1500 to 1799

The land of Ngwane

San hunter gatherers left rock paintings across these hills, and at Ngwenya ancient miners dug red ochre in one of the oldest known mines in the world. Bantu speaking farmers settled later. In the eighteenth century the Dlamini clan, led by Ngwane III, settles near the Pongola river. Swazis still call their country kaNgwane, the land of Ngwane.