- Prince Mpezeni Khumalo of the Matebele -
Mpezeni Khumalo a.k.a Mpezeni LOBENGULA 
 
Mpezeni was born in Bulawayo in about 1880, the second of the four 'royal' sons of Lobengula who survived into the white settler Occupation period. His mother was Lomalongwe, according to Ntabeni Khumalo, she was the most important wife after Lozigeyi and consequently Mpezeni might have been chosen to succeed his father Lobengula. 
Young looking Mpezeni Khumalo a.k.a Mpezeni LOBENGULA  Ginyilitshe, the royal Khumalo family praise-singer in the twentieth century, differed in this view though of the likely successor. Of all Lobengula's sons, Mpezeni was considered to the best of the bunch. As with Njube and Nguboyenja, the real importance of Mpezeni was that when he was of the age, he was taken by Cecil J Rhodes to Cape Town for education in 1894.
Mpezeni's career at Zonnebloem College, however, was very brief, for in October 1899 he contracted pleurisy and was sent to Somerset Hospital where he died on 9 December. For some reason  Mpezeni's death was not formally reported to the Administration in Salisbury (now Harare) or the London Office or, presumably, his relatives in Matabeleland although they would have soon learned the news from Njube and Nguboyenja.
 
     
Mzilikazi t shirt
BULAWAYO Native
I am kind of big deal in BULAWAYO
 
This naturally upset the Ndebele, Mpezeni's death aroused considerable feeling among the Ndebele and many indunas went to pay their condolences to his mother. It was probably as a consequence of this unfortunate episode that the Administration reconsidered its former opposition to a visit home by Njube and later in 1900 agreed to his leaving Zonnebloem and returning to Matabeleland in order to allay any fear among the Ndebele that the boys were in effect being detained and not properly cared for.
 
It appears that the Ndebele have never made any attempt to mark Mpezeni's grave, even with a headstone, and nothing is named after him in Bulawayo. The conclusion must be that he was not regarded as of great importance by the Khumalo family.
 
Other documents related to this Profile
The Khumalo Royal family
 
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