Mthethwa , also Mtwas written , important chief and small historical state of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, lies south of the lower Mfolozi River in the northeastern part of today's province KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa . Among chiefs of the Nyambose lineage, particularly Jobe and his son Dingiswayo , Mthethwa rose to prominence in the first two decades of the 19th century by absorbing small local lines and conflicts with neighboring ones chiefs involved in similar expansion processes, such as the Qwabe chief in the south and the Ndwandwe group in the northwest.
The nyamboses of Mthethwa were trading with the Portuguese in Delagoa Bay involved . Between the 1750s and the 1820s, the main exports from this region of Africa were elephants ivory , slaves and maybe cattle. In the 1810s, Portuguese soldiers and Dingiswayo had reportedly formed an alliance, and firearms for Mthethwa were imported via Delagoa Bay.
Under Dingiswayo, Mthethwa established close ties to Zulu Chief in the west. After Dingiswayo's death ( um In 1817) Mthethwa merged with the Zulu and several other groups in the subregion to form the Zulu kingdom under Shaka . Nyambose descendants became chiefs under a series of Zulu kings.
Many military and administrative What's new , including the age regiment system ( Amabutho ) that later characterized the Zulu kingdom were used by Mthethwa, although an older theory involving the Nyambose Rulers of Mthethwa introduced attributes to Amabutho, is no longer accepted due to evidence for the widespread existence of Amabutho , which dates back to the 18th century and perhaps earlier.