² Heinemann, , 1967Google Scholar. Although I am here critical of one of the themes of Ranger's writing on southern Rhodesia, I need hardly stress that few of the advances that have been made in the study of Rhodesian African history would have occurred quite so quickly, or possibly at all without his foundation work. Nor is it imagined that what follows will end the debate.

³ Ranger, , Revolt, 352.Google Scholar

⁴ Ibid. 375.

⁵ Ibid., chapter 10.

⁶ Ibid. 17–18, 23–4, 154.

⁷ Ibid. 142–3.

⁸ Ibid. 143–60.

⁹ Ibid. 138–9.

¹⁰ Ibid. 190, 201–6, 219–20.

¹¹ Ibid. 289–92.

¹² Ibid. 237–8.

¹³ For example, ibid. 352–5, 377–8, 381, 185–6.

¹⁴ That is to say Ranger accepts these particular views, which were held by the Company. Revolt is unquestionably critical not only of Company activities, but also of the Company's ‘ill-founded’ notions of African society (see p. x).

¹⁵ Ibid., chapters 2 and 3.

¹⁶ The phrase appears in Ranger, 's earlier unpublished paper, ‘The Organisation of the Rebellions of 1896 and 1897. Part One: The Rebellion in Matabeleland’ (given at the History of Central African Peoples Conference, Rhodes-Livingstone Institute, Lusaka, 1963), 1Google Scholar, and comes from Selous, F. C., Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia, (London, 1896), 236.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Ranger is continually looking for something extra, see for example Revolt, 88, 177, 196, 200.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Ranger, , ‘Rebellion in Matabeleland’, 5–8.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Ibid. 8.

²⁰ Ranger, , Revolt, 135.Google Scholar

²¹ Ibid. 139; Baden-Powell, R. S. S., The Matabele Campaign 1896, (London, 1897), 136.Google Scholar

²² The Company soldiers burnt a few kraals and then claimed the ‘regimental system’ had been broken up (for example LO5/2/36, Jameson, to Harris, , 28 June 1894)Google Scholar, forgetting that Ndebele military capacity lay in men and traditional leadership, which remained in place, rather than in static and ephemeral dwellings.

²³ Ndebele settlement was much more dispersed in the pre-1893 era than the Company believed. For this see Cobbing, J., ‘The Ndebele under the Khumalos, 1820–1896’, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Lancaster University (1976), 44–50.Google Scholar

²⁴ For example, the founder of the Godhlwayo chieftaincy, Dambisamahubo Mafu, fled from Mzilikazi in the early 1840s, but was succeeded by his senior son, Mtikana. Mtikana was executed in 1874–5 for supporting a rival of Lobengula, though this did not prevent the succession of his son, Maduna, the leader during the rising. During Maduna's minority, Mtikana's brother, Mahlahleni, acted as regent. This was not an atypical sequence.

²⁵ C.8547, ‘Report by Sir Richard Martin on the Native Administration of the British South Africa Company’, 1897, 48Google Scholar, Grey, to Canning, , 9 June 1897.Google Scholar

²⁶ Hist. MSS PO2/1/1, Correspondence of SirPonsonby, John, 1893–1894Google Scholar, Ponsonby, to his mother, 24 Jan. 1894.Google Scholar

²⁷ Hist. MSS DA6/1/1, Correspondence of Darling, James, 1883–1927Google Scholar, Darling to his father, 20 Jan. 1894.

²⁸ C.8547, 11, Causes of the Rebellion by Sir Richard Martin.

²⁹ The induna of Intemba, Sikombo, and Lobengula's brother, Mabele, both held seditious gatherings in 1895; see Ranger, , Revolt, 123.Google Scholar

³⁰ Cobbing, , ‘Ndebele under the Khumalos’, 380–3.Google Scholar

³¹ No one has ever connected the Mafus with the Mwari cult in 1896.

