General Bandile on 19 Jan 2007 09:15 am
Bandile’s Lineage
Bandile felt motivated to write this post, which I feel will prove as compelling and enlightening as his other writing.
Lloyd
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Hi all
In reply to my refuting the myth of African Guru’s and Zulu warrior castes, I have just received e-mail from Afrikans overseas asking me who I am to speak about African Martial Arts. So if the administrator will indulge me I’ll put up a brief bio.
Why I speak about Africa and African Martial Arts
I am Bandile Dlabantu, born in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape. I am a Xhosa speaker of Hlubi descent. Other languages I speak are Tekela Nguni, Zulu, seSotho, Afrikaans, a bit of kiSwahili and Shona.
My clan name is Rhadebe of the right hand house of Ludidi (Dlabantu) ka Mthimkhulu. This makes me a descendent of the Hlubi Royal House.
Dingiswayo, who was Shaka’s mentor, spent 15 years as an Hlubi warrior in the Makhabaludaka regiment serving Mthimkhulu. My ancestors fought along Shaka in his Izicwe regiment and supported his growth as paramount. Ludidi served in the uFasimba regiment of the Zulu.
When Shaka was killed he fled North from Shaka’s murderer Dingane, to find Mehlomakhulu. Together they moved north to what is currently Gauteng, to join Mzilikazi’s Ndebele. After a quarrel with Mzilikazi they moved over the Drakensberg into Lesotho to the Eastern Cape where they settled in Griqualand East, Mount Fletcher and Tsomo region of the Transkei.
So I was born in Africa, I come from generations of African warriors and have a strong African lineage. I have also gone for all the rights of passage expected of a Hlubi and know about my history and heritage.
Martial Arts
My introduction to martial arts was through listening to stories told by my grandfather about stick fighting in the Amathole region and Tsomo in the Xhosa tribal territories. One of my fondest memories of that time was stick playing with reed canes with my cousins from the Ciskei when they came to visit.
In 1985 I started training in Kyokushin Karate with a Sensei Mpaka who was my uncle’s friend.
In 1987 we moved from P.E. because of the riots and settled in a Pineapple farm outside Grahamstown where my mother was a schoolteacher. There I was reintroduced to stick fighting that happened by a river in the farm every Friday after school. As a younger and smaller boy I had to fight, and as result learned pretty quickly the advantage of being the strongest. At this time the worst thing that happened was when a younger boy lost an eye during a rather heated fight.
After this I moved to Grahamstown and started Shotokan Karate at Noluthando Hall in Jozaa, the class was taught by a Sensei Peters.
In 1990 I went back to P.E. and went to Kyokushin classes - the highlight of which was performing Sanchin kata in front of Sosai Masutatsu Oyama, late founder of Kyokushin Karate when he came to South Africa.
The martial arts ranks I now have are:
- Kyokushin Karate – 1st Kyu (1991)
- Shotokan Karate – 2 Kyu (1990)
- Shaolin Lung Xing Chuan Kung Fu – Level 3 (Jr Instructor 1996)
- Goshin Ryu Jujitsu – 2nd Dan (2006)
- Kodokan Judo – 1st Kyu (2006)
- Fanchento Kung Fu – Grey Sash (Jr instructor 2004)
Through my continued interest in martial arts I have managed to train and compete in the following disciplines:
- Israeli Hisardut Jujitsu
- Gendan Ninjutsu
- Kali escrima
- Russian Sambo
- Brazillian Jujitsu
- Pankration
- Free Style wrestling
- Libande Lute
- Traditional Congolese Laamb
- Go Ju Ryu Karate
- Aikido
- Capoiera Regional and Angola
My interest now is in traditional African martial arts, which had me travelling to the Eastern Cape and kwaZulu Natal in order to learn more about stick fighting. I am also now trying to explore other arts like Nigel February’s Piper System and Venda Musangwe.
Due to the cosmopolitan nature of Rhodes University, I met friends who enable me to travel to the Congo (Libande), Senegal, Cameroon (Laamb), Tanzania (Silat Mumbai), Mozambique (Capoiera), England and the US.
I am currently teaching African stickfighting, Fanchento Kung Fu and Jujitsu at the Judo Training Academy in Fairmount with Sensei Mickey Davidow 10th Dan. I also train in Cage fighting with Sensei Dion Fransman 4th Dan Hisardut. I am also continuing my studies in Fanchento with Sigung Jeff Ginsberg in Norwood, and Judo with Sensei Irvin Ginsberg.
If you are interested in looking up my martial arts history, please feel free to contact:
Sensei Mickey Davidow at 082 643 1981
Sensei Clint Cockcroft at 046 622 4465
Or what the hell, email me and ask 
on 26 Jul 2007 at 19h18 1.Bandile said …
Hi Lloyd thanks to a senior Karate instructorI have found that we could not have perfomed a kata in fron of Oyama he was only here in 1981. My sensei at the time took us to Cape town to perfom for a kyokushin kai Kancho in 1990 but it turns out its was not Oyama and we were duped. so much for a highlight.
I have called and asked him this and he says he says he does not remember. So in order to not perpetrate an lie please remove intire paragraph
In 1990 I went back to P.E. and went to Kyokushin classes - the highlight of which was performing Sanchin kata in front of Sosai Masutatsu Oyama, late founder of Kyokushin Karate when he came to South Africa.
on 13 Nov 2008 at 5h43 2.Charlie Pennington said …
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