His Magnificence The King is Dead
King Mlungisi depicted with infantry ostrich plumes, bottom, second from left, in the "Upon the Hands of God" wall sculpture of eMahlabatini's High Hallowed House where he was interredEMAHLABATINI --
King Mlungisi, the father of modern Ibutho, died Wednesday at the age of 116. He was interred today at the House of Shabangu's ancestral mausoleum in the Holy Land eMahlabatini following funeral rituals there. The somber rites, some three hours running, were presided over by uMfundisi Lwazi
[OOC: literally 'Reverend Lwazi'], the Crown Sangoma. The Royal Family was in attendance absent HM King Andile III, along with the nobility, UNdunankulu Sibusiso Mathebula's uMkhandlu
[OOC: the Cabinet, literally 'The King's Premier Sibusiso Mathebula's council'], isiShayamthetho
[OOC: literally 'the Legislature'], senior officers of the military, the iZangoma
[OOC: Priests, literally 'Mediums'], and mourning members of the public.
His Magnificence The King was born umNtanenkosi Mlugnisi ka Kwelakubo oseniNgizimu
[OOC: literally 'Prince Mlungisi of Southern Kwelakubo'] in 3555 to Inkosi Shabangu ayengomncane and Inkosikazi Nomvula
[OOC: literally 'King Shabangu the Younger and Queen Nomvula']. Born in the midst of the Luthori occupation, the newborn was named Mlungisi
[OOC: literally 'the one who brings order'] by his father, who prayed the boy would be strong-willed enough to rebuild the country following the elder Shabangu's planned ouster of the invaders. The young noble was prodigious with the assagai
[OOC: combat weapon used during melee attacks] and from a young age demonstrated a natural bent for tactics design. But off the battlefield, the boy was grandstanding, erratic, and shallow, demerits that izinDuna
[OOC: upper nobility, literally 'the Captains'] close to the royal family say did not wane as Mlungisi entered his young adult years. 'He'd route a competitor in exercises but then do something incredibly stupid to rub it in,' inDuna Izimayini oseniNgizimu
[OOC: The Duke of Southern Isimayini], a member of the late King's intanga
[OOC: school grade, literally 'generation'], told the
Izwi. 'Once, our intanga was on parade to mark the aging-out of the intanga just ahead of us. During the demonstration exercises, Mlungisi handily bested an older boy, but then bounded over to a young woman the older boy's family had already paid lobolo
[OOC: become engaged to, literally 'bride price'], and proceeded to fondle and kiss the girl until she slapped him away and the Inkosi summoned a courtier to restrain Mlungisi. Unfazed, Mlungisi startled and grabbed at a group girls as our butho
[OOC: cadet unit, literally 'force'] marched off the field.'
Then-Prince Mlungisi's father, though embarrassed by his son's ngokungacabangi
[OOC: literally 'thoughtlessness'], was confident a budding officer of such remarkable gifts in war would settle into a cooler head as he grew. But for the young man's mother, he was nothing but disappointment. 'Queen Nomvula was angered by everything the prince did and every decision he made,' said Ayanda Mabena, Queen Nomvula's cousin. 'From his almost ukuthonya esilawulayo
[OOC: literally 'fetishistic fascination'] with the abahlaseli lobugebengu
[OOC: literally 'criminal invaders'] mannerisms and clothing and onkulunkulu bamanga
[OOC: literally 'heathen gods'] and the rest right down to the girls he sought for his wives, nothing Mlungisi did could please his mother. Even his talent on the battlefield she saw as a bad mark because she was convinced that whatever wars he might win, he was liable to turn around and hand back all gains to isitha
[OOC: literally 'the enemy'] in the name of "forgiveness," "friendship," or "charity," or whatever the missionaries he'd sneak off with taught him from their inkolo lolumalula
[OOC: literally 'simplistic religion']. Queen Nomvula just thought all that was siwubuntwana lamaphupho
[OOC: literally 'childish fantasy']. She thought Mlungisi was allowing himself to be duped and sucked in by the isiko benesiyezi ethandwa ka inhlonipho engafihli ezinenkohliso
[OOC: literally 'stupefying popular culture and transparently deceitful courtesies'] of the abahlaseli lobugebengu
[OOC: literally 'criminal invaders'],' Mabena said.
Hoping to anchor the boy, Queen Nomvula urged her husband to marry Mlungisi to the Mabena Inkosi's daughter, Funani. 'You know, even as a teenager, lots of folks thought Funani was sullen and a short-fuse, even cruel,' Ayanda Mabena intimated. 'But I think that's probably exactly what Aunt Nomvula liked about her. She thought Funani had enough steel in her spine to enforce boundaries for Mlungisi and help keep him focused.'
