King Lobengula tour opens to public

A bird’s-eye view of the past life of a lost heir and a royal history long forgotten was the experience of the guests who gathered in Grahamstown’s Fingo Village on 1 July to witness the launch of the King Lobengula Route Tour.

A bird’s-eye view of the past life of a lost heir and a royal history long forgotten was the experience of the guests who gathered in Grahamstown’s Fingo Village on 1 July to witness the launch of the King Lobengula Route Tour.

The descendants of King Lobengula, notably his son Alban ANL Mzilikazi and his son Rhodes Lobengula are buried next to Luvuyo Hall off C-Street, Kwa-Ndancama, in Fingo Village far away from the land of their ancestors in Zimbabwe.  

So, how did their final resting place come to be Grahamstown, you may ask?

After the Matabeleland wars in 1894 that brought about the death of King Lobengula and the annihilation of the Chieftainship by the Colonial Government under Cecil John Rhodes, the royal heir Mzilikazi and his younger brother were stripped of their possessions, and sent to South Africa in order be ‘educated’.  

 Mzilikazi received a stipend from the government and had a farm at Port Alfred, he died in 1910.

The rediscovery by KLF of the nearby WWII Cemetery and the development of the new Egazini Precinct will contribute to the abundance of interesting sites in and around Fingo Village.

The preservation and protection of these and other local heritage sites is of paramount importance as they reflect the history of African nations before, during and after colonisation.

This new tour aims to ignite interest in the abundant cultural heritage to be found in the City’s townships; and it is hoped that this initiative will prompt the start of other tours beyond the CBD.

Increased tourism to these areas will result in job creation which will benefit the surrounding community as crafters and entrepreneurs will be able to sell their products to the visitors.