[Bulawayo]

Hello South Africans. I am an Ndebele, a descendant of Mzilikazi and Lobengula and i just want correct a few misconceptions about Zimbabwe.

1. The Ndebele people of South Western Zimbabwe have nothing to do with Mugabe's so-called 'land re-distribution' program. That is not to say we don't agree that there was a need for a fair distribution of land. We just dont susbcribe to the violent, racist, cheap poli-tricks of Mugabe.

2. Mzilikazi defected from Zwide in 1818 and then from Shaka in 1820, entering the Transvaal. In this quest for autonomy by the Ndebele, the Tswana, Pedi, Sotho people were attacked and assimilated into lower echelons of the Khumalo groups.

3. Boer trekkers, with their Griqua allies broke up Mzilikazi's composite Ndebele state in the transvaal region and forced him to migrate across the Limpompo River in 1838.
It was through these processes that Mzilikazi was able to build the Ndebele state south of the Limpompo River.

4. The Ndebele, on reaching the Zimbabwean plateau(1838) continued the process of state formation. They conquered the groups that occupied the southwestern part of Zimbabwean plateu. These groups were the Rozvi, Kalanga, Nyubi, Venda, Birwa and other 'Shona' groups. By 1842, the Ndebele state in Zimbabwe had been fully established.

5. From 1838, the Ndebele state was a 'legal' entity. In September 1890, entry of the Pioneer Column in Mashonaland brought Imperial violence much closer to the Ndebele state. After the occupation of Mashonaland, the B.S.A.Co began to instigate violence, first between the Shona and the Ndebele and second, between the Ndebele and B.S.A.Co in order to justify the destruction of Mzilikazi's state.

6. In 1893, white settlers invaded the Ndebele state. Ndebele forces tried to stop the white invasion at Shangani river but were over-powered by weapons of mass destruction.The Maxim gun (Isigwagwagwa) felled Ndebele warriors like trees. It was after this defeat that Lobengula (Mzilikazi's son and King of the Ndebele) set fire to his capital and fled northward before the whites entered Bulawayo on 4 November 1893.


I will pick it up from 1893 onwards, after the whites had entered Bulawayo.