The pairing paid off. Princess Funani took to managing her young husband's politics and keeping her mother-in-law at bay, giving Prince Mlungisi room to focus as the expulsion war heated up. And focus he did. Over the protracted years of the war, beginning with the outbreak of hostilities in 3591 until the decisive Battle of Izimayini in 3597, then-Prince Mlungisi is recorded to have personally commanded izigodi umbimbi
[OOC: literally 'estates alliance'] forces in nine major standoffs, nearly half of the war's landmark battles. 'He was tireless and single-minded,' said inDuna Izimayini oseniNgizimu. 'The fighting almost seemed to energize him. And after his father was sidelined by a battle wound, he was even more determined because he could see then that winning the war would mean becoming the first King of a obumbene ibutho
[OOC: literally 'united Ibutho'] since before the invasion.'
Liberated by his father's 3597 death, Mlungisi sought to empty the ubukhosi
[OOC: literally 'court'] of the old King's loyalists, especially those who had counseled Inkosi Shabangu to constrain the unpredictable Mlungisi. 'King Mlungisi was not a vengeful person, but he very much resented attempts to limit his rule,' said inDuna Izimayini oseniNgizimu. 'He felt like being wasebukhosini
[OOC: literally 'a royal'] meant he was born to rule. He took that seriously and he thought umuntukazana omkhulu omkhulu
[OOC: God, literally 'the Great-Great One'] was the only one who could second guess his orders.' Using the ritual suicides accompanying his father's funeral as cover, the new king ordered scores of senior izinDuna
[OOC: nobles] to their deaths. But it was who he replaced them with that deepened fissures in the newly reunited sizwe
[OOC: literally 'nation']. 'The funeral massacres were one thing -- they were still customary in those days as a changing of the guard from one umbuso
[OOC: reign, literally 'government'] to the next,' inDuna Izimayini oseniNgizimu said. 'But then he brought in a group of iduna
[OOC: young nobles] with next to no experience at ubukhosi noma umkhandlu
[OOC: literally 'court and council'] to replace them. And people were noticing that he would kugodongana
[OOC: confer, literally 'huddle'] more and more with the Luthori and Dundorf ba ababezimisele kancane ukushiya
[OOC: stragglers, literally 'those who were slow to leave']. A couple of them he even allowed to attend umkhandlu.'
The new administration's unorthodoxy was increasingly thought to let the wind out of the sails of the reunited country's hard-won jubilation following the war. Quizzical attempts early in the King's reign to fabricate quick diplomatic friendships with the Luthori and their allies shook the people's confidence and angered soldiers who had risked life and limb to expel the abahlaseli lobugebengu
[OOC: literally 'criminal invaders'] only months earlier. 'We give everything for the King because he is our country, he is our dignity, we revere uMgungundhlovi
[OOC: 'the terrible fearsome voice of royalty']' inDuna Izimayini oseniNgizimu said. 'But he began taxing our izinkomo
[OOC: literally 'cattle'] and confiscating our fields to ship off to the abahlaseli lobugebengu. He also imported imihlambi
[OOC: literally 'herds'] from them which were very inferior. And he let the invaders abahlaseli lobugebengu live in Bokufika. No one could say this to Magnificence because he commanded our fear. But his decisions then were not well-liked because we believed we had fought against these things.'
