King Mzilikazi kaMashobane

KING MZILIKAZI kaMASHOBANE
The story of King Mzilikazi kaMashobane is a narrative that has been almost
forgotten after it was first written and told almost exclusively by white missionaries,
travellers, traders and slavers and was thus greatly slanted. Fortunately, on the other
hand the story has been kept current and residual in the minds and lives of people
through izibongo, oral history and izithakazelo. As such the book juxtaposes the two
sides through desktop research where various authors’ inputs are blended with first
hand research inputs from traditional houses and descendants of various
protagonists.
One element about the book which distinguishes it from other books of history on big
men, in that it does not only assume the standard plot of following the hero from
cradle to grave. The book takes a birds’ eye view of how various pressures in
different parts of the world ended up impacting developments on the home front.
This leading up to the arrival of various European groupings that led to formation of
defensive states firstly by Khoi kings and then later that of Moshoeshoe, Manthatisi,
Zwide, Shaka etc. and later the roving kingdom of King Mzilikazi kaMashobane. The
story is also very different to many other contemporaries of Mzilikazi in that the
movements of the king traverses’ various parts of Southern Africa, from
Mozambique, Eswatini, Lesotho, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and finally Zimbabwe
(anecdotes across these areas attest to all this). Again, unlike his contemporaries he
managed to live his life to the fullest and managed to blend many nations together
and constantly grew his army from a paltry five hundred when he left Nongoma to
over fifteen thousand (that he produced every five years) when he reached
Bulawayo. He also managed to leave indelible marks in all these various places that
he passed through from names of areas, villages, rivers etc being either named after
him or his troops of Amandebele / Matebele.
It needs to be remembered as well that Mzilikazi is the only ruler who challenged
Shaka at a time when such action was perceived to be treacherous. Lest it be
forgotten
that he pushed back against colonial forces both when he was in South Africa and
even
later when he had reached Zimbabwe. Through this gallantry, Mzilikazi put up a very
hard
act to follow. So, soon after his passing his legacy began to crumble and thus the
second and last Matebele kingdom ended with his son, Lobengula who was
tormented to his death by the notorious Cecil John Rhodes.
The story of Mzilikazi is an important lesson of history which also teaches us about
our heritage, the interrelated cultural and linguistic make up of societies. At the same
time we journey through the dynamic landscape of mountains, rivers or dongas that
make up the natural frontiers which open up some of the lesser known terrains of the
country.