His strength was proverbial; indeed, it was said that he could throw an ox by the horns, and myself I have seen him hold down the head of a wounded buffalo that had fallen, until I could come up and shoot it.
When I first knew Mavovo he was a petty chief and witch doctor in Zululand.

Like myself, he had fought for the Prince Umbelazi in the great battle of the Tugela, a crime which Cetewayo never forgave him.
About a year afterwards he got warning that he had been smelt out as a wizard and was going to be killed.

He fled with two of his wives and a child.

The slayers overtook them before he could reach the Natal border, and stabbed the elder wife and the child of the second wife.

They were four men, but, made mad by the sight, Mavovo turned on them and killed them all.