A rapid series of foreign policy failures heightened domestic anxieties. Fruitless wrangling over demands to Luthori to pay war reparations were soon followed by the King's unannounced marriage proposal to a owezizwe angikhangi bezinye
[OOC: foreigner]. One Isishyamthetho
[OOC: literally 'legislature'] member famously contested the proposal at the time, saying that marriage to such a foreigner was strictly against custom and law and that even if it weren't, the woman was ikakhulukazi angikhangi
[OOC: literally 'notably unattractive']. Veteran izinDuna and courtiers were relieved when the marriage fell-through, but mortified all over again when news reached Isizinda isigodlo
[OOC: literally 'palace'] that the woman was known by her government to be barren. 'People saw what the Dundorfians did and recognized it for what it was: a gratuitous insult,' said Ayana Mabena. 'Just after that, Mlungisi swung open Ibutho Imingcele
[OOC: literally 'borders'] to all manner of bokufika
[OOC: literally 'foreigners'] in a policy umkhandlu called abangane ibutho
[OOC: literally 'Friends of Ibutho']. 'We know this was a scheme concocted from the beginning by bokufika Magnificence permitted to umkhandlu, and many say it was their intention all along' inDuna Izimayini oseniNgizimu said. As the program ran on, it morphed into an open sell-off of Ibutho properties and minerals. 'So many of the old guard were angered by this -- not only the izinDuna excluded from umkhandlu but senior members of umndeni wasebukhosini
[OOC: literally 'the royal family'] too' Ayanda Mabena explained. 'Queen Nomvula told Mlungisi at umkhandlu once that if he wanted to bambe izinsimbi
[OOC: mine, literally 'dig metals'] again as abasendulo
[OOC: the ancestors, literally 'the ancients'] had done, why not look to izindlela yokukhipha lasendulo
[OOC: historical extraction methods, literally 'the old-time methods of taking out']? Why invite in abahlaseli lobugebengu themselves with their amasiko maram nezindlela siwubuntwana
[OOC: literally 'venal values and childish ways']? Why not compensate Ibutho men and women for this work as ubukhosi compensated the builders and tenders of ifa wasebukhosini
[OOC: literally 'the royal estate']? Why relinquish our wealth to the kumehlise owezizwe
[OOC: literally 'degenerate foreigners']? Are their gods better than our own, do they work by some angaphezu kwawabantu umlingo
[OOC: literally 'superhuman magic']? Do they not funda ngokuba ukwenze
[OOC: literally 'learn by doing'] just as we do?' She pressed him on these things. But Mlungisi swept it aside, explaining it away with his Luthori and Dundorf abeluleki imbuda ababebazungezile
[OOC: literally 'advisers' pretentious nonsense'] about inzuzo uma kuqhathaniswa
[OOC: comparative advantage, literally 'advantage by comparison'].' Queen Nomvula, who dealt all manner of obstruction to slow the program in its run-up and levied an ultimatum at the King that any failure for the project would not be abided by the nobles or the people, nevertheless turned back her allies once King Mlungisi's decision had been made, telling them simply, 'kuyiyo nkosi, futhi ngakho bekezela,'
[OOC: 'he is the lord, and so we shall abide'].
Abangane Ibutho
[OOC: literally 'Friends of Ibutho'] predictably devolved to spectacle, fanning the flames of domestic anger with each descent. And when news reached home that a naval contingent the King had deployed for yet another foreign excursion had been largely lost at sea, its few surviving warriors taken prisoner, long simmering displeasure turned to outrage. 'What you must understand about the Ibutho is that we are all, from birth, bread for war,' said inDuna Izimayini oseniNgizimu. 'It is our birthright, it is our calling, it is our purpose. To send us to war and not guarantee our victory, this is intolerable because it is un-Ibutho.'
The King's mother, feeling that her long-held doubts about her son had proven correct, rallied the support of the izinDuna turned out from umkhandlu and informed her son that he would shortly face a battle for ubukhosi if he did not restructure umkhandlu and yield some administrative authorities. 'Mlungisi was still a hothead, but he would not cross the Queen Mother and did not want to see the country fractured by war so soon after it had been rebuilt,' Ayanda Mabena intimated. King Mlungisi acquiesced to his mother's demands, explaining the power shift as a natural expansion of the Queen Mother's day-to-day work to match the reserve authorities of her Mother of God and Queen of Queens titles.
The move quieted things at Shabangu indlu
[OOC: literally 'the House of Shabangu'], but His Magnificence's foreign policy, always precarious, was torn to shambles when the King's administrative demotion was recounted by the foreign reporters. 'Prince Zonke went and told his father about the things written in the foreign papers sold at Bakufika,' Ayanda Mabena recounted. 'The stories were littered with insults: weak, powerless, emasculated, primitive, and on and on. It was celebratory mockery for the kumehlise owezizwe
[OOC: literally 'degenerate foreigners']. It provided fuel for their indlwabu ukuzazisa
[OOC: literally 'masturbatory egotism']. But then Zonke told Mlungsi that the translation of the King's title supplied to the foreign reporters by the his Luthori advisers did not mean what the foreigners had told Mlungisi it meant. Mlungisi thought "chief" meant Inkosi in the izilimi wezinga eliphansi
[OOC: literally 'degenerate tongues']. But Zonke told him that the tourists in Bokufika said a "chief" was more like a umphathi
[OOC: headman, literally 'supervisor'] -- like someone who leads Imihambima
[OOC: literally 'nomads'] around from place to place. Zonke told the Mlungisi that the foreigners mean that a "chief" is below a king, like a pretend king of a pretend country, a place where Imihambima lived but wasn't really a country.' King Mlungisi is said to have told Zonke that such was a misunderstanding. The King insisted that the foreigners could not possibly have considered him below a king because his family's line was much older than theirs. At any rate, the King insisted, since he had been crowned Emperor of Aldegar, any confusion about what Inkosi meant was understood since as an emperor he held the highest rank any of their rulers could hold. 'Zonke told the King that that wasn't what the foreigners' governments were saying' Ayanda Mabena recalled. 'He told Mlungsi that the foreigners only applied those rules to themselves, but that they think they such rules don't count for Ibutho. Zonke said "it doesn't matter how big the it is, or how old it is or how many wars we've won or who was first or who learned what from whose ancestors. They think those rules don't count for us, only for them."'
