Ndebele
As a result of rivalry over chieftainships beginning in the sixteenth century, factional feuding devastated the established tribal systems, leading to the division into three sections of what is collectively known as the amandebele nation: The Ndebele of Zimbabwe, also known as the Matabele nation; the Northern Transvaal Ndebele; and the Southern Transvaal Ndebele of South Africa.
The Zimbabwean Ndebele began as a subtribe under the Zulu warrior Mzilikazi. When Mzilikazi broke away from the powerful Zulu king Shaka in 1828, he took only a few hundred warriors and some women and children with him. Once northwest of the Drakensberg, he expanded his army to some 4,000 men. Though the original Nguni nucleus was very small, new followers from conquered tribes and other refugees who joined Mzilikazi were all expected to adopt the Nguni customs, traditions, language and culture.
When Mzilikazi settled in the Marico Valley in 1832, he built his military capital at Mosega. It was placed under the command of Khaliphi, while Gabeni (Kapain) became Mzilikazi's royal kraal (village). He now controlled an area stretching as far as the Limpopo, Crocodile, Vaal and Molopo Rivers. Anyone crossing the Vaal risked a summary attack.
Mzilikazi was a brilliant leader who succeeded in welding the various groups absorbed into his following into a unit whose loyalty was unanimous. While his military machine corresponded closely to that of the Zulu and the Ndwandwe, the migrating Ndebele community was organised for far greater mobility. Mzilikazi had also instituted a system of regiments, each with a military kraal as base and under the command of an induna (an official functionary of a king or chief). The males of conquered tribes and other refugees were enlisted in the regiments and, by sharing their battles, began to identify with the Ndebele.
The regiments of the Ndebele army were of two types: The younger men formed the permanent army and were not allowed to marry; the older men, who were allowed to take wives, formed the reserve and lived in small settlements around the military bases.
Mzilikazi ruled as an autocrat. Discipline, law and order were strictly maintained in the Ndebele community. Even minor contraventions such as theft were regarded in a very serious light and were often punishable by death. Mzilikazi had spies spread all over his territory who continuously supplied him with detailed information about conditions and events in every section of his domain. Though he often conferred with his induna, he always made the final decision himself.
The Ndebele encountered the "whites" in the interior for the first time in 1829. Mzilikazi was by now well aware of the advantage of firearms and wanted to learn more of the European lifestyle but in a peaceful manner. When the trader-hunters Robert Scoon and William McLuckie penetrated as far north as the Marico River in their trade with the Hurutshe, Mzilikazi's scouts invited them to visit him at the Magaliesberg. The visitors were hospitably received, showered with gifts and allowed to shoot as many elephants as they desired. Mzilikazi was not hostile to whites.
The attack on the trader Andrew Geddes Bain and his assistant Fan Sauer in 1834 was probably directed at the Griqua (natives of Griqualand) who accompanied them and whose conduct was by no means always above reproach. In 1836, two of Mzilikazi's chief izinduna, Mncumbatha and Khaliphi, accompanied the scientist Dr Andrew Smith to Cape Town to conclude a friendship treaty with Sir Benjamin D'Urban. The treaty made provision for white travellers, traders and missionaries to live in peace in Mzilikazi's land, while the Ndebele were accepted by the British authorities as a friendly nation. A British Resident was to be appointed to Mzilikazi's territory, though since he only stayed in the Transvaal for a short while, this was never put into effect.
Another way in which Mzilikazi tried to secure the goodwill of the whites was by conducting friendly relations with the missionaries. Towards the end of 1829, he sent Mncumbatha and another councillor to the Reverend Robert Moffat at Kuruman. The two izinduna stayed there for about a week before urging Moffat to accompany them for part of the return journey to ensure their safety. On the way, they persuaded Moffat to visit Mzilikazi. Not all missionaries were received with enthusiasm, as the Reverend James Archbell of the Wesleyan Missionary Society was to discover in 1829. He was stationed at Platberg immediately south of the Vaal River and had heard from Robert Scoon that Mzilikazi welcomed whites in his territory. Archbell, anxious to establish a mission amongst the Ndebele, asked the Griqua leader, Barend Barends, to accompany him to Mzilikazi's land to request permission. But the choice of Barends proved to be a tactical error, since he had on previous occasions led raiding parties against the Ndebele, who now deeply distrusted him. Archbell left empty-handed, but on the way back he met Moffat's party and returned with them to Mzilikazi.
On their arrival, Archbell was received coolly, while hospitality was lavished on Moffat. This was the beginning of a remarkable friendship lasting many years between the warlike Ndebele chief and the dedicated missionary Moffat, who became something of a father figure to Mzilikazi and often took him to task for his cruelty and ungodly ways. Mzilikazi honoured Moffat with the name of his own father, Mashobane and called the missionary "the King of Kuruman".
