Sihayo kaXongo
He was an inDuna (commander) of the iNdabakawombe iButho (social age group and regiment) and supported Cetshwayo in the 1856 Zulu Civil War.
Under Cetshwayo, Sihayo was a chief of a key territory on the border with the British Colony of Natal and had a seat on the iBandla (royal council).
By 1864, Sihayo was head of the Qungebe tribe and that year agreed a new western border of the kingdom with Boer leader Marthinus Wessel Pretorius.
[5] The war culminated in the 2 December 1856 Battle of Ndondakusuka in which Cetshwayo's forces killed Mbulazi, his six other brothers, and the entire 30,000-strong iziGqoza faction.
[5] That same year he met with Boer leader Marthinus Wessel Pretorius to delineate the kingdom's western border with the South African Republic, which had previously been undefined and disputed.
The colonial authorities had long permitted Zulu refugees to settle in Natal but, until 1875, fleeing wives were regarded as chattels and returned to their husbands.
[14] Mehlokazulu, and others in Sihayo's household, crossed the border and seized the junior wife, dragged her back to Zululand and killed her.
[14] A few days later some eighty of Sihayo's men, led by the five male family members, did the same to Kaqwelebana, killing her on the Zulu bank of the Buffalo, within sight of Rorke's Drift which had become a Swedish missionary post.
[14] When Bulwer learnt of the cross-border incident he complained to Cetshwayo and demanded that Sihayo's sons and brother be handed over to face justice in Natal.
Bulwer was considering levying a fine of 5,000 cattle but British High Commissioner for Southern Africa Sir Henry Bartle Frere determined that the incident was a major transgression and could serve as a casus belli for his long-planned invasion and annexation of Zululand.
[4] No response was received to the ultimatum and on 11 January 1879 British forces, under Lord Chelmsford invaded Zululand in three columns, starting the Anglo-Zulu War.
[19] Sihayo had been gathering cattle to pay the anticipated fine and a large herd were captured by the British centre column, led by Chelmsford which crossed into Zululand at Rorke's Drift.
[20] On 12 January Chelmsford sent a force to attack Sihayo's kraal to secure the left flank of his advance and in retribution for the border transgression.
[25] Sihayo's son Tshekwane was killed by a party of mounted men from the 80th Regiment of Foot (Staffordshire Volunteers), operating from the western column in the days following the battles of Hlobane and Khambula in late March 1879.
The war ended with the defeat of the Zulu by Chelmsford at the 4 July Battle of Ulundi, which Sihayo watched from a nearby hill.
[4] As part of the peace terms the British imposed the division of Zululand into 13 chiefdoms, the abolition of the iButho system and the exile of Cetshwayo.
