Abahlaseli Bemingcele

The Abahlaseli Bemingcele, or border raiders, were armed groups who raided the Amagquma Ehhashi Elinemithende (Quagga Hills) in northern M'Biruna from the 18th to 20th centuries. They were most active in the century after the breakup of the Imbesu tribe and the independence of the Ingubu peoples, with later involvements in Amaveni attempts to ethnically cleanse M'Biruna and the M'Birunan Civil War. Despite the apparent clear boundary line between the Imbesu and Ingubu the raiders were not nationalist forces and happily raided their own side and collaborated regularly with raiders from the opposing side, colluding not just in cattle rustling and murder but also in vast smuggling operations to the detriment and chagrin of the central authorities.

## Background

The Abahlaseli probably owe much of their culture and history to their environment, the relatively barren Quagga Hills in the north of M'Biruna and part of the range which includes Umlimo Ntaba the most important cultural site for both the Imbesu and Ingubu people who made up the majority of the raiders. The Quagga Hills, while green, are not sufficiently fertile to support any form of agriculture and are suitable mainly for the grazing of goats and sheep with a few areas capable of feeding cattle. With cattle being a key part of Komontu culture the hills were never considered to be an important part of any Induna's kingdom and were primarily settled by outcasts like bastard children and sons too far down the line of succession to inherit anything from their fathers, these outcasts were joined by disgruntled elements like supporters of a failed candidates for the Nkosi and members of subjugated tribes who chaffed under the oppression of the masters. This rebellious nature and perceived inferiority, as goat and sheep farmers thus not true Komontu, helped to create the violent nature of the region and absence of any centralised control.

The constant coming and going of it's inhabitants as their fortunes changed created a strong sense of impermanence in the local culture and encouraged an even more nomadic lifestyle than that enjoyed by the predominantly pastoral population of M'Biruna. Along with this nomadic lifestyle the raiding of the weak by the strong became commonplace early in the history of the Abahlaseli. This early raiding gave way to a more settled life after the split between the Imbesu and Ingubu when the hills became effectively the frontier between the two tribes and saw the first efforts to establish permanent towns and garrisons and organised borders, which while recognised by government were never recognised by the Abahlaseli themselves. However the increasingly large numbers of troops in the region led to increased agricultural efforts which expanded the viable cattle country in the hills and the size of the herds, from a few jealously guarded head now great herds of hundreds were present in the hills and the temptation to cross the alleged frontier and carry back scores of new cows was too great for the accomplished raiders to resist.

The creation of the new frontier in the wake of Kuphela's death and his sons' struggle to succeed him also led to the establishment of the families or clans of the hills. These groups were usually based around large extended families who jointly protected and grazed their herds as well as raiding together. These families were often intermarried with each other and changed allegiance as often and as easily as a man would change his coat. They also were not just family units but regularly consisted of one powerful family and many smaller families who had sworn themselves to them in return for protection and grazing rights.

In addition to the increased number of cattle and wealth to raid for, the Abahlaseli were often encouraged to cross the frontier at the behest of their respective tribal leaders to cause trouble for the opposing side and force them to focus more on the garrisoning of the frontier or to return to the negotiating table during times of crisis. However as often as they did their supposed tribal overlords bidding, often only in return for bribes or in name only, the Abahlaseli would raid within their own borders or collude with the other side. This was both for the increased profit available from raiding weaker families on their own side but also due to the fact that many families territory were split by the arbitrary border drawn by outside forces and rarely, if ever, saw themselves an Imbesu or Ingubu and felt no nationalistic fervour to defend their territory or attack that of the other tribe. The presence of long standing blood feuds between certain clans also led to much of the activity of the Abahlaseli and some of the most bloody encounters in the areas history.

Along with raiding, rustling and feuding, smuggling was a key part of the Abahlaseli culture. With few legal opportunities for the people of the hills to gain wealth smuggling was often seen as an easy way to get rich, and the intimate knowledge of the hills made it a viable option for most Abahlaseli. The general lawlessness of the area made it a dangerous but highly profitable activity and ensured a small but steady stream of ivory, diamonds and precious metals found their way to the Ozerosi coast. These smuggling networks were also highly influential to wider M'Birunan history as it was Abahlaseli guides who led Dingiswayo and his surviving impis through the Quagga Hills and to safety from Godongwana and the rest of the Imbesu tribe, allowing him to establish the Ingubu nation. These networks were also a key part of the survival of the fledgling Agysimban state allowing weapons to arm the rebels to be delivered.

