Mzilikazi
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| Mzilikazi Kumalo | |
| King of Matabeleland | |
 King Mzilikazi, as portrayed by Captain William Cornwallis Harris, circa 1836 |
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| Reign | ca. 1823 - 1868 |
|---|---|
| Coronation | ca. 1820 |
| Born | ca. 1790 |
| Birthplace | Mkuze, South Africa |
| Died | 9 September 1868 |
| Place of death | Matabeleland, buried in a cave at Entumbane, Matobo Hills, Zimbabwe (on 4 November 1868) |
| Predecessor | Founder (father murdered; formerly a lieutenant Zulu King Shaka) |
| Successor | Lobengula |
| Consort | several wives |
| Issue | Kuruman (son), Lobengula (son), Nkulumane (son), and many others |
| Royal House | Kumalo Tribe; founder of the Ndebele people |
| Father | Matshobana KaMangete (c. late 1700s - c. 1820s), |
| Mother | Nompethu KaZwide, daughter of Chief Zwide of the Ndwandwe people (tribe). |
Mzilikazi (meaning The Great Road) (ca. 1790 - 9 September 1868), also sometimes called Mosilikatze, was a Southern African king who founded the Matabele kingdom (Mthwakazi), Matabeleland, in what became Rhodesia and is now Zimbabwe. He was born the son of Matshobana near Mkuze, Zululand (now part of South Africa) and died at Ingama, Matabeleland (near Bulawayo, Zimbabwe). Many consider him to be the greatest Southern African military leader after the Zulu king Shaka. In his autobiography, David Livingstone referred to him as the second most impressive leader he encountered on the African Continent.
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[edit] Leaving Zululand
He took his tribe, the Khumalo, on an 800 km long journey from Zululand to what is now called Zimbabwe. Along the way he showed considerable statesmanship, as he was able to weld his own people and the many tribes he conquered into a large and ethnically diverse but centralized kingdom.
He was originally a lieutenant of Shaka, but in 1823 he had a quarrel with him and rebelled. Rather than face ritual execution, he fled northwards with his tribe. He first travelled to Mozambique but in 1826 he moved west into the Transvaal due to continued attacks by his enemies. As he conquered the Transvaal he absorbed many members of other tribes and established a military despotism, such as Mzilikazi's attacks in the Nzunza kraal at Esikhunjini, where the Nzunza king Magodongo and others were kidnapped and subsequently killed at Mkobola river. For the next ten years, Mzilikazi dominated the Transvaal. This period, known locally as the Mfecane (crushing) was characterised by devastation and murder on a grand scale as Mzilikazi removed all opposition and remodelled the territory to suit the new Ndebele order. The death toll has never been satisfactorily determined but the region was so depopulated that the Boer trekkers were able to occupy and take ownership of all the best land in the 1830s due to the low population of the area.[1][2]
[edit] Meeting the Boers
The Boers began to arrive in Transvaal in 1836, and after several confrontations over the next two years the Ndebele suffered heavy losses. By early 1838, Mzilikazi was forced north across the Limpopo and out of Transvaal altogether. Further attacks first caused him to move west again to present-day Botswana and then later northwards towards what is now Zambia. He was unable to conquer the land there due to the prevalence of tsetse fly-borne diseases of oxen. Mzilikazi travelled southeast to what became known as Matabeleland (situated in the southwest of present-day Zimbabwe) and settled there in 1840.
After his arrival, he organized his followers into a military system with regimental kraals, similar to those of Shaka, which became strong enough to repel the Boer attacks of 1847 - 1851 and force the government of the South African Republic to sign a peace treaty with him in 1852.
While Mzilikazi was generally friendly to European travellers, he remained mindful of the danger they posed to his kingdom and he usually refused visitors any access to his realm. Some exceptions included Robert Moffat the missionary.
<It has long been thought that Mzilikazi had some sort of disagreement with King Tshaka who then allowed Mzilikazi to leave with a portion of his army. Now King Tshaka, brutal as he was, certainly would have never allowed Mzilikazi to go off with his life let alone a portion of his army. What happened is, around the first quarter of the 1800s, possibly around 1821-28, King Tshaka sent his army general, Mzilikazi,on a raiding expedition. Having failed on their raids, it was custom that they return to the camp where they will be disarmed and have the women break their necks. Mzilikazi elected not to return but to go off on their own. They decided to head off as far northwards as possible away from King Tshaka because they would have faced certain death. They went to so many places before settling in Gubulawayo. When Mzilikazi got to present day South West Zimbabwe, he formed a new name for the tribe and called them "Ndebele" which means "People of the long shields". He named them Ndebele because he feared the name Zulu had become tarnished by King Tshaka's antics and wanted to distance himself from them in order to form new alliances with his new neighbours but he wanted his people to know where they came from so he named his city Bulawayo which means "place of slaughter". King Tshaka's capital was also called Bulawayo. He called his people Ndebele because the other tribes like e.g. Shona people, referred to the Ndebele as "the people with the long shields". Since the Ndebele were foreigners, the Shona had no name for them. For example, during a raid, the Shonas would ask one another who it was who was attacking them, they would say, "It's people with long shields". That's how the name came about. Before the Ndebele arrived in Bulwayo,It was occupied by vast numbers of Shona people. They even had a few trading centres similar to Great Zimbabwe Stone structures or ruins,The most famous of such ruins in Bulawayo are the Dhlodhlo Ruins. The original name for the ruins is unknown but a close relative of high importance to Mzilikazi was called Dhlodhlo since it was Mzilikazi who renamed them Dhlodhlo. It is possible that this Dhlodhlo was Mzilikazi's mother.There are many of these ruins in Bulawayo but most are inaccessible due to poor roads and dangerous wild animals. It is only when Mzilikazi arrived, he destroyed most of them and killing all inhabitants. It was probably Mzilikazi's greatest victory,so many Shonas died.The country was ideal for his large number of livestock and most important, it was disease-free so Mzilikazi decided to settle there. That's why it's called "The place of the great slaughter". It must be noted that the Shona put up a great fight too and so many Ndebele people died. >ref:gchinyemba=Molest The Natives>./
[edit] References
[edit] Notes
[edit] Literature
- The Zulus and Matabele, Warrior Nations, by Glen Lyndon Dodds, (Arms and Armour Press, 1998)
