This work is a comparative study of two ethnic groups—namely, the Kalanga and Ndebele of southern Zimbabwe—whose interaction dates back to when a group of people (now called the Ndebele) settled in an area predominantly under the control of the then-weakening Rozvi state to which many small Kalanga polities paid homage. The book begins with the year 1860, following the establishment of the Inyati mission station in the Ndebele kingdom. In this work, it is argued that the interactions of the Ndebele and Kalanga peoples (the two significantly large ethnic groups in Matabeleland) over a long period of time has led to the emergence of complex identities that can be defined spatiotemporally as ethnic, regional, cultural, or even subnationalist. This complexity itself further makes studies of Matabeleland quite challenging and also controversial.

This book is pioneering in its examination of the interactions of the Ndebele and Kalanga and the kinds of identities that were formed as a result. It also revises major debates about the formation of identities, especially ethnicity. With the exception of this book, there has not been any comparative study of Ndebele and Kalanga ethnicity and the related identities that their interactions produced. Although there have recently been a handful of groundbreaking books on aspects of Matabeleland history, no works on the history of the Zimbabwean Kalanga people, save for my recent publications in journals and edited collections, have been published.

Apart from filling this gap that exists in Matabeleland history, this book contributes to African history and Zimbabwean scholarship in three main ways.