## History

Foundation

Dingiswayo and The Border

The Debatable Lands - The Imihlaba Engafunwanga were an area of land roughly xx square miles on the present day borders of M'Biruna, Charnea and Kembesa where there was by agreement of the three nations leadership between 17xx and 18xx no law existed. The area was not well mapped, devoid of resources and of little strategic value, as well as being populated by lawless bands of outlaws and deserters who could cut down any officials attempting to enforce the law or disappear into the hills if large forces were moved against them and return with impunity. As such it was agreed by all parties that no law would run in these parts and any nation was free to deploy it's armies to bring fire and sword to the brigands within, without causing a diplomatic incident or outbreak of war. While this system had it's advantages in avoiding an outbreak of conflict between the three nations in attempting to deal with malefactors and traitors hiding within, it's very lawlessness drew thieves and murderers and provided a refuge for rebels and mutineers who would often use the Debatable Lands as a base from which to build a small army to press claims or raid their enemies with relative impunity.

The Coming of Mageba

Nkosi Yezigebengu - The self proclaimed Nkosi Yezigebengu (Lord of The Outlaws) was a nameless brigand who arose in the aftermath of Mageba's War and gathered around him a powerful army comprised of many of the weaker clans of the hills and the large number of scattered survivors of Mageba's wrath, as well as numerous ex-soldiers from the disbanded impis of both sides. From his base in the Imihlaba Engafunwanga he raided both sides of the frontier indiscriminately and besieged Bulalamageba for two years before his eventual defeat.

Peacetime

The M'Birunan Civil War

Defeat and Destruction

## Umthetho Wezintaba

The Quagga Hills during the period of the Abahlaseli Bemingcele were so lawless and ungovernable that on both sides of the frontier special laws were enacted to cover their activities and empower local officials to mete out justice as they saw fit, often without recourse to trial. These were the Umthetho Wezintaba (Laws of the Hills), and while not enforceable outside of the hills and rendered obsolete in the later period of the Abahlaseli Bemingcele had great influence on the laws of modern M'Biruna and Agysimba, including the introduction of concepts like imprisonment to the wider nation.

Prison was like in the rest of M'Biruna during this period a practically unknown concept, the sentence for most crimes was usually death, with some first offences or minor crimes dealt with by confiscation of cattle or banishment. In the Quagga Hills such was the regularity of criminal conduct that simply putting offenders to death was impractical, especially considering the lack of law enforcement and readiness of offenders to employ violence in defiance of the law. These conditions also made banishment a near impossibility, especially as most of those sentenced to exile found themselves living in the Quagga Hills, and the scarcity of herd animals and the ease of concealing them or disguising them as a family members made confiscation equally impractical. With this in mind the few officers tasked with upholding local law decided to introduce the concept of hostage taking as punishment for wrongdoers.

The lawman and his associates would hear a case brought before them by a complainant and decide upon it's merits and whether it required their justice and then proceed to issue and carry out sentence. Often the defendant would be present and on being declared guilty would be forced to give up a child to be held by the officials until redress had been made to the offended party, this usually meant the return of stolen beasts or the provision of beasts or other financial recompense for destroyed property. The hostage would be held until the matter was resolved and then released. If the offender failed to provide restitution or committed further offences while the hostage was held the hostage would be executed and the offender declared outlaw.

As time passed the system of taking hostages extended to the giving of persons as pledges to good conduct by those suspected of crimes or at feud with another Abahlaseli family to try and prevent further lawlessness and killing. Such was the regularity with which these hostages and pledges were taken it was no longer practical to hold them in private dwellings or the few barracks in the Quagga Hills, so emerged the first dedicated prisons in M'Biruna. With the availability of secure cells to hold pledges and hostages it gradually became practice to simply take the guilty party themselves and hold them until redress had been made, or to hold them for extended periods of time as punishment and to prevent them from re-offending. With the increasing urbanisation of M'Biruna proper this concept of imprisonment was adopted from the Umthetho Wezintaba into wider law.

As well as imprisonment offenders on the Imbesuland side who had stolen or killed on the Imbesu side of the frontier could find themselves sentenced to a term of service in the Ibutho Lezintandane LikaMageba to atone for their crimes. While perhaps risky to place known criminals under arms these men often proved to be highly effective, if questionably honest, lawmen. Being well aware of smuggling and raiding routes they at times allowed the ILLM to provide a semblance of peace and security to the hills, however they often led the regiment in settling personal scores against other Abahlaseli or accepted bribes to allow others to go free and the practice was rarely used in the later years of Umthetho Wezintaba.