King Mlungisi told the umkhandlu that swift action had to be taken to rectify the slights. But with domestic affairs turned over to Queen Nomvula and oversight of the treasury turned over to Princess Thabisa, neither of whom had any appetite for more foreign policy efforts, fixes were unlikely.
Crest-fallen, His Magnificence took solace in his office as God incarnate, living son of uNkulunkulu. The almighty powers of divinity provided a salve for the King's truncated powers at umkhandlu. 'At first it really was just for show I think -- a ploy to help him take back umkhandlu,' Ayanda Mabena said. 'But the more he talked with the iZangoma, the more fascinated he became with ukujula nobuhle Inkolo
[OOC: literally 'the depth and beauty of the religion'].'
Noticing her husband's growing interest, the King's first wife, Queen Funani, introduced him to holy men traveling Emperor-in-Pretense Chikere's court which had settled in Ibutho. The Queen said that one of the preachers had told her the Inkolo and the preacher's own religion were actually related and had grown out of a more ancient but now-defunct faith. 'Talking with the foreign IZangoma really excited His Magnificence,' Ayanda Mabena recalled. 'He had heard the Dlamini say that we were from the east, but that is anathema in the Inkolo. But this preacher told the King that our Inkolo itself came from the east just like the preacher's religion. And he pointed out to the King ukufana oluphelele futhi angaqondakaliyo
[OOC: literally 'exhaustive and uncanny parallels'] between the two religions and he said there were some identical rituals and sobuciko bezombusazwe
[OOC: government system designs, literally 'statecrafts'], languages and other systems. Mlungisi was swept up by it all.' But it had all been simple story-telling for the King. Compelling, and fascinating if true, but of little practical implication for Ibutho and His Magnificence's loss of power.
But when in 3617 word came that Nolwazi Silongo, the woman who ousted Mlungisi from power, had deserted the throne and that Isizinda isigodlo had been taken over by a nihilist Bokufika-based faction called "communists," His Magnificence began to think more seriously about the preacher's tales. He peppered the preacher, called Tekle Atatafi, with questions about how his tales could be proven, whether their lessons could be utilized in Ibutho, how long they had worked where they were created, and whether they could be long-lasting in Ibutho. Atatafi said they could. And during the long house arrest at uMgungundhlovi imposed on the King and his family by the communists, Atatafi with the help of Queen Funani brought in more Esinsundu
[OOC: African, literally 'brown-skinned'] clergymen to tell of how such systems might be made to successfully work in Ibutho. 'One thing the preachers emphasized to His Magnificence was that one of the ways they had ensured the foreign Esinsundu religions lasted was that they used the scripts to record the edicts of the faiths, and to record the laws of the state,' said Ayanda Mabena. 'The preachers told the King that they thought the Ibutho had done this at some time in the past too, because the messages Ibutho women designed into their dresses were like the scripts the preachers use, only more complex. The Ibutho messages were something the preachers called "ideograms" versus their own scripts which they called "logograms." Atatafi and the others told the King that they believed okhokho
[OOC: literally 'the ancestors'] had used the practice more widely and may have deconstructed the Ibutho messages into logograms, but that practice became less popular during something the preachers called ukuhlakazwa omkhulu
[OOC: literally 'the great dispersion']. They said that was when the original home of Ibutho and Ezintsundu turned to desert and that okhokho were uprooted and livelihoods and customs were disrupted.'
