The Second Matabele War

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The Matabele or Northern Ndebele kingdom, in what is now Zimbabwe, was founded in the early 19th century, when the Zulu general Mzilikazi split away from the Zulu king Shaka. Mzilikazi led his followers northward from KwaZulu-Natal, in what is now South Africa, into what is now Zimbabwe. There he conquered the earlier Shona population, founding the Northern Ndebele kingdom.

Mzilikazi’s son and successor, Lobengula came into conflict with British industrialist and imperial Cecil Rhodes and his British South Africa Company. Rhodes and the Company were seeking to establish control over Lobengula’s kingdom in order to exploit the region’s mineral wealth. Gold and diamonds had been discovered by Europeans in what is now South Africa in the mid-19th century, and Shona kingdoms in what is now Zimbabwe had been mining gold there for centuries.

Lobengula’s resistance to colonial rule led to the First Matabele War in 1893. In the war, the British forces, armed with the latest weapons, such as the Maxim machine gun, quickly defeated the Ndebeles. Lobengula was killed in the war, and the Ndebele and Shona territories of what is now Zimbabwe came under British rule. The colony was named “Rhodesia”, after Cecil Rhodes, and white colonists, mining prospectors, and administrators arrived.

In 1896 the Ndebele, dissatisfied with colonial rule, rebelled. White colonists were blamed for ongoing drought, locust plagues and rinderpest epidemics in the Ndebele cattle herds. The rebels were led by the Mlimo , a spiritual leader. Because of the Jameson Raid in South Africa, an attack by British forces on the white Afrikaner republic of Transvaal, there were few military or police forces in Rhodesia when the uprising began.

The Ndebele besieged white settlers in Bulawayo, and Shona joined the revolt. The siege was broken by the arrival of British reinforcements. Mlimo was assassinated by British forces, and the rebellion was suppressed.

The revolt was known as the Second Matabele War, or the Matabele Rebellion. It is called Umvukela in the Ndebele language. In modern times the Zimbabwean government has called it the First Chimurenga, meaning “revolutionary struggle” in the Shona language. The Second Chimurenga was the war between black guerrilla forces, led by Joshua Nkomo , and Robert Mugabe , and the white government of Rhodesia.

Rhodesia declared its independence from Britain in the 1960s, but maintained an Apartheid-style government by the white minority over the black majority. This led by armed conflict by black guerrilla groups and the Rhodesian government. Rhodesia’s neighbors Zambia and Mozambique, were providing aid and sanctuary for the black rebel forces by the 1970s. South Africa’s Apartheid government aided the Rhodesian government. Finally, under political and military pressure, the Rhodesian government negotiated a transition to black rule, and the country was renamed Zimbabwe. Mugabe became the head of state.