As well as recourse to the officers of the law Abahlaseli who were the victim of a raid could also carry out a legal pursuit of their attacks for up to three days. These pursuits were supposed to be officially declared to an officer of the law on both sides of the frontier, refrain from using lethal force and only carry back with them the goods and beasts stolen and prisoners who had participated in the initial raid. However in practice these pursuits often became revenge raids in which enemies of the raiders would join with their victims to utterly ruin the initial raiders. The abuse of the system led to the creation of the truce days on Umlimo Ntaba, the great extinct volcano which was the most important cultural site for both the Imbesu and Ingubu tribes.

These truce days were supposed to be held regularly at the agreement of the lawmen on both sides of the frontier, and would deal with the legality of pursuits carried out, trials of those who had been raided and not pursued and all other matters of contention. In theory upon the announcement of a truce day anyone who wished to press a claim or was accused of a crime was to present themselves to their respective official and travel west to Umlimo Ntaba where justice would be done. However the fact that the volcano was to the west of the Quagga Hills meant that Ingubu officials and plaintiffs had to travel through the entirety of the Imbesu area and were open to ambush and attack. But in spite of this many still travelled and many cases were resolved by the law, although often the guilty parties would abscond before sentence could be carried out, and in general led to a quieting of the frontier as time passed an law took hold.

As conflict and raiding lessened and Imbesuland and the Ingubu tribe were incorporated into an Amaveni dominated M'Biruna in the 1900s the Umthetho Wezintaba were gradually repealed and replaced by the law of the land, although for at least 20 years after the final abolishment of hill law it was common to hear of enraged victims of cattle rustling raising their neighbours and declaring legal pursuit in defiance of the authorities.

## The Quagga

The quagga is both the iconic mount of the Abahlaseli Bemingcele and the animal which gives it's name to the range of hills where the raiders arose and operated. Although fossil records show that the smaller Mountain Quagga common in the highlands of M'Biruna and the rest of Scipia and Malaio descended from the the larger Plains or Great Quagga common to the flat hinterland of the continent, the Amagquma Ehhashi Elinemithende (Quagga Hills) are considered the traditional birthplace of the beast in M'Birunan Komontu culture. The legends say that when Umlimo Ntaba erupted the mountain zebras were burned on their rear quarters leaving only the flesh and their hair was permanently scorched brown leading to the distinct colouration of the animal as well as driving it down to the planes where it met the migrating Komontu people who adopted it first as a herd guardian animal for the cattle, and then as a mount after adventurous youths dared each other to ride one and from these humble beginnings became a vital part of the M'Birunan economy and culture.

The Mountain Quagga, standing a maximum of 14 hands in height, is considerably smaller than the Great Quagga common to the plains of central M'Biruna but is far more suited for use in it's natural hilly home range. With sturdy bodies and strong legs they were capable of bearing the weight of an armed rider and covering 30 to 35 miles in a single day, perfect for raiders trying to carry off goods or cattle under the cover of night. The animals low stature also allowed it to cross terrain impassable to larger beasts especially the rocky ridgelines common in the hill areas the Abahlaseli operated in. These advantages were proved time and again during Mageba's efforts to pacify the region when Abahlaseli would simply cross the rocky areas where the Great Quagga mounted riders of his impis could not follow, and travelled too fast for his infantry to ever hope to catch. Such was this utility that even the proud and obstinate Mageba was forced to adopt Mountain Quaggas for his own troops although never in sufficient numbers to materially affect the activities of the Abahlaseli.

Unlike the jealously guarded studs of the Great Quagga in the hinterland the Abahlaseli were much freer in their breeding and trading of quaggas, as well as the regularity with which they were stolen during raids, which led to the perfection of the beast for their purposes, as well as the strong genetic diversity the breed enjoys today. Quagga races and shows were common throughout the period of the Abahlaseli Bemingcele and remain popular regional attractions to this day, where despite strict laws against gambling vast sums are won and lost in open view of the authorities perhaps a throwback to the vagabond spirit of their ancestors.