Moffat paid Mzilikazi a second visit in 1835 in the company of Dr Andrew Smith. Though Moffat had left Kuruman in May of that year, it was August before Mzilikazi would permit him to go home. During this visit, Moffat gained Mzilikazi's permission for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to begin missionary work amongst the Ndebele. In 1836, the Reverends Daniel Lindley, Henry Venable and Dr. Alexander Wilson of this society began their work at Mosega.
Although Mzilikazi was anxious to remain on a good footing with the whites, he could not have foreseen that large groups of Voortrekkers would soon be trekking into the interior. He was also becoming uneasy about the large numbers of hunters entering his territory without his permission. While Captain William Cornwallis Harris was visiting Mzilikazi in August 1836, some of the earliest Voortrekker groups crossed the Vaal River from the direction commonly used by Griqua raiders. The Voortrekkers, mistaken for Griqua, were attacked by the Ndebele. The Liebenberg party was wiped out and several people in the Erasmus camp were killed. The Botha and Steyn party succeeded in warding off the attacking Ndebele.
Mzilikazi received reports that other, larger groups of Voortrekkers were trekking northwards. Seeing this as a threat to the Ndebele state, he sent out his army under Khaliphi, who attacked a group of Voortrekkers on 16 October 1836 at Vechtkop between the Wilge and Renoster Rivers. Mzilikazi's men were defeated but managed to make off with all the cattle. January 1837 saw a retaliatory offensive by the Voortrekkers, who had by then received reinforcements. The military capital, Mosega, was destroyed, and the Ndebele fled north to Gabeni. The three American missionaries left with the Voortrekker commando and were later involved in missionary work among the Zulu. News of the defeat reached Dingane of the Zulu, who perceived it as a golden opportunity to attack the Ndebele again. The result of this clash was inconclusive, although the Zulu seized large numbers of stock.
In November 1837, the Voortrekkers launched a second attack on the Ndebele. In a battle lasting nine days, they destroyed Gabeni. Since the Marico Valley was no longer safe, Mzilikazi decided to move further north. However, many of his Sotho and Tswana subjects preferred to remain in the Transvaal.
The Ndebele refugees, some 15,000 in all, were too numerous to trek in a single group. After they had crossed the Limpopo River, they split into two smaller groups in Ngwato territory in the present Botswana. The groups, which included members of the royal family, under Gundwane (Khaliphi) travelled northeast. Mzilikazi and the rest of the army, who were to form the rearguard, first travelled northwest along the edge of the Kalahari, where they attacked various tribes including the Ngwato of Sekgoma in the vicinity of Shoshong. By this time, Mzilikazi's group had lost all contact with Gundwane's and pressed on to Makarikari Pan, where groups of scouts were sent out as far as Lake Ngami and the Okavango. They were, however, unable to penetrate further north than the Nata River, since their cattle were attacked by tsetse flies and died by the thousands. Meanwhile, Gundwane's group had arrived in the present Matabeleland in approximately 1837. Here, they met little resistance from the local Shona groups, the Kalanga and the Rozwi, who had been seriously weakened in recent attacks by Ngoni groups such as Zwangendaba's, who were migrating northwards. The Ndebele named their first settlement Gibixegu and began to cultivate crops.
The northward migration of the Ndebele very nearly ended in a permanent schism. When considerable time had passed without any news of the group under Mzilikazi, the izinduna grew anxious because there was no leader to take charge of the first-fruits ceremony. Mzilikazi's senior son, Nkulumane, was consequently appointed as his successor. It was nearly two years before Mzilikazi's group met up with the first group in Matabeleland. Though he was glad that the others had arrived safely, he regarded the appointment of Nkulumane as treason. On his travels, Mzilikazi halted his group somewhere near the present Bulawayo, summoned Gundwane and the chief izinduna of the first group and had them executed. Mzilikazi also ordered the execution of all his sons, Nkulumane and Lobengula among them. But Fulatha, daughter of a Swazi chief, hid her son - and so Lobengula escaped death.
The Ndebele survived the crisis of division. Mzilikazi's arrival in Matabeleland marked the end of their long years of wandering. They found the fertile grazing attractive, and Mzilikazi built himself a new capital at Inyathi near Bulawayo. Here, he soon reorganised his army into a formidable machine and proceeded to subjugate the neighbouring tribes. In Matabeleland, Mzilikazi's Ndebele kingdom assumed its final form: The organization of the state that had been built up in the Transvaal was extended, consolidated and adapted to new circumstances.
Since the Ndebele comprised people from various tribal and language groups, a social hierarchy developed in the course of time. In the Transvaal years, the Ndebele community had already been divided into two social classes. The abezansi had formed the higher class, consisting of Nguni speakers. The abenhla, made up of Sotho and Tswana subordinates, had formed a lower class that enjoyed little esteem. In Matabeleland, a third class emerged, the amaholi, which consisted of the conquered Shona tribes, mainly the Kalanga who had been living in Matabeleland. This class was regarded as the lowest of the low and endured much contempt and derision.
