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| Mzilikazi,
King of the Matebele |
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| Mzilikazi "The Path of
blood or the Great Road" the first King of the Matebele
(Ndebele tribe) was the son
of Matshobana, son of Mangete, son of Ngululu, son of
Langa, son of Zimangele; all descendants of the Khumalo
Dynasty. Mzilikazi was born of
Nompethu "The maggot" the daughter of Chief
Zwide of the Ndwandwe people (tribe). |
Matshobana was the chief of the Northern Khumalo.
The territory of the Northern Khumalo was located near the
Black Mfolozi River, squeezed between the lands of two
strong rival groups: the expanding Mthethwa chiefdom of
Dingiswayo and the land of the equally ambitious and much
more ferocious Zwide of the Ndwandwe. Mzilikazi's boyhood
was spent in the household of his grandfather Zwide.
Inevitably, as he grew to manhood he observed the less
powerful Khumalo being drawn into the conflict between
Dingiswayo and Zwide.
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| After the murder of Matshobana, Mzilikazi inherited the chieftainship, and had to live at King
Shaka's Bulawayo. Before Tshaka's reign there was Zwide's Ndwandwe tribe reigning. Trouble started
for Mzilikazi for when he suspected that Zwide, who had
had his father Matshobana assassinated,
wanted him killed. In preparation, he had an alliance with Tshaka,
which allowed him to be a leader of one of his regiments. |
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Mzilikazi's reputation, bravery and skill in combat grew, much to the
displeasure of King Tshaka. King
Tshaka saw Mzilikazi as a
future potential threat and therefore hatched a plot to
get rid of Mzilikazi.
Unfortunately for King Tshaka,
his plot did not produce his desired results. Mzilikazi then decided to setup his own kingdom.
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With nothing more than five hundred men and women, Mzilikazi departed from King Tshaka's
Zululand, by this time Mzilikazi was already had three sons, but none of these could be the
heir to the throne. In accordance with Ndebele customs,
successors to the throne could not come from children the Mzilikazi bore before he was King. Thus Nkulumane was the heir.
Meanwhile on learning of Mzilikazi exodus, King Tshaka sent two army
contingents to stop him.
King Tshaka's army contingents
failed to stop Mzilikazi, about 1821 Mzilikazi and his fledgling kingdom crossed the Drakensburg
mountains. Over a prolonged period of time, the wandering Matebele Kingdom moved in a meandering northward direction. Eventually
crossing the Limpopo river and settling his kingdom in the Matebeleland region of Zimbabwe. Mzilikazi established his
first royal town, called Mhlahlandlela just outside
present day Pretoria (South Africa), in the late 1820s.
After facing a series attacks, he moved with his kingdom,
further northward. Mzilikazi's
last royal town was in Matebeleland Zimbabwe, he also called it Mhlahlandlela.
Mzilikazi's Matebele were a predatory
people, and established themselves in their new
environment by subjugating the original inhabitants
until they were firmly entrenched as rulers of the
territory between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers. Their
impis foraged far and wide across the land, looting
cattle and capturing women and children.
By the time Mzilikazi left King Tshaka's Zululand he
realized that he had a small contingent of followers,
insufficient to establish a powerful kingdom that would
last. The era in which Mzilikazi lived demanded a kingdom be large so that it can have
enough men to withstand attacks and thus offer defense
to its citizens. He had to increase the population of
kingdom, this had military defensive and economic
implications. Mzilikazi used
his skillful aptitude for warfare, learnt under Tshaka,
to carryout raids on neighboring and remote tribes |
| Mzilikazi raids basically initially had these major objectives,
cattle and captives for integration in the Matebele kingdom. Captives were vitally to the growth of the Matebele kingdom, female captives of childbearing age contributed
children, who if they were male would add to the army.
Male captives were recruited into the army. Children
captives were ideal, as they would grow up culturally
aligned to the Matebele way of
life. |
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As the Kingdom grew and
became military strong, Mzilikazi's
raids had the intentions to, to remove the
potential military danger, the capturing of cattle,
women and children. With the growth of Matebele kingdom by assimilation of other people came the danger
of being overrun culturally. Mzilikazi setup social structures in which infused people learnt and
conformed to the Matebele culture.
The social structure of the Ndebele was such the Ndebele
state was stratified
into three social groups/classes, the Zansi, Enhla and Hole.
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| On September 28 1868, King
Mzilikazi of the Ndebele state died. After prolonged ritual ceremonies befitting
a King's funeral, the burial process started on the 2nd
of November, and he was buried on the 4th of
November 1868 when his remains were put in a cave at
Entumbane, on the northern peripheries of the Matopo
Hills. He was the father and first King of the Matebele Kingdom. |
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| Other
documents related to this Profile |
| The
Khumalo Royal family |
| Mzilikazi,
the Ndebele and Christianity religion |
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