Izak Kumalo was the grandchild of a sister of Mzilikazi and therefore could under certain circumstances be considered to have a claim to the paramount chieftainship of the Amandebele. His mother had grown up at Bulawayo, and had afterwards fled with a man and his wife to Botswana, where they were cordially received by Sekome, the father of Khama. After two years the man died and the two women went to the Zoutpansberg where the Rev. McKidd, the predecessor of Stephanus Hofmeyr, was working. Here the mother of Izak Kumalo was converted under the ministry of Hofmeyr and took the name Lydia. While in the Zoutpansberg she married a Swazi man who as a warrior of Nyamazana had been drafted to a regiment of Umzilikazi. He subsequently had to flee because Umzilikazi suspected the existence of a friendship between him and one of his own wives. Afterwards he also reached the Zoutpansberg where he too was converted to the Christian faith.[1]