³² There is some sign that Lobengula's inauguration in Jan. 1870, sixteen months after Mzilikazi's death, was earlier—because of political pressures—than would otherwise have been the case; see Cobbing, , ‘Ndebele under the Khumalos’, 262–3,Google Scholar

³³ The Company claimed that as Nyamanda had been born before Lobengula became king in 1870 he was ineligible. The references in footnotes 36 and 37 provide the date 1873.

³⁴ Cobbing, , ‘Ndebele under the Khumalos’, 284–6Google Scholar, Lobengula's ‘royal’ wife, Xwalile, a ‘daughter’ of the Gaza king, Mzila, failed to produce children; the most influential wife, Lozigeyi Dhlodhlo, failed to produce a son. In parenthesis it is to be noted that the mothers of Njube and Nguboenja, the sons said by the Company to be the heirs, were both sisters of collaborators.

³⁵ Varley, D. H. (ed.), The Matabele Travel Letters of Marie Lippert, (Cape Town, 1960), 50Google Scholar; Hist. MSS W18/1/1, Reminiscences of Windram, R. Foster, Statement of Ginyalitshe, 6 Apr. 1940.Google Scholar

³⁶ Hist. MSS MA1/2/2, Diary of Maxwell, Thomas, 1890–1891, entry for 23 Mar. 1891.Google Scholar

³⁷ Varley, , Lippert Travel Letters, 50Google Scholar; Newman, C. L. Norris, Matabeleland and How We Got It, (London, 1895), 156–7.Google Scholar

³⁸ Hist. MSS MA1/2/2, ‘Maxwell Diary’, entry for 6 Dec. 1890Google Scholar; Hist. MSS W16/2/1, Journal of Benjamin Wilson, 1888–93, entry for 18 May 1890; LO5/2/27, Lendy, to Jameson, , 1 Apr. 1893Google Scholar: ‘Report on His Recent Visit to Matabeleland’, entries for 18 and 19 Feb. 1893.Google Scholar

³⁹ Hughes, A. J. B., ‘The Restructuring of Ndebele Society under European Control’, unpublished Ph.D. typescript (no date; copy held by the National Free Library, Bulawayo), 171–2Google Scholar; Mahlangu, P. S., Umthwakazi, (Cape Town, 1957), 73–4.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ LO5/6/2, Statement of Mzila, , contained in Lanning to Grey, 27 July 1896.Google Scholar

⁴¹ A1/12/10, Duncan, to Vintcent, , telegram, 5 Apr. 1896Google Scholar; Selous, , Sunshine and Storm, 136–7, 181–4.Google Scholar

⁴² BA6/1/2, Chief Staff Officer's Diary, entry for 22 June 1896.

⁴³ LO5/6/2, Report by Thomas, W. E. from Nyamandhlovu, 18 July 1896Google Scholar. Gampu sided with the Europeans after a long-standing quarrel with the royal Khumalos; see Cobbing, , ‘Ndebele under the Khumalos’, 80–1.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ BA6/1/2, Chief Staff Officer's Diary, entry for 8 June 1896; C. 8547, 32–3, Carnegie to Martin, no date (early June 1896).

⁴⁵ BA2/9/1, Pyke to Chief Staff Officer, 1 July 1896.

⁴⁶ C. 8547, 33, Reed, to Martin, , 2 July 1896; 32–3Google Scholar, Carnegie to Martin, no date; Ranger, , Revolt, 138–9.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ C. 8547, 62, Annexure ‘D’, Comments on Reed's letter by Thomas, W. E., 11 May 1897.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ LO5/6/4, Gielgud, to Chief Native Commissioner, 11 Nov. 1896Google Scholar, who spoke of ‘these fresh stories of a king’.

