Mekemeke 'LaNyandza' Magongo (c. 1822 - c. 1920) was a Swazi royal consort and the queen of Mekemeke.Short History of the Native Tribes of the Transvaal. Transvaal (Colony). Native Affairs Department, Government Print. and Stationery Office, 1905. p.p. 61 She was a wife of King Mswati II.Myburgh, A. C (author); Peck, Joyce Lee Kunz (editor) (2023). Excerpts of the 1949 Union of South Africa Department of Natural Affairs, Ethnological Series No. 25 The Tribes of Barberton District. p.p 47-49, Rexburg
Her father was Nyandza Magongo and upon her marriage to King Mswati II around 1842, she was granted the status of umfati wekunene (right-hand wife), placing her among the senior wives of the king at the eNzingeni royal settlement, Piggs Peak.
Establishment of Mekemeke royal village During the early formation of the Swazi polity, rulers of the kingdom faced resistance from earlier inhabitants of the Eswatini region, including Emakhandzambili clans from Sotho-speaking communities.Thwala, J.J. (2017). The Significance of the Traditional Ceremony Ummemo, among Swazi. Stud Tribes Tribals, 15(1): 23-29. DOI:10.31901/24566799.2017/15.01.04. Available [4.pmd.pdf PDF] In response, Swazi kings established royal residences in strategically located areas that functioned as defensive buffer zones. These royal centres were surrounded by settlements of regiments, whose role was to provide military protection for the king and senior royal figures. During the mid-19th century, King Mswati II established a line of military outposts from east to west along the Kaap River and Komati River to prevent Bapedi groups from re-entering Swazi-controlled territory.Thwala, J.J. (2017). Page 24
These outposts were Mekemeke, Emjindini (now Barberton) and Embhuleni (now Badplaas and Tjakastad area).Chapter 10 - A Nation Divided? The Swazi in Swaziland and the Transvaal, 1865–1986, by Hugh Macmillan. From The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa by Leroy Vail (editor), University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Oxford, 1989
Around 1860, following the building of Mekemeke, Queen Mekemeke was sent from Swaziland by King Mswati II with her followers to occupy the royal outpost on the eastern portion of the Barberton district (Louw's Creek).
She came with her children, including the last-born Prince Fana Dlamini, who succeeded her in 1920.Myburgh, A.C. (1949).p.p. 48
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