## Abahlaseli in Komontu Armies

While the Abahlaseli swore no allegiance to any Induna or Nkosi other than the head of their clan it was not uncommon to find them in Imbesu and Ingubu armies of the period. Not only were they expert light cavalry, their years of raiding giving them the ability to almost smell out an ambush and the horsemanship to quickly disengage from a superior foe, but for their very nature. The fratricidal nature of the conflicts between the two tribes meant that civilians were a target and the Abahlaseli's generations of practice in the arts of rape, pillage and murder were perfectly suited for the genocidal goals of the warring powers. While bearing no loyalty or support to the cause of the respective armies the Abahlaseli were usually quick to answer any call to arms such were the promises of riches from plunder. As well as the clashes between the Imbesu and the Ingubu Abahlaseli were occasionally employed to serve as scouts and border patrols during times of tension, and were also willing participants in punitive expeditions against the Amaveni.

The typical hills quaggaman was equipped with a unique set of weaponry. While the traditional quaggamen of Komontu armies in M'Biruna was equipped with a 3-4 yard long lance of hardwood tipped with iron, along with a club or axe, for breaking infantry formations or running down those broken upon the heavy infantry impi, the hillsman carried a unique "L" shaped shield in his left hand to protect both himself and his mount from missiles and weapon thrusts, and up to three 2 yard long lances. These shorter lances were both used as javelins, particularly useful for engaging foes who tried to fight from inside their enclosures and house, and as a stabbing weapon from an overhand grip. The Abahlaseli also utilised crossbows unlike most of the other peoples of M'Biruna who preferred the longbow. While tricky to reload in the saddle the crossbow had the advantage of being able to be carried cocked and ready to fire, an important trait when constant ambush is a real possibility.

While the Abahlaseli excelled themselves in raiding and scouting actions they were often absent or quick to flee when battle itself was joined. While Imbesu and Ingubu historians have attributed this to cowardice and derided their whole culture as one of treachery, murder and theft, local historians have pointed out that the riders had nothing to gain from death in battle. These fratricidal clashes may be matters of honour and survival for the main armies but had little relevance to the Abahlaseli who were simply there for financial gain, or in cases for forgiveness for criminal actions in the Quagga Hills. One particularly notable example of the riders lack of enthusiasm was during the Battle of Amabhola Embongolo. Abahlaseli had been raised by both Imbesu and Ingubu chieftains, and were deployed on the flanks of the respective armies. The broken nature of the terrain and abundance of boxthorn bushes meant they traditional heavy quagga lancers of the Imbesu army were unable to charge so the Imbesu general Gandang decided to use his Abahlaseli to flank the Ingubu impis and through harassing fire force them to advance on his position where he hoped to destroy them with his lancers. Inkunzi Yenja, the Ingubu commander, countered this by sending out his force of hillsmen to keep the Imbesu light cavalry in check and ideally draw them into longbow range where they could be destroyed and Gandang's plan turned on the Imbesu army. However to the disgust of both commanders the two Abahlaseli forces closed to within shouting range and agreed not to draw blood and create a hundred new feuds which would plauge the Quagga Hills for generations to come, and instead set about looting the camps of both armies before deserting and returning to the hills. The infamy of these actions led to various punitive expeditions but was sung about with pride in many a home built from the profits of the loot for hundreds of years after the event.

While the actions of the Abahlaseli at Amabhola Embongolo are the popular image of the riders at war there were two actions which showed the martial prowess of the hillsmen when serving in the armies of Imbesu and Ingubu chiefs. First during the time of Ibhubesi Elincane, Nkosi of the Ingubu a punitive expedition was launched against the Amaveni after insufficient tribute, in the eyes of the Ingubu chief, had been paid. The lack of payment was due to the famine which was sweeping coastal M'Biruna during years of drought and had not only destroyed Amaveni farms but was devastating the herds of the Ingubu and had weakened the fighting men. The depleted Ingubu impis set out and began their usual burning of kraals and seizure of beast and grain when they found themselves cut off from the river which was serving as their only water source by an Amaveni force. Weakened by the heat and unable to outmanoeuvre the Amaveni the impis were forced into battle. While usually the superbly disciplined Ingubu heavy infantry could be relied upon to smash aside any foe their exhaustion left them unable to break the Amaveni lines and threatened with total destruction. It was at this time the Abahlaseli who had been riding with them returned from a chevauchee and in a desperate charge broke through to the river and caused such panic in the Amaveni force that the Ingubu impis were able to join the riders at the river and refreshed crush the Amaveni forces that had not already fled. Even at the time the role of the Abahlaseli was downplayed and little celebrated with the Ingubu denigrating their courage and suggesting that they were responsible for the near disaster by raiding far ahead of the main force and failing to screen them and warn of the approaching Amveni army, and that there courage was simply that of self preservation. This was hotly denied by their leader Ingonyama Endala at the time who pointed out his orders had been to raid and subjugate not to screen the army, and that it would have been easy for him to abandon the army to destruction at the "hands of the dirt eating dogs" instead of saving the army with his charge. While never remembered by ungrateful Ingubu historians Ingonyama Endala remained a legend to the Abahlaseli and is considered to be the model for the Abahlaseli statue in the central square of Bulalamageba.

