ABSTRACT
THE laws and customs of the Amandebele land, like those of other countries, have originated in the necessity for them which was felt by the people, and have more recently been modified to meet the changeR which from time to time, and from various causes, have come over the nation. It follows that their nature would materially depend upon the condition in which the people happened to be when they were formed, in the first instance. And the changes which have since that time taken place in these laws and customs would be in harmony with the circumstances through which the nation has been called to pass. Such alterations would be made so as to meet the opinion and wishes of both king and subjects, and would therefore be permanent and much valued by the natives, while also well adapted for the ends in view. But as they do not form a written code, there is much uncertainty and irregularity connected with their administration. The guilty are often acquitted, and the innocent condemned. This fluctuating character of the Amandebele law is often taken advantage of by the king for selfish purposes. Like the other Zulu chieftail1s he is
capricious, and often illfluellced on tIle Olle side by prejudice, and on the other by partiality. Add to all this the fact that his word is la,v,-that even the meaning of the traditions of the tribe over whicIl he rules depends upon his opinion, and that he is supposed to be incapable of committing an error,-it will be understood why lnany of the accused there, although conscious of innocence, have more confidence in flight to other chiefs for protection, than they have in the justice of their own court of law. Even ill respect to the principle of "hereditary succession," which iR considered to be the most established and unalterable usage ill the land, there is much cOlltingellcy arising from the plurality of wives. The case of Ulopengule affords an illstance of this. Had Unkulumalla been found, we have reasons to believe that he would have succeeded his father without much difficulty, or at least without the shedding of blood. For Uswiti, his grandfather on the mother's side, was considered by all cOllcerned, to have been a greater chief than the fathers of any of the other princesses whom Umzilikazi married. But in consequence of his disappearance, the question of succession became much more intricate than otherwise it would have been. Ulopengule's mother was not so much higher in rank than some of the other wives of the late king as to render his right to the sovereignty indisputable. Therefore other parties, prompted by fanlily interests and caprice, put in claims, and hence the very unsettled state of the country for more than twelve months, and the fearfully bloody contest between the royalists and insurgents
of that period. The latter represented the house of Uswiti, or that to which Unkulumana belonged, alld the others consisted of the houses of Ukumalo and Umswazi, with which Ulopengule was connected, as already described in another chapter.