⁴⁹ LO5/6/8, ‘Report on the Indaba of 5–8 Jan. 1897’, by Taylor, H. J..Google Scholar

⁵⁰ See file N3/19/3. Nyamanda's personal claim on the kingship emerges clearly. For the candidacy of Njube Lobengula between 1899 and 1910, see Ranger, T. O., The African Voice in Southern Rhodesia, (London, 1970)Google Scholar. For the explanation why the izinduna turned to Njube then, see Cobbing, , ‘Ndebele under the Khumalos’, 443–4,Google Scholar

⁵¹ Quoted Ranger, , African Voice, 79.Google Scholar

⁵² LO5/6/6, Gielgud to Chief Native Commissioner, 19 Oct. 1896. She was described as ‘a most dangerous and intriguing woman’ by Gielgud to Chief Native Commissioner, 9 Apr. 1897.

⁵³ This grouping emerges clearly from files BA2/9/1–2, BA6/1/1–5, LO5/6/1–7.

⁵⁴ A1/12/10, Gwelo [Gibbs] to Salisbury [Vintcent], telegram, 11 Apr. 1896; Ranger, , Revolt, 135.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ These relationships are explained in Cobbing, , ‘Ndebele under the Khumalos’, chapter 2.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Ibid., chapter 10.

⁵⁷ Ranger, , Revolt, 137–8, 147, 149Google Scholar. Ranger uses Matonjeni to refer to the Wirirani shrine, though eMatonjeni simply means ‘at the rocks’, or ‘at the Matopos’, and could refer in the appropriate context to any of the shrines.

⁵⁸ Ibid. 149, 257.

⁵⁹ Cobbing, , ‘Ndebele under the Khumalos’, chapter 6Google Scholar. The Ndebele probably made innumerable private appeals to Unkulunkulu and the amadhlozi in 1896.

⁶⁰ Ranger, , Revolt, 150Google Scholar; see below.

⁶¹ Cobbing, , ‘Ndebele under the Khumalos’, chapter 4.Google Scholar

⁶² Ibid. 129–35, 392, 423–6.

⁶³ Ranger, , Revolt, 188–90.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Cobbing, , ‘Ndebele under the Khumalos’, 107, III, 123–4.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ White, J., ‘Esitshebeni: Some Notes on the History and Customs of the Shabani District’ (unpublished manuscript, kindly loaned to me by the author), chapterGoogle Scholar, ‘The Ndebele Influence’. The evidence for Nhema and Banka entering the rising in March rather than in June would appear to be conclusive; see A1/12/31, Inskipp to Administrator, telegram, 26 Mar. 1896; A1/12/10, Vizard, to Vintcent, , telegram, 19 Apr. 1896Google Scholar; Laing, D. T., The Matabele Rebellion, 1896: With the Belingwe Force, (London [1897]), 85–6.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Beach, D. N., ‘The Rising in South-Western Mashonaland, 1896–97’, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, London University (1971), chapter 7.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Sometimes out of a sense of self-preservation. This information is common in the Godhlwayo, Belingwe and Chibi Tribal Trustlands of central Rhodesia.

⁶⁸ Laing, , Matabele Rebellion, 134–44.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ LOs/6/3, Taylor, to Grey, , 2 Sept. 1896Google Scholar; Ranger, , Revolt, 238, 247.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Interview with Nkala, Mtshazo, Wenlock Tribal Trustland, 16 Jan. 1975.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Summers, R. and Pagden, C. W., The Warriors, (Cape Town, 1970), 50.Google Scholar

⁷² Faku had split his chieftaincy by refusing to step down as regent in favour of the correct heir, Tala, and turned to the Europeans to maintain this illegal inheritance. He was admired by the Company for a combination of shrewdness and ‘loyalty’; see Cobbing, , ‘Ndebele under the Khumalos’, 78–9.Google Scholar

⁷³ Ibid. 423–6, For the heavy road defences see A1/12/35, Grey, to Vintcent, , telegram, 1 May 1896.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Beach, D. N., ‘Great Zimbabwe as a Mwari-Cult Centre’, Rhodesian Prehistory, xi (12 1973), 11–13Google Scholar. The Rozvi are no longer thought to have been connected with Great Zimbabwe.

