The anniversary of King Goodwill Zwelithini’s death was on 12 March; he wished for his successor to bring peace and prosperity.
The past two years have been a time in which all of humanity has had to face their mortality; we have had to think about and feel about our own death, all 7.9-billion of us at more or less the same time. The late king of the Zulus, King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu, drew his last breath in this time of global pandemic. As he felt his body dying, he still had time to consider his legacy and what he wished for his people going forward. His focus was on how to ensure the Zulu people move forward without fighting each other and unite for the good of all.
Some of his messages to be shared to his people were: “To ask each individual and the collective, not to build a monument, a human monument of any kind, like a statue, in my honour, but to honour me by creating monumental joy for yourselves and others in goodwill and for the will of good. And that this can be done by creating community projects where each can realise their purpose, worth and joy.” This, he believed, is what would lead the people of the Zulu nation to live up to their name and purpose as the ones sent to bring heaven’s message to Earth.
In another version about how humanity came to be on this planet, it is said that there were originally 12 human races seeded on Earth. There had been other beings on the planet before humans, and after the original 12 races, other races like the Zulu race came to be. In this version of the history of humanity, a race is a clearly defined group of people who come for a particular purpose, and individual purpose feeds into the group purpose.
Central to this is the understanding that all people, all the kingdoms on Earth, all planets, galaxies and universes are creations of one God. And it is God who assigns a purpose to each he creates. Each human has a divine purpose from God, as does every grain of sand or crystal. Each of the 12 races have their particular purpose that they must anchor, share and champion with the rest of humanity. For example, it is said that the race that anchored in what we now call Southern Africa had peace as its purpose, and the race that was anchored in what we call the United Kingdom had unity as its purpose.
It is said the Zulu race came to be many years after the original 12 races, and that they came to remind humanity about the original missions each of the races had; in that way the Zulus came to anchor heaven’s will on Earth, to remind humanity what they promised God to champion. The end goal is for humanity to unite through diversity and create peace, to live beyond polarity, to live in harmony. This planet has not known peace in aeons. The first king of the Zulus is said to have been Bhekezi, whose name means “the sun’s rays that touched the Earth” in the ancient Kemet language from where the modern Zulu language comes from. By the time King Shaka came to be, his pressing mission was to unite the people of Africa, not to conquer them, unlike the current retelling of his story, which portrays him as a violent, ruthless leader.
The late Sanusi Credo Mutwa also had the urgent need to remind the people of Africa, and in particular the Zulu nation, that our existence as humanity is not a fluke, it is not meaningless — we are here by Heaven’s design and therefore we need to bring back the centrality of God in all we do. The divisions on Earth and the perpetual wars and suffering are caused by our forgetting God and leaving him out in all we do.
As the first year of the passing of King Goodwill Zwelithini is commemorated on 12 March 2022, it is unfortunately clear that there are clear divisions in the royal family as to whom his successor to the throne is. The division and contestation in the royal family will potentially spill over into the whole of the Zulu nation, where neighbours come to disagree who should be king. One of the late king’s concerns was that initiation of the future king be done correctly, so that he comes to embody and pursue only good for all of the Zulu people.
Zwelithini’s wish was for the future king and the royal family to be true guardians and guides of the people they work for: “To radiate joy, to build the inner kingdom within them and without them, to find a joy that is immortal, to release repelling love, to release resisting love. For all resistance creates polarity, separation and pain. And in the unity of the many realms between contrasts, lives harmony.” He wished for leadership that embodied these values and worked to achieve this for all.
A stable, united and peaceful KwaZulu-Natal is important to all of South Africa. We have seen how instability in that part of South Africa reverberates throughout the country, especially economically. A stable South Africa that has potential to prosper requires a peaceful KwaZulu-Natal; the tensions brewing there should not be underestimated. As has become the norm in our country and all over the world; the brokering for power and control is never seen and is not transparent to citizens. It is already happening with regard to who controls the Zulu throne and therefore its massive resources. The plea and caution is that long-term political and economic stability for the goodwill of all and for the will of good of all South Africans be considered.