The Communist insurgency movement was unfocused in its execution and ran out of steam soon after its emergence. Preparing to fill the vacuum left by the communist collapse, King Mlungisi determined to use the tools and ideologies he'd been schooled in by the foreign clergymen to ensure that his power, and Ibutho, could not be uprooted again. 'The first order of business was to capitalize on the relationship-building the King and Queen Funani had been pursuing with we izinDuna,' inDuna Izimayini oseniNgizimu said. 'The King began inviting us kuya emkhandlwini futhi bedla
[OOC: literally 'to council and to feast'] so that he could speak with us in an unrushed way and make his views clear, and explain why he thought the foreign Esinsundu tools should be used in Ibutho.' The effect of the long preparations was agreement from all ten estates to permit some revival of okhokho mining work and to transition many Abakhiqizi
[OOC: companies, literally 'manufacturers'] from hand-made contraptions and fashions to machine-assisted or fully mechanized production. 'There were reservations, no one made pretense to hiding those,' inDuna Izimayini oseniNgizimu said. 'But the King committed to umsebenzi kanye engenayo liqinisekisa
[OOC: literally 'work and income guarantees'] for Abakhiqizi throughout the transition, and engenayo liqinisekisa
[OOC: literally 'income guarantees'] from the King's own treasury for any Abakhiqizi that were permanently displaced by the changes and who would need to master new imfundiso yokulalela
[OOC: disciplines, literally 'doctrines']. So we felt that even if it all failed, any debts would only be borne by the King, but any gains would be kept by Abakhiqizi and could be taxed by we izinDuna.'
To see to the details and day-to-day running of the changes, the King invited Afram Akan, a Mallan-Rildanorienne who settled in Ibutho during the interregnum and became a mainstay at ubukhosi, to lead a recalled Ishishayamthetho
[OOC: literally 'legislature']. Queen Funani also encouraged Sibusiso Mathebula to work with Akan, giving sokunyatheliswa
[OOC: literally 'an imprimitur'] of unity between the previously politically-fractured estates. It was only when the changes began to bear fruit, and abomuzi bonke
[OOC: literally 'households'] began to see their value and became determined to keep the new methods, that the King addressed the people.
Umkhandlu Omkhulu
[OOC: assembly of royals, nobles, legislature, and military, literally 'The Grand Council'] summoned in April 3643 had been the first of its kind in living memory. The only other Grand Council in more than a century had been that for King Mlungisi's own enthronement, and that had been by custom and ritual, routine though momentous. Umkhandlu Omkhulu of 3643 was something altogether different. It was staged as troop review common ahead of large deployments during wartime, with the entire amabutho
[OOC: military, literally 'armed forces'] called out to parade and then stand at attention during the duration. And the izinDuna were told to wear full court dress, usually reserved only for enthronements, with the uyisicukuthwane
[OOC: literally 'noblewomen'] in the broadest Isicholo
[OOC: headpieces worn by women for formal occasions] and most flowing izingubo
[OOC: literally 'gowns']. Large projection screens, then-unfamiliar to many Ibutho, were wheeled out to all major izindawo zikahulumeni
[OOC: literally 'government places'] to make proceedings visible to those who did not gather at Isizinda. All were invited into isishyamthetho to hear the King's word: a Lauza
[OOC: strategic vision usually delivered to troops before deployment, literally 'to relate a dream'] at peacetime. The Lord, they were told, would deploy each of them for a new front in impi
[OOC: literally 'the war'] -- impi ye nokuvikeleka esiphakade, edlulele ingcebo, nethonya okomhlaba wonke
[OOC: literally 'a war for perpetual security, surpassing wealth, and global power']. The King, delivering the address, appeared different to onlookers. His demeanor was more sober, sad somehow, but stern, a steely cruelty seeming to lurk behind his words. In that moment, Mlungisi, who had brought the sizwe
[OOC: literally 'nation'] great victories in his youth and crushing, exacting disappointments in adulthood, seemed to encapsulate a whole 60 years of Ibutho history and reminded, by his presence, of his cardinal role in constructing, then destroying and constructing again that history.
'Seeing the Lauza not only made us feel confident, but it really helped us conceptualize what Ibutho was,' Ayanda Mabena recalled. 'It synthesized what 50 or 100 years of our history had been, and what they had been for.' Newly-mechanized Abakhiqizi, already gaining popularity, seemed to spread with new fervor throughout Ibutho. New Abakhiqizi were created, old and new Abakhiqizi bought from one another, and all sold to abomuzi bonke, every Ibutho family enjoying the new conveniences regularly introduced.
