situated at the Ezulwini Valley central Swaziland, brought her with him. At court, she was known as 'LaMvelasi', a Swati custom of addressing women by their maiden or father’s name, even after marriage. Uniquely, she was named after her influential adoptive father or uncle, further enhancing her status.

Historian Hilda Kuper notes that growing up in the royal palace afforded her the advantage of acquiring “knowledge of court etiquette, insights into the political dynamics of the era, and a sense of self-assurance”. These experiences would later contribute to her distinguished leadership. She served as an attendant to the old queen mother, Tsandzile ('LaZidze'), the widow of King Sobhuza I and mother of Mswati II. Tsandzile was a formidable figure in her own right, credited with significant contributions to the formation of the Swati Nation.

She became one of the wives of the young Ingwenyama or king of the Swazi, Mbandzeni Dlamini (c. 1857–1889), soon after his succession in 1874. They had four surviving children, three sons, Bhunu (c. 1875–1899), Malunge (c. 1880–1915), and Lomvazi (c. 1885–1922), and a daughter, Tongotongo (c. 1879–1918).

Labotsibeni's husband, King Mbandzeni (also known as Dlamini IV) was described as an attractive person, and an essentially fair-minded ruler, who was unable to stop, and may indeed have encouraged, the army of concession-hunters who invaded his country in the wake of the gold rush to Barberton in the late 1880s. By the time of his death in October 1889 he had granted numerous overlapping and conflicting land concessions, and a variety of equally contentious monopolies, including one which purported to give its holder the right to collect ‘the king's private revenue’. Critics alleged that many of these were granted in exchange for greyhounds and gin, but a good deal of money changed hands, much of it finding its way into the pockets of corrupt white advisers, including the egregious and venal Theophilus ‘Offy’ Shepstone, the eldest son of Sir Theophilus Shepstone.

These concessions were to be the subject of endless litigation and several commissions of inquiry over the ensuing twenty years. They had the effect of involving the governments of Great Britain and the South African Republic (the Transvaal) in the affairs of Swaziland in support of the competing claims of their citizens. The complex and long-running nature of the litigation that they engendered played a part in ensuring that Swaziland avoided complete incorporation into the South African Republic before 1899, the British colony of the Transvaal after 1902, or the Union of South Africa in 1910.

After the selection of her eldest son, Bhunu, as the successor to his father in 1889, Labotsibeni became the Ndlovukati or Queen mother. There is little doubt that in choosing Bhunu as the heir to his father the old queen mother, Tibati, and the members of the inner council were influenced by their knowledge of his mother's strength of character. It is said that King Mbandzeni had himself recommended her to be the mother of his heir. In the early years of Bhunu's minority Labotsibeni had to take second place to Tibati, who served as queen regent. While Tibati remained at the royal homestead of Nkanini, Labotsibeni established a new headquarters for her son a few kilometres away at Zombodze. There was some tension between the two rulers, which lasted until Tibati's death in October 1895, but by 1894 Labotsibeni had emerged as the stronger of the two. She played a leading role in opposition to the third Swaziland convention of 1894, which provided for the establishment, in February 1895, of a Transvaal protectorate over Swaziland. This replaced the tripartite system of administration involving Great Britain, the Transvaal, and the Swazi nation, that had been set up in 1890. It also represented a concession by the British to the claims of the Transvaal over Swaziland, though they were not prepared to allow Swaziland's incorporation into the Transvaal. It was at this time that Labotsibeni emerged as a remarkably intelligent, articulate, and astute spokesperson for the Swazi nation; she dominated the debate at indabas, and got the better of the argument at meetings with such representatives of the Transvaal as the vice-president, N. J. Smit, and the commandant-general, Piet Joubert, as well as with the republic's special commissioner in Swaziland, J. C. Krogh, and successive British consuls in Swaziland, James Stuart and Johannes Smuts.

Although Bhunu had been installed as ngwenyama or king, with the title Ngwane V, in February 1895, Labotsibeni retained considerable authority. As queen mother she was, in terms of the unwritten constitution of the country, a dual monarch with political influence equal to that of the king, and with the supernatural power to make rain. Her position was strengthened by the reckless behaviour of Bhunu, who established his own base at Mampondweni in the Mdzimba mountains above Zombodze. When he was implicated in the murder of Labotsibeni's senior induna, Mbhabha Nsibandze, and two other indunas, at Zombodze in April 1898, the Transvaal administration sought to bring him to trial. Accompanied by his brother, Malunge, he fled across the border into the British colony of Natal. He was saved from deposition by the intervention of the British high commissioner in South Africa, Lord Milner, who held that the Transvaal's attempt to try him was ultra vires. He returned to Swaziland under British protection and a commission of inquiry imposed a fine on him, holding that he had allowed disorderly behaviour within his kingdom. Britain and the Transvaal then combined to add a protocol to the Swaziland convention that purported to reduce his status from king to paramount chief, and removed his powers of criminal jurisdiction.