Ndebele established themselves through raiding and conquest as the dominant kingdom on the high veld. Discursive construction of state violence in selected contemporary zimbabwean literature. The ndebele state was ruled by khumalo kings who had emerged from the. Lobengula, king of the ndebele, had tried to avoid outright war with the companys pioneers because he and his advisors were mindful of the destructive power of europeanproduced weapons on traditional matabele.
The ndebele of zimbabwe are variously described as a tribe, a clan and an ethnic group. Pdf the ndebele history, a living myth herbert mandicheta. The amabutho army played a central role in the ndebele state. The ndebele acquired cattle mainly through raiding and breeding.
By the time of colonial rule, the ndebele state had existed as a centralised political reality in the. The choice of mode of rule is a central aspect of statebuilding and nationbuilding projects in africa. The ndebele are descendants of the khumalo people who lived under the rule of shaka in present day south africa. When raiding did happen it was mostly used for defence purposes against threatening neighbours. While fending off raids from mzilikazis ndebele warriors to the south, sebetwane was able to create his kololo nation, a composite sotholozi state based on cattle and agriculture that used a form of the sotho language. Power, ethnicity and violence in the matabeleland conflict. Mzilikazi meaning the path of blood was a grandson of zwide. For the ndebele everybody belonged to a regiment for life. In 1836, they came into conflict with boer trekkers. Was originally heavily populated, but ndebele caused people to flee and the ndebele seized their cattle. Rozvi state pdf the history of the rozvi has been for a long time shrouded by myth. But ndebele novelists and culturalists, including active promoters of ndebele particularism and advocates of the restoration of the precolonial ndebele kingdom, prefer to use the term nation instead of tribe. Need to control long distance trade along the zambezi sambavezi river.
Mzilikazi had been a subject chief of shaka, but in 1821 he had sought to demonstrate his independence by refusing to send tribute cattle to the king. Lived in what is now modern day pretoria for about 10 years. The ndebele state by julian cobbing the ndebele state was ruled by khumalo kings who had emerged from the nduandwe. The way in which mzilikazi built his ndebele kingdom as a result of the need for it to grow in numbers beyond the just the mere 300 people, that he left with when he was fleeing from tshaka, through raids and assimilation of youths and women. Cattle were important in the ndebele states economy. The ndebele state ruled by mzilikazi was one of four major african state formed in south africa during the 1820s and 1830s. The ndebele state emerged and crystallised around a small khumalo clan, and eventually matured into a heterogeneous nation incorporating different ethnic groups before its violent destruction by colonial forces in 1893 and 1896.
The shona people of zimbabwe, mozambique and southern zambia belonged to the bantu. Ndebele were attacked by griqua, the khoikhoi, and later the zulu. The raids were conducted in mashonaland, zambezi and as far as zambia. On their arrival at thaba bosiu, the ndebele warriors began to scale the mountain at rafuthos pass, but the basotho hurled boulders, stones and javelins down on them from behind their walled fortifications.
Matabeleland up to the imposition of colonial rule in the 1890s. History past exam questions and answers education for. Then why the land commissioner does not give back the ndebele people their land which was taken by the boer, plus they killed our grandparent during the war, and they never came with cows, but they took ours. Cattle, grain and women were the proceeds from raiding. The term rozvi refers to their legacy as a warrior nation known as the plunderers. The northern ndebele were historically referred to as the matebele which derives from the sesotho expression thebele, indicating people who sheltered behind tall cowhide. The cattle, which were seized through raids, were first of all taken to the king.
Enocent msindo 2002 argues that ndebele ethnicity developed hand in hand with the development of the political, social and economic aspects of the state. They originated early in the 19th century as an offshoot of the nguni of natal mzilikazi, an nguni military commander under shaka, king of the zulu, came into conflict with shaka and in 1823. Overview of the social structure of the ndebele tribe. Origins of the ndebele in zimbabwe global black history. On the reciprocal in ndebele nordic journal of african. The shona were conquered by mzilikazi, a runaway zulu and his amalgamation of renegade forces, who arrived circa1836, looting and raiding, from south of the limpopo, and forced the shona to pay tribute and concentrate in northern zimbabwe. The first matabele war was fought between 1893 and 1894 in modern day zimbabwe. Among the ndebele cattle inkomo constituted a vital branch of production as the ownership of cattle determined social status and their acquisition was the major longterm economic objective of all ndebele males. Ndebele synonyms, ndebele pronunciation, ndebele translation, english dictionary definition of ndebele. Ndebele raiders and shona power the journal of african history.
Factors that led to the collapse of the zulu state blogger. It must be stated that morphological complexity in the verbs played a pivotal role in motivating derivational accounts of sentence relatedness cf. Ndebele raiders and shona power the journal of african. The shona are one of the three major cultural groupings of mixed farmers that predominated in southern africa. The economy of ndebele state was good because there was a division of labour. In fact, the ndebele subdued the, virwa, tonga, venda, kalanga and nyubi people. It is within this context that the majority of christian missionaries openly celebrated the destructtion of the ndebele kingdom as a civilising mission that broke the strong bonds of a precolonial autocratic regime that survived through plundering and raiding its neighbours ndlovugatsheni, 2009.