Marriage between the various social classes was strictly discouraged, which helped to preserve the original Nguni character of the Ndebele. Most of the subjugated people, particularly those who were absorbed into the army, in time adopted the Ndebele language and culture which was, however, in turn influenced by the subjugated groups.
Mzilikazi's army retained the basic structure it had possessed in the Transvaal. The men were still divided into regiments, but the regiments began to assume a permanent character. A son could now enter the regiment of his father, whereas before, he would have been placed in a separate regiment with other young men of his age. The young Shona were allocated to new regiments under the command of Ndebele izinduna. The fact that the regiments now had permanent places of residence opened the door for rivalry and strife; after Mzilikazi's death, this would lead to irreconcilable division. Mzilikazi ordered military kraals to be built at a radius of 50 to 60 km around his headquarters with military outposts still farther distant. The Shona chiefs in the immediate vicinity of the kraals acknowledged Mzilikazi's rule, but the further away the tribes lived, the less loyal the chiefs were and the less they associated with the Ndebele.
Life in Matabeleland was much more peaceful than it had been in the Transvaal. Mzilikazi not only had an extremely effective intelligence system but constantly moved about his territory to remain in touch with his subjects, including the conquered Shona. Mzilikazi also met up with other tribes and groups, for instance reaching agreement with Soshangane, who had invaded Shona territory from the east, that the Sabi River should form the boundary between the Ndebele and the Gaza empire. Mzilikazi tried to extend his sphere of influence by abducting prominent members of hostile tribes and sending them back only when they had accepted the Ndebele way of life. An example of this was the abduction of Matsheng, first claimant to the Ngwato chieftaincy, who remained in Matabeleland for more than 10 years. Mzilikazi did not establish good relations with the Kololo of Sebetwane in the northwest (Barotseland); two large expeditions he sent out in about 1845 and 1850 against them ended in a fiasco. An 1863 expedition against the Ngwato was another failure.
But a more serious threat for Mzilikazi than neighbouring hostile tribes was the growing number of white settlers in the Transvaal: Ivory hunters and traders, who crossed the Limpopo River, followed after the discovery of gold in 1867 by the fortune hunters. In 1847, Ndebele warriors clashed with an expedition led by Hendrik Potgieter, who was attempting to find a route to the Mozambican port of Inhambane. By 1852, the situation had taken a more favourable turn with the conclusion of a peace treaty between Mzilikazi and Potgieter. In May 1853, a similar agreement was concluded with Andries Pretorius.
The remarkable friendship between the Reverend Robert Moffat and Mzilikazi was continued in the new Ndebele territory. Moffat visited Mzilikazi at Inyathi in 1854, 1857 and 1859 and promised to send his son John as a missionary to Matabeleland. Though Mzilikazi at times availed himself of the expertise of John Moffat and the two other missionaries in Matabeleland, William Sykes and Thomas Morgan Thomas, he was never really interested in Christianity. In fact, not a single Ndebele was baptised during Mzilikazi's lifetime.
From Moffat's diaries, it appears that Mzilikazi's health was very poor in the years immediately preceding his death, but that despite his illness, the King was still able to exercise strong leadership and retain the loyalty of his subjects. Conditions were nevertheless far from favourable in these years. When Mzilikazi's favourite wife Loziba died in 1861, he left Inyathi and built a new kraal 30 km away called Mhlahlandlela. In this period, the Ndebele suffered a severe drought and epidemics of measles and smallpox as well as losing large numbers of their stock to lung sickness.
After Mzilikazi's death in 1868, the chief councillor Mncumbatha became temporary Regent, since there were problems regarding the succession. At this time, rumours circulated that Nkulumane, first claimant to succeed Mzilikazi, was still alive, but this could not be confirmed, and Lobengula was installed as King. Strife between supporters of Nkulumane and Lobengula soon led to civil war, since not all the regiments would accept Lobengula as leader. While Lobengula emerged the victor from this war, both sides had suffered heavy losses, and the division continued.
Like Mzilikazi, Lobengula maintained friendly relations with the Gaza empire but lived in enmity with certain other tribes such as the Ngwato. As guns and ammunition became readily available, he tried to acquire supplies. The military might of the Ndebele, however, began to wane, and the empire was no longer powerful enough to ward off encroaching danger. Its greatest threat was the white invaders. Though Lobengula initially allowed the entry of only a limited number of missionaries plus a few prospectors and traders, the stream could not be checked. The possibility of British imperial expansion into his territory grew daily. After 1890, once Lobengula had granted concessions to the British South Africa Company, the influx of white settlers began in earnest. In time, the Ndebele grew intensely critical of Lobengula's tolerance towards the whites. After a few violent clashes with white settlers, the British High Commissioner, Sir Henry Loch, ordered the invasion of Matabeleland.
The power of the Ndebele was finally broken and Lobengula fled northwards to the vicinity of the Zambezi. Here, he died in 1894 to be succeeded by his son Nyamande, who in 1896 led the Ndebele and Shona in a last, unsuccessful attempt to resist white colonization.
