Mbombini Molteno kaSihele

Mbombini Molteno ka Sihele (Mbombini Molteno son of Sihele) was a Xhosa Councillor and warrior, as well as the national poet ("imbongi") and cultural custodian of the amaThembu people of South Africa during the late 1800s and early 1900s. He gathered and preserved Thembu history and lore from his base at the court of Chief Falo Mgudlwa in Ngcobo and he stewarded the different Thembu royal clans during a fractious and dangerous time.

Mbombini's father Sihele was powerful warrior of the Thembu nation, who chose to go to war against the British at a time when most other Thembu leaders would not. At his final departure to war, knowing he would not return, he left his children in the hands of Nowisile, the wife of the young Falo Mgudlwa and the daughter of the Gcaleka King Sarili kaHintsa. He instructed that his one son Pafulu was to receive a full European education and that his other son Mbombini was to receive a purely Thembu up-bringing. He explained on his departure that this was to ensure that Mbombini never left his home and his people. After his father's death Mbombini therefore became a servant of Chief Falo Mgudlwa.

From his youngest years, the boy was very loyal to his guardian and he became the Chief's most trusted servant.

His intelligence and charisma caused him to rise to position of Councillor and his influence then expanded across Thembuland and further. He was a giant in physical stature and he was famous for bravery and fierceness in war. Nonetheless he could also use great tact and gentleness in order to achieve an important aim. In his private life he used the name Mbombini while in his capacity as Thembu Councillor he used his second name Molteno. Sihele was his father's name and so he also took the patronym "kaSihele" ("son of Sihele"). Molteno believed that divisions and disagreements made the Xhosa speaking nations vulnerable, and his main policies were to use traditional structures and diplomacy to unite the different Chiefs, at a dangerous time when Thembuland was under constant threat from British aggression.

During times when the elderly Chief Falo was suffering from alcoholism and could not lead personally, Molteno took instruction from the Chief and commanded the people in the Chief's name. He implemented the incapacitated leader's instructions during the Anglo-Boer War and he publicly protected and honoured the Chief's name.

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