The King, who had been heavily involved in the design of the new practices, surprised the ubukhhosi and Isishayamthetho by continuing to yield day-to-day ukuqaliswa kanye nokuphathwa
[OOC: literally 'implimentation and management'] to them. 'Many thought he would nitpick for fear of losing power again,' inDuna Izimayini oseniNgizimu said. 'But I think he had come to accept that he understood the why and what of the new practices, but didn't know the how. And how is what had hurt him earlier in his reign. He simply said to Akan and Mathebula: "kube akanhlanhlatsi futhi sibe eqondile
[OOC: literally 'be rigorous and be precise']. Ukuhlakanipha kanye nokuzinikela ibutho lami
[OOC: literally 'the wisdom and committment of my Ibutho'] will take care of the rest."'
On the homefront, Queen Funani took to overseeing the newly-elevated royals, -- the King's sister Hluphekile to Queen Mother, and his niece Philisile to Princess and mother of all subsequent kings -- helping ensuring that they settled into their new roles coolly. But His Magnificence took a special interest in then-Prince Andile, whom he had designated to succeed him. 'My uncle has spent many hours with me, impressing on me the necessity of our new global Esinsundu values and our sacred heritage, and how the two emerge from the same source,' Andile told reporters shortly before King Mlungisi's death. 'My uncle is an extraordinary man, an example of all that is good in humanity. And we are blessed to call him our father, the father of our Ibutho.'
For his part, Andile, now His Magnificence Andile III, King of Ibutho, has taken to mourning in seclusion at uMgungundhlovi and eschewing his predecessor's funeral, as is the custom. King Andile's mourning will last four months, after which praise singers and letters will be dispatched to the palace of his mother, Queen Ethwasa, at eMahlabatini. By ancient tradition, the letters will say: 'The nation has suddenly found itself wandering. It knows not whither. It wanders and wanders and wanders again, for its guide is no more.' The Queen Mother is expected to ignore the first letter, prompting another three months later, identical to the first except with the additional urging: 'It is the united will of the Ibutho people that their new King shall be the son of Your Magnificence, Queen Mother, Mother of God.' Queen Ethwasa is expected to wait an additional month until a final letter, a repetition of the second, is dispatched, at which time she and her court will be lead back by the King's praise singers to Isizinda, where she will convene Umkhandlu Omkhulu and sit upon the Queen Mother's throne, above King Andile whose throne will be set lower, and grant him the crown.
The government is expected to resign en masse and isishayamthetho is scheduled to be dissolved just before the coronation. The dissolution of government is a ritualized homage to the old isiko yokuzibulala nozwela
[OOC: literally 'the Rite of Sympathetic Immolation'], whereby loyalists of the late King would be burned or impaled by suicide or homicide to ensure the succeeding King's reign would be without enemies at ubukhosi. The ritual is outlawed by the edicts of the reformed Inkolo, and so governments are today ritually fired prior to new reigns to signify changing of the guard. Addressing reporters at what is likely to be his final press avail, UNdunankulu Sibusiso Mathebula
[OOC: literally 'The King's Premeir Sibusiso Mathebula'] said that his government's dismissal comes at the right time. 'We have done exceptional work on the orders and in service of His Magnificence. We are resolved to follow the edicts of our Inkolo Esintsundu Sizwe Syncretic faith
[OOC: the Ibutho state religion'], worshiping the Great-Great One as Magnificence taught us. He has left to you and to us a great country, and we are happy to be subjects to His Magnificence King Andile's rule and new government. So we are thankful to have served -- thankful to you, Ibutho, and thankful to His Magnificence The King. udumise umoya wakhe yokufa
[OOC: Ibutho prayer for the dead, literally 'Laud His Spirit of Death'].'
HH Princess Thandekile conducting the Reversion of Offerings ritual following King Mlungisi's funeralAfter King Mlungisi's funeral rites, umqhele isangoma uMfundisi Lwazi
[OOC: head of the Ibutho religion, literally 'Crown Sangoma Reverend Lwazi'] conducted congregants to the Reversion of Offerings chamber where the ritual feast, the first such state service since the reformation, was presided over by Princess Thandekile, who has played an increasingly pivotal role in the Royal Family and the Syncretic faith since her mkhosi wokudlulela kokunye ukuphila
[OOC: literally 'Coming of Age rites']. Watching her teenaged granddaughter lead the ritual, Queen Ethwasa was prompted to address the congregants. 'How We will miss Our dear Brother. If only He were here with Us to witness this beauty, this grace, to see these glories. All the Esinsundu beauty Our noble Brother worked for is made manifest before Our eyes. And We say hear, uNkulunkulu: May it Always be So!'
-Boipelo Zola, September 3672
Editor-at-Large, Izwe iButho
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