08/06/2024
The picture is showing the Ariel view of the Siteki Town Centre . This picture was shoot in 2006, and was presented to the author by Wigman Duke.
Siteki is one of the oldest towns in Swaziland, pre-dating Mbabane by some twenty or thirty years. The area was known as ‘iSiteki’, the place of marriage, by the Swazis after an impi was disbanded there in the early nineteenth century. By tradition Swazi warriors may not marry while in their regiment; hence an impi disbanding meant, at least on this occasion, great nuptial festivities (Gosnell P. 20001)
The Ghost of Days gone by
This poem came about as a result of being inspired by the book written by Peter J. Gosnell (2001) entitled ‘Big Bend– A history of the Swaziland Bushveld’; I was also inspired by the book written by S.E.M. Pheko (South Africa: Betrayal of Colonised people and also by the book written by Francis Meli (South Africa belongs to us : A history of the ANC) - Sizwe Ndlela
THE GHOST OF DAYS GONE BY
This poem shall speak of “iSiteki” once a traditional land of marriages and great festivities
Of mothers crying for their children swallowed by the ravaging and devastating effects of poverty, HIV and AIDS. All the same they are causing disorderly and miserable situations
This poem shall hail the name of a warrior ‘Siteki Dlamini’. He flung his arms wide open to the first European colonialists who assumed power in Swaziland in 1889, because he thought them lost.
They sung and danced, they ate and laughed for he had plenty to give and knew not of their designs. Then one day one infamous day, they united and strengthened their fighting muscle against his people, and settled one of their justices of peace at the unruly outpost of the Lebombo mountains in Siteki.
This poem shall call the names of the European Settlers,
George Way, Rhys Evans, Carl Tood, William Wigman, Sydney Gaiger, Thys Gobbler, J.B. Horsfall, and a host of others who are nolonger with us, who now lie unnoticed in the w**d choked cemetery in Siteki.
This poem is facts about the Eroupean Settlers: Rhys Evans, built Mabuda house from blocks of stones hewed from the farm. He sold it to Carl Tood in 1939, and it remains with the family to date and it stands as a testimony of out times.
Bill wigman, bought the Siteki hotel from George Way in 1928, and ran it for 37 years, he was champion marksman and great hunter. Later it was run by his grandson Wigman Duke until 2006 and he sold it to Keith Sigwane.
Sdyney “Snakes” Geiger, the founder of the Bamboo Inn and Swazi Inn. A famous politician and hotelier. He once drove off in a friendly golf tournament, he sliced his shot into a near by rough, almost before the caddie could sight the ball, an enormous snake swallowed it and it was ruled a lost ball, he was nicknamed “Snakes”
This poem is revolting against the Native Recruiting Corporation (NRC) of 1912, The ‘Black Birders’, Wanela! Who orchestrated the sale of strong family men to work in the gold and diamond mines of Johannesburg, deep, deep, deep in the valley of the earth for almost no pay. J.B. Horsfall and Thys Gobbler masterminded the operations along the Arbecorn drift.
This poem shall speak of the sons and daughters of Siteki who fought bare as poverty and clashed their ribs into their assegais. The sons and daughters fell too bitten in the necks by the settler’s bullets at “Bam Bam” Muti –Muti in the Lebombo mountains. The battles of the yesteryears are still engraved in our memories and shall linger in
our history and our minds forever.
