² Barnes, J. A., