Ngwane III was King of

Eswatini Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...

from 1745 to 1780. He is considered to be the first King of modern Eswatini. For his name the people were called ''bakaNgwane'' and the country was called ''kaNgwane'' or ''lakaNgwane''. Ngwane was the son of Dlamini III and Queen LaYaka Ndwandwe. Dlamini was succeeded by Ngwane III his son with Queen LaYaka Ndwandwe. He took over the Dlamini chieftaincy and established settlements south of the Pongola River, later moving them to the north of the river banks. This makes Ngwane and his followers the founders of modern Swaziland. Ngwane ruled his Kingdom from the south east of Swaziland in the present Shiselweni district and his headquarters were called Zombodze at the foot of the Mhlosheni hills. It was at Zombodze that the Nguni ceremony '' incwala'' was celebrated for the first time.

Kingship

Ngwane III is an important figure in the history of

and he is regarded the first King of modern Eswatini. He succeeded his father Dlamini III as chief of the early Swazi who had settled near the Pongola River and Lubombo Mountains. He managed to conquer land south of the

Pongola River The Phongolo River is a river in South Africa. It is a tributary of the Maputo River. It rises near Utrecht in northern KwaZulu-Natal, flows east through Pongolo, is dammed at Pongolapoort, and crosses the Ubombo Mountains; then it flows north ...

. He wasn't able to hold this land, but it is this land which is still seen as an important part of modern Swaziland. Later he settled on the northern side of the Pongola and subsequently moving his royal capital to Zombodze, within the borders of present-day Eswatini. Zombodze became the heartland of the Ngwane kingdom, and incwala, the Nguni ceremony of ''First Fruits'' was celebrated for the first time there. Ngwane thus became the eponym of his country and his people. The country became known as ''kaNgwane'', means "the country of place of Ngwane" and his people as ''bakaNgwane''. This name is still used today and the

Swazi people The Swazi or Swati ( Swati: ''Emaswati'', singular ''Liswati'') are a Bantu ethnic group native to Southern Africa, inhabiting Eswatini, a sovereign kingdom in Southern Africa. EmaSwati are part of the Nguni-language speaking peoples whose or ...

use this name to refer to themselves as a people. Ngwane III reigned until 1780 when his son, Ndvungunye, became King after a regency of Queen LaYaka Ndwandwe.
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Kingship

References

See also