Secondly, overstated estimates of the number and brutality of ndebele raids on the. Ndebele people have always managed to retain their cultural practices. The ndebele acquired cattle mainly through raiding. Following the efforts of john philip, the cape passed the fiftieth ordinance, permitting khoikhoi to hold and to purchase land. For a variety of reasons the extent, number and severity of ndebele raids upon the shonaspeaking peoples have been greatly exaggerated in the past. The inhabitants of great zimbabwe, though responsive to the larger ebb and. Mzilikazi meaning the great road, was a southern african king who founded the matabele kingdom mthwakazi, matabeleland, in what became rhodesia and is now zimbabwe. Rozvi dynasty and to the economic needs of the state that had been taken over. A lot has been said recently about alleged raids carried out by the ndebele state on their then neighbours in 19th century. The amandebele of africa and their name amandebele philemon buti skhosana abstract some scholars still continue to confuse or to misunderstand the relationship within the amandebele of africa as a result of the divergent opinions propounded by scholars regarding the historical origin these ethnic groups. The ndebele started the conflict, but they lost to the. Emergence of the ndebele state celebrating being zimbabwean. Shaka was assassinated in a conspiracy by his brothers, including dingane, who became king. Sotho, kwena, hurutshe, tswana, rolong, ndzundza to build the ndebele statearound the settlements, weaknesses of the groups the ndebele came across led to nation buildingcontinuos movement from settlement to settlement led to unity of the state leading to nation building around the settlements they raided young men and women for their army to defend the state.
It is during this time that agricultural activities mushroomed and took precedence beginning with the establishment of the great zimbabwe state during the thirteenth and. They defeated and brought under their authority the tsonga, chopi, shona and tonga. Our community welcomes everyone from around the world to discuss world history, historical periods, and themes in history military history, archaeology, arts and culture, and history in books and movies. The ndebele state by julian cobbing the ndebele state was. More recently, women in ndzundza society have come to be thought of as the custodians of isikhethu lit. Raiding was done by the army and they raided for cattle, grain and women. A fourth major african state formed in south africa during the 1820s and 1830s was the ndebele state ruled by mzilikazi. This book is written with the prime objective to enable o level learners to have a stomach of history. Great zimbabwe dzimba dzamabwe in local shona language, meaning the house of.
Nation building in zimbabwe and the challenges of ndebele. They formed almost three quarters of the population of zimbabwe and were under british colonialism for almost a century. Founded in 2006, historum is a history forum dedicated to history discussions and historical events. There is much truth to the claim that the ndebele economy relied heavily on raiding and the various rozvi communities especially those close to the ndebele suffered as a consequence. They got their name ndebele during their association with the sotho people in the transvaal region. By the late 1840s the kololo were involved in the slave trade.
Within the ndebele state, power was constructed around a small khumalo clan. Moreover most studies of the ndebele have failed to take into account the fact that the ndebele conquered an already wellestablished shona state with an economy linked with the indian ocean trade. The nguni incursions definitely increased violence within the rozvi state. Raiding was not an essential way of bringing in anything into the ndebele state. Available archaeological data can be exploited to answer questions of an environmental nature. State six factors that led to the rise of the mutapa state. Grain was obtained for food which was supplemented by few drought resistant crops they grew such as millet and rapoko. Thus, unlike other societies the ndebele state was sustained by raiding other groups. Ndebele definition of ndebele by the free dictionary. The main economic activity of the ndebele state was raiding. On the reciprocal in ndebele 141 and an active lexical component, that is, the argument structure, the functional structure and the constituent structure.
Pdf o level study guide for zimbabwean history upto 1897. The rozwi empire 16841889, revived 2019 was established on the zimbabwean plateau by changamire dombo. Eventually, they settled in the lands of the tsonga, in what is now present day mozambique. The breakaway of the ndebele from shaka has been attributed to their leader mzilikazi who ruled. During the zulundwandwe wars of 181820 the khumalo were ejected and one of them, mzilikazi, came to dominate a mixed band of maraiders in search of more peaceful pastures. This article aims to place the impact of the ndebele upon the shona in perspective by relating the foundation of the ndebele state to the rozvi state it succeeded, and by showing how the balance of power between the ndebele and the independent shona changed during the nineteenth century. When raiding did happen it was mostly used for defence. The area they settled was tsetse fly infested which made it hard to keep cattle. Ndebele, also called ndebele of zimbabwe, or ndebele proper, formerly matabele, bantuspeaking people of southwestern zimbabwe who now live primarily around the city of bulawayo. His father, mashobane, chief of the khumalo had died by the hand of his fatherinlaw, zwide, and mzilikazi in turn fled to the protection of shaka. Rethinking religious encounters in matabeleland region of. The son of matshobana whom many had considered to be the greatest southern african military leader after. One hundred and fortyeight years ago yesterday, september 6, 1868, mzilikazi kamatshobana khumalo, founderking of the ndebele state, died, leaving an.
This article seeks to show that the bulk of ndebele raiding before 1873 was a. After dombos death, his successor adopted the title mambo. Moreover, there is a myth that the ndebele state consist of unique human. In 1831, the ndebele of mzilikazi who had fashioned a military state on the zulu model north of the vaal, invaded lesotho. The ndebele state by julian cobbing the ndebele state. The ndebele were more militaristic because they were occupier state unlike the zulu. The breakaway of the ndebele from shaka has been attributed to their leader mzilikazi who ruled for 50 plus years. Brought up within the zulu army, he became the commander of a raiding zulu regiment and lieutenant to shaka. It pitted the british south africa company against the ndebele matabele kingdom. In 1821, soshangane who had been a part of shakas army led a small group of the ndwandwe to the north.
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