⁷⁵ The first documentary references to Mwari are from the early 1860s. There are many oral traditions referring to ‘Mwari’ in earlier years, but these are not necessarily, indeed are unlikely to have been, references to the Matopos cult. For the wide spread of the word Mwari in non-cult contexts during the twentieth-century, see Fortune, G., ‘Who Was Mwari?’, Rhodesian History, iv (1973), 1–20.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ A3/18/28, Thomas, W. E. to Chief Native Commissioner, 5 Mar. 1906Google Scholar; Cockcroft, I. G., “The Mlimo (Mwari) Cult’, Native Affairs Department Annual, x, 4 (1972), 84Google Scholar. The present caretaker of the shrine told me early in 1976 that Njelele's founders were Mbedzi. For another linkage between the cult and the Mbedzi see the poem quoted in Ranger, , Revolt, 21–2.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Interview with Ndube Sibanda, Glass Block Tribal Trustland, 29 Jan. 1974. See also Ncube, A. M., ‘The Venda and the Mphephu War of 1898’, paper presented to the Conference of the Central Africa Historical Association (Salisbury, 1972)Google Scholar, who described how because of frictions between the people of the Zoutpansberg and the Mwari priests ‘Mwari ceased to appear in Venda country so that his worshippers had to come to the Matopos to find him.’

⁷⁸ Cockcroft, , ‘Mlimo (Mwari) Cult’, 86.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Gelfand, M., An African's Religion: The Spirit of Nyajena, (Cape Town, 1966), 37–8.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Cockcroft, , ‘Mlimo (Mwari) Cult’, 86Google Scholar; Posselt, F. W. T., Upengula. The Scatterer, (Bulawayo, 1945), 123.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Daneel, M. L., The God of the Matopo Hills: An Essay on the Mwari Cult in Rhodesia, (The Hague, 1970), 42–4Google Scholar. Daneel's historical chapter is based on Ranger.

⁸² Mwanza, R., ‘Mwari: The God of the Karanga’, paper presented to the Lusaka Conference on the History of Central African Religious Systems, 1972, 6Google Scholar. Ncube (monkey) is an Ndebele isibongo often associated with Venda assimilants of the kingdom. A farfetched and almost certainly erroneous attempt has been made to link it with the Shona shoko, (monkey), and hence to the Mbire–Shoko, a people of north-eastern Rhodesia, who in turn were alleged to have been connected with the Rozvi.

⁸³ See below.

⁸⁴ Thomas, T. M., Eleven Years in Central South Africa, (London, 1873), 291.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ For example, Hist. MSS BE2/1/1, Correspondence and Other Papers of the Berlin Missionary Society, 1882–92, Diary of Tshakoma Station, entry for 28 Nov. 1887; Nobbs, E. A., The Matopos, (Salisbury, 1956 edn.), 84.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Ranger, T. O., ‘The Meaning of Mwari’, Rhodesian History, v (1974), 12–13.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ NB6/1/1, Annual Report Bulawayo for year ending 31 Mar. 1898. Many commentators used Mlimo and Mwari interchangeably, even though Mlimo was a Sotho high-God, the concept of which was brought north of the Limpopo by the Ndebele in the late 1830s, and had nothing to do with the Mwari cult. Ironically Company and other writers rarely used Mlimo in its proper context.

⁸⁸ Ranger, , Revolt, 148–9.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ Ibid. 149.

⁹⁰ Cockcroft, , ‘Mlimo (Mwari) Cult’, 84.Google Scholar

⁹¹ Posselt, , Upengula, 123Google Scholar. See also NB1/1/10, Elliott to Taylor, 1 June 1900. Faku was only one of several Ndebele chiefs reputed to have been hostile to the cult.

