Last reviewed: 25 October 2026 against Encyclopaedia Britannica, South African History Online, the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe (National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe) and the BBC’s Zimbabwe timeline. Sources disagree on some dates, especially the year the Ndebele crossed the Limpopo; we give the range.
Key dates
Mzilikazi and the Mfecane
Mzilikazi was a leader of the Khumalo clan who served under the Zulu king Shaka. In 1822 or 1823 (sources differ) he defied Shaka by keeping cattle captured in a raid, and led his followers north. This was during the Mfecane (isiZulu: “the crushing”), a period of war and mass migration across southern Africa in the 1820s and 1830s. Mzilikazi moved north and west into the Transvaal, where he built a powerful kingdom in the late 1820s and early 1830s. His following grew as he absorbed people from the communities he conquered, many of them Sotho-Tswana. In 1836 the Ndebele clashed with Voortrekkers (Afrikaner settlers moving north from the Cape), including at Vegkop in October. Voortrekker forces, with Griqua, Rolong and other allies, destroyed the Ndebele town of Mosega in January 1837 and attacked again along the Marico River in November 1837. Mzilikazi then led his people north across the Limpopo River. They travelled in two groups. According to South African History Online, the first group reached the Zimbabwe plateau in about 1837, and Mzilikazi’s own group rejoined it nearly two years later. Believing the king lost, his councillors had named one of his sons as successor; on his return Mzilikazi had them executed. Sources give dates for the settlement from 1837 to around 1840. By about 1840 the Ndebele were settled in the south-west of the plateau, an area that Europeans came to call Matabeleland. Their arrival completed the break-up of the Rozvi state, which had dominated the region (see Precolonial kingdoms).The Ndebele state
Mzilikazi built a centralised kingdom from people of many origins: Nguni followers who had come with him from the south, people absorbed in the Transvaal, and Shona, Kalanga and Rozvi people from the plateau. Over time, most of them adopted the Ndebele language and culture. He organised the kingdom around amabutho (regiments), each living in its own regimental town under an induna (plural izinduna), a chief or commander. The kingdom was strong enough to drive off Boer attacks between 1847 and 1851. Christian missionaries arrived in Mzilikazi’s lifetime. Robert Moffat of the London Missionary Society, whom Mzilikazi had befriended in the Transvaal in 1830, visited him at Nyathi in 1854, 1857 and 1859, and a mission was set up at Inyati (sources give 1859 or 1861). The missionaries made almost no converts, but they later served as interpreters in the negotiations that led to colonisation. Mzilikazi died in September 1868 (sources give the 5th or the 9th). He was buried at Entumbane, a hill on the north-eastern edge of the Matobo Hills, in a granite cave that was sealed with stones on 4 November 1868. The grave is a protected national monument and remains a place of great respect for the Ndebele.Lobengula and kwaBulawayo
Lobengula, a son of Mzilikazi, did not succeed peacefully. Some of the izinduna and one of Mzilikazi’s older sons opposed him, and he was installed as king only in 1870, after a period of civil war. In 1870 Lobengula founded his capital, kwaBulawayo, now known as Old Bulawayo. After 11 years he moved his capital to the site of today’s Bulawayo and ordered the old town burned. The Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe, part of National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe (NMMZ), dates the move to 1881. During Lobengula’s reign, European hunters, traders and prospectors arrived in growing numbers. The announcement in December 1867 of gold finds in Mashonaland, east of the Ndebele heartland, had started the region’s first gold rush.The Rudd Concession (1888)
On 30 October 1888, Lobengula put his mark on an agreement with Charles Rudd, Rochfort Maguire and Francis Thompson, agents of Cecil Rhodes. The missionary Charles Helm interpreted. The written text gave the three men “the complete and exclusive charge over all metals and minerals” in the kingdom, and “full power to do all things that they may deem necessary” to get them. In return, they promised:- £100 a month
- 1,000 Martini-Henry breech-loading rifles and 100,000 rounds of ammunition
- a steamboat on the Zambezi, or £500 instead
The 1893 war and the fall of the kingdom
In 1890 the BSAC’s Pioneer Column marched into Mashonaland and founded Fort Salisbury (now Harare). In 1893 the Company invaded Matabeleland. Britannica notes that the invasion was justified by false claims that the Ndebele were planning to attack Mashonaland. The Ndebele regiments were defeated after months of hard fighting. Lobengula burned his capital and fled north towards the Zambezi. He is generally thought to have died in late 1893 or early 1894, but neither the date nor the place is certain. The Company took over Matabeleland, seizing much of the Ndebele people’s land and cattle. In March 1896 the Ndebele rose against Company rule, in what Zimbabweans call the First Chimurenga (Shona) or Umvukela (isiNdebele). The Shona joined a few months later. In Matabeleland, the fighting ended after Cecil Rhodes held peace talks (indabas) with Ndebele leaders in the Matobo Hills in 1896. Read on in Colonial era and independence.Ndebele history sites you can visit
Old Bulawayo (kwaBulawayo)
Lobengula’s first royal town, south of Bulawayo. It was rebuilt as a heritage site in the 1990s, badly damaged by a bush fire in 2010 and is being restored by NMMZ. Check that it is open before you go.
Entumbane (Mzilikazi's grave)
Mzilikazi’s burial place on the north-eastern edge of the Matobo Hills. It is a sacred site: visit with a local guide and ask permission before you take photographs.
Khami Ruins
The Torwa capital near Bulawayo, deserted during the Ndebele period.
Related guides
Zimbabwe history timeline
Precolonial kingdoms
Colonial era and independence
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Mzilikazi
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Lobengula
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Ndebele (Zimbabwean people)
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Zimbabwe: The British South Africa Company
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Southern Africa: European and African interaction in the 19th century
- South African History Online — Matabele Wars 1836–1896
- South African History Online — King Mzilikazi
- South African History Online — Rudd Concession granted by King Lobengula of Matabeleland, 1888 (full text)
- South African History Online — Queen Victoria of Britain approves Charter for Rhodes
- South African History Online — Mzilikazi Memorial, Phokeng (Mzilikazi’s death and burial at Entumbane)
- South African History Online — Cecil John Rhodes
- Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe (NMMZ) — Old Bulawayo
- BBC News — Zimbabwe profile: Timeline