The second action in which the Abahlaseli distinguished themselves was their role in the defeat of the last effort of the Chimpota clan to re-establish a Tongo-Tongo kingdom in the Quagga Hills. The Tongo-Tongo had once ruled most of the coast of modern M'Biruna but were driven north into the hills by the arrival of the Amaveni tribe before the Imbesu finally destroyed the remains of their country and scattered or subjugated the survivors into the tribe. The Chimpota family were once the rulers of the Tongo-Tongo kingdom and still commanded some loyalty from the remains of their people and the success the clan had had as raiders allowed them to settle more of their kinsmen in the hills and eventually they were powerful enough to demand tribute from the rest of the hill families, and in a moment of hubris declared the re-establishment of the Tongo-Tongo kingdom. When news of this reached Bulalamageba the local governor decided immediately to send the Ibutho Lezintandane LikaMageba against them. However the ILLM was still primarily an infantry impi manned by outsiders and while they were able to win a tactical victory in a small skirmish, found themselves cut off from supplies and forced to retreat and were ambushed and harassed constantly during their withdrawal and by the time they reached the safety of Bulalamageba the governor was concerned he did not even have enough men to hold the town against a determined assault. Thankfully for him the Chimpota's failed to press their advantage and instead set about attempting to bring the majority of Abahlaseli families under their control. During this effort the Chimpota's decided to hang the heads of the Ndanwe and Khumalo clans for refusing to serve under them, while this had the effect of drawing the Isizwe family onto their side with them being at feud with the Khumalo it had the unintended effect of turning the majority of the Abahlaseli from disinterested observers into avowed opponents of the Chimpota and their Tongo-Tongo statelet. Thus began a determined campaign motivated predominantly by the anti-establishment attitude of the Abahlaseli, and one perhaps motivated by the fine grazing land and large herds controlled by the Chimpotas. The rebels found that while they could easily outmanoeuvre the ponderous impis of the Imbesu governor they could not out ride and raid the vast coalition of hillsmen assembled against them and were gradually forced back and into their last fortified kraal. Usually the high stone walls of this enclosure had deterred any attempt at capture but the fury of Ndanwe and Khumalo clans drove them into an assault and despite desperate hand to hand combat of a brutality and mortality rarely seen in the Quagga Hills the Chimpotas were defeated and their leaders disembowelled by the vengeful families and their power in the north broken once and for all. When the governor from Bulalamageba arrived at the Chimpota stronghold he found it a burned ruin and the rebels corpses gibbetted on the surrounding hills. Perhaps out of respect and thanks, or from fear of the potential power of the assembled Abahlaseli coalition, he granted the entirety of the Chimpota held lands to the Ndanwe inadvertently, or perhaps shrewdly, creating a new feud between them and the Khumalos who felt their role in the victory was diminished and ignored.

## Settlements and Garrisons

Izinkundla Zokubulala Zikamageba colloquially known as Bulalamageba is the largest town in the Quagga Hills and was established as a base for his impis by Mageba in 1848 during his attempt to pacify the region before destroying the Ingubu once and for all, and while he failed in both these efforts the town he established remained both as a major garrison for Imbesu soldiers and as a trading post.

Bulalamageba was famously garrisoned for much of it's history by the Ibutho Lezintandane LikaMageba (Orphans of Mageba Regiment), an impi formed from the surviving sons of those families purged by Mageba for their suspected support for his brother Dingiswayo and the breakaway Ingubu people. As the initial cohort of soldiers was whittled away by age and battle it was originally disbanded and replaced by various impis from around Agysimba but after mutinies, both political and in protest at the spartan living conditions in the bleak hills, it was decided by [[Senzangakhona]] to reconstitute the ILLM and furnish it with recruits drawn from disgraced families and prisoners as alternative to execution. As well as these recruits it became custom for unwanted bastards and orphaned children to be sent to Bulalamageba to be raised by the impi and have a future as soldiers on the frontier. Not only did this provide an acceptable way to dispose of illegitimate sons and a form of social care for orphans it also provided these children with a future other than that of a social outcast at the very bottom of the familial centred Komontu culture. As soldiers of the Nkosi they were above all non-fighting males in caste and able to marry all but women of the royal families, as opposed to the slave girls and other dregs bastards and orphans were allowed to marry. This also allowed them to take a clan name and give their sons a name to continue, even if many of them chose not a life of service in the ILLM but to join the Abahlaseli. It was often said in the later years of the Abahlaseli Bemingcele that the ILLM was just another raiding family such were the familial ties between members of the regiments officers and the clans in the surrounding hills.

Indawo Ebiyelwe Eqinile - The Indawo Ebiyelwe Eqinile or fortified enclosure was the most common permanent feature of the Quagga Hills during the time of the Abahlaseli Bemingcele. The Indawo Ebiyelwe Eqinile differed greatly from the traditional grass and mud hut kraals common throughout M'Biruna, most evidently in it's construction almost entirely of stone. Such was the value of good pasture land in the Quagga Hills, and the regularity of raids, it was worth the effort of constructing permanent houses and fortifying them as opposed to the easily abandoned and replaced mud huts used by the pastoral people who inhabit most of the Agysimban plains.

The most common of these was the simple Indlu Yempi or protected house, which consisted of a massively thick set of walls at the base with room inside to stable the quaggas and most valuable beasts of the household, with a living floor above this for the family to reside in.

Less common were the larger Indlu Yempis which included a curtain wall around them which could contain the entire herds of the family, often these fortresses would include more than one house inside the curtain wall to house the Induna's close family both for their own protection and to increase the strength of the defences in case of attack.

A feature common to every home in the hills was the beacon. In the simplest of mud hut this was often simply the easily replaced and repaired grass roof, while in larger Indlu Yempis this would be a dedicated brazier placed at the highest point of the roof. These beacons allowed aid to be summoned upon the sighting of raiders and sound the alarm far faster than any rider could. While a simple system in practice experience Abahlaseli developed methods to defeat it usually through the lighting of a fire by a small party away from the site of the main raid, this would draw out defending forces from both the intended target and the surrounding area and allow the main party to strike unimpeded. Using this tactic the Umkhandi clan and their Umkhonto allies were able to draw out the garrison of Bulalamageba and burn the town to the ground in one particularly audacious raid as revenge for the seizing of much of the cattle by the Ibutho Lezintandane LikaMageba.

The stone for these houses was usually granitoid and taken from the hills themselves, the great gorges where the stone for the walls of Bulalamageba were quarried are still visible today. However for smaller Indlu Yempis and Indawo Ebiyelwe Eqiniles the traditional method for obtaining stone was to clear the earth from a patch of rock and light a great fire upon it. The heat from this blaze would crack the surface layer of the rock into useable stones which would be cleared and the process repeated until enough material had been acquired for the house.

## Famous Families

Chimpota - The Chimpota family are one of the few non-Komontu clans to survive both the Komontu conquest of M'Biruna and the general expansion of the Imbesu tribe in the country. Their name comes from the Tongo-Tongo kings who once ruled the north of M'Biruna and more than once the family has attempted to claim independence in the hills and establish a new Tongo-Tongo state.

Ingonyama - Imbazo Yempi

Isizwe

Buthelezi

Khumalo

Mtene

Ndanwe

Umkhandi - The Umkhandi family as their name suggests were smiths and armourers descended from veterans of the Ibutho Lezintandane LikaMageba. Despite their origins lying with the regiment created to try and force peace on the hill the Umkhandi were amongst the most irreverate and notorious raiders of Quagga Hills. Although coming from Imbesuland proper as an orphan the family founder upon retirement from the impi quickly adopted the ways of the Abahlaseli and using his knowledge of warfare rapidly became a feared warrior and much sort after ally for would be raiding parties and legal pursuits. Combined with his knowledge of weapon making and armour forging his family quickly grew in members and allies and came to dominate the middle hills and was a thorn in the side of both Imbesu and Ingubu officials.

Umkhonto