⁹² Cockcroft, , ‘Mlimo (Mwari) Cult’, 86.Google Scholar

⁹³ Ranger, , Revolt, 150.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ NBI/1/10, Elliott to Taylor, 1 June 1900 (‘I believe Mbabani took no part in the rebellion [of 1896]’); NB3/1/28, Chief Native Commissioner to Secretary to the Administrator, 21 Mar. 1912.

⁹⁵ NB1/1/1, Statement of Msiningwa, July 1897.

⁹⁶ Ranger, , Revolt, 143–4, 152Google Scholar. The cult appears to have continued quite as before in 1894–5, if the absence of references to it then is anything to go by.

⁹⁷ BA6/1/3, Chief Staff Officer's Diary, entry for 9 Aug. 1896. General Carrington's exact words: ‘Mlimo has now nothing to do with the revolt, he does not like the Matabele and talks of clearing out of the Matopos,’ are significant in view of Maswabe of Dula's flight.

⁹⁸ The main evidence for Mkwati is BA6/1/3, Statement of Malimba, 1 Aug. 1896; Hist. MSS W18/1/3, ‘Windram Reminiscences’, Statement of Nganganyoni, 20 Nov. 1938. But see also NB1/1/15, Campbell to Chief Native Commissioner, 21 Nov. 1898: ‘So far as I can ascertain no evidence can be obtained implicating either [Mkwati or his wife, Tenkela] in inciting the rebellion,’ and neighbouring correspondence.

⁹⁹ Ranger, , Revolt, 152–60, 229–31, 261, 266–7.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ Ibid. 152; Cockcroft, , ‘Mlimo (Mwari) Cult’, 85.Google Scholar

¹⁰¹ Cobbing, , ‘Ndebele under the Khumalos’, 421–3.Google Scholar

¹⁰² Plumer, H., An Irregular Corps in Matabeleland, (London, 1897), 138Google Scholar. There is no evidence that this fight was a sort of last stand of the Ndebele northern leadership as Ranger, , Revolt, 229Google Scholar (with Mkwati in mind) says. Certainly no source mentions Nyamanda's presence there.

¹⁰³ LO5/6/2, Statement of Bulawa, no date (Aug. 1896) for example.

¹⁰⁴ The Ndebele had their own bullet-proofing ceremonies which had nothing to do with the cult, but this did not prevent them taking cover whenever possible; see Hist. MSS BA10/2/1, Journal of Alexander Bailie, 82–91.

¹⁰⁵ For the Ndebele passion for guns, which went back to the 1820s, see Cobbing, , ‘Ndebele under the Khumalos’, 193–8.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁶ File A1/12/27 contains several witnesses' statements that ‘Ndebele’ had instigated the Mashona rising; see also Ranger, , Revolt, 195–6.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁷ Beach, , ‘Rising’, 174–97.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁸ Ranger, , Revolt, 202.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁹ Ibid., chapter 2.

¹¹⁰ For example Rwizi in the Beatrice area stayed out. (Beach, , ‘Rising’, 375Google Scholar). This was the chieftaincy with which the mhondoro Chaminuka was associated, though there was no medium in 1896.

¹¹¹ Beach, D. N., ‘The Politics of Collaboration (South Mashonaland, 1896–7)’, University College of Rhodesia, Henderson Seminar Paper No. 9, 1969.Google Scholar

¹¹² R. M. G. Mtetwa, at present working on a history of the Duma people in southern Mashonaland, believes cult influence only extended through into the Victoria region in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Whether cult influence did in the 1890s extend as far as Chirumanzu and Guru has not yet been satisfactorily established.

¹¹³ Ranger, , Revolt, 182Google Scholar. Nowhere in the book is the assumption that the risings were co-ordinated by a common leadership more explicit. On pp. 190 the Shona rising is described as ‘Mkwati's counter-stroke’.

¹¹⁴ Cobbing, , ‘Ndebele under the Khumalos’, 411–12.Google Scholar

¹¹⁵ Ibid. 412–16.

¹¹⁶ Ranger's equation is that Mkwati at NtabazikaMambo ordered his messengers in Mashayamombe's to spread the rising and that the Mashayamombe mhondoro, Kaguvi, then took up the torch. Kaguvi, however, was associated with the Chivero chieftaincy to the north of Mashayamombe.

¹¹⁷ Beach, , ‘Rising’, 304Google Scholar. For the Company's ‘serious difficulty’ with the Budja people of Mtoko in the extreme north-east during early June, see Ranger, , Revolt, 192.Google Scholar

¹¹⁸ Ranger, , Revolt, 212.Google Scholar

¹¹⁹ Beach, , ‘Rising’, 363–5.Google Scholar

¹²⁰ Ibid. 373–5.

¹²¹ Ibid. 321.

¹²² Ibid. 164, 326–8; Cobbing, , ‘Ndebele under the Khumalos’, 143, 415–6,Google Scholar

¹²³ Beach, , ‘Politics of Collaboration’, 5–6, 25–7Google Scholar. In addition Chinyama had married a daughter to the local Native Commissioner, M. E. Weale.

¹²⁴ Ibid. 25.

¹²⁵ Beach, , ‘Rising’, 403–7.Google Scholar

¹²⁶ See files A1/12/9–10. ‘Mlimos’ were sometimes interwoven with a restoration of the monarchy, for example A1/12/10, Duncan to Vintcent, telegraphic conversation of S Apr. 1896: ‘We have been told that Lobengula which is really the Mlimo impersonating Lobengula claiming to be King and God will send his army when the corn is reaped to attack Bulawayo…’. The Company was confused, of that there is little doubt.

¹²⁷ Heyman, who organized the sales of looted Ndebele cattle, remarked: Company rule ‘without exception was absolutely honest and pure as far as I could discover.’ LO5/6/3, Heyman, to Grey, , 27 Aug. 1896.Google Scholar

¹²⁸ The Standard, 28 Mar. 1896.Google Scholar

¹²⁹ Hist. MSS GR1/1/1, Correspondence of Albert, , Earl Grey, 1893–1899Google Scholar, Grey, to Grey, Countess, 25 June 1896.Google Scholar

¹³⁰ Selous, , Sunshine and Storm, 236.Google Scholar

¹³¹ Ranger, , Revolt, 232.Google Scholar

¹³² Hone, P. F., Southern Rhodesia, (London, 1909), 45Google Scholar; Hole, H. M., The Making of Rhodesia, (London, 1926), 367–8.Google Scholar

¹³³ Hughes, , ‘Restructuring’, 169Google Scholar: ‘There seems no doubt that the rising was instigated by the voice of the Umlimo issuing from a cave, and that the subsequent military operations were to a large extent controlled by the Umlimo priests.’

¹³⁴ Ranger, T. O., ‘Connexions between “Primary Resistance” Movements and Modern Mass Nationalism in East and Central Africa. Part I’, Journal of African History, ix, 3 (1968), 447Google Scholar. Beach, , ‘Rising’, 424Google Scholar, says for the Shona: ‘there was no real need for a radical or movement, for the old system had not yet been found wanting.’

¹³⁵ A debate contrasting the meaning of Mwari as a high-God and the cave cult has recently begun, which delves over a wide front into the semantic origins of the word ‘Mwari’; possible connexions between the Matopos cave cult and the Raluvhimba cult in the northern Transvaal; pre-cult religious observances in Kalanga country, which persist until today; possible connexions between Rozvi movements and Venda religion; the direction of migration of cult influence; the distribution of cult centres outside the Matopos; and the confusions following the post 1890s spread of the word Mwari by missionaries as a general translation for God into areas of Mashonaland where Mwari— in whichever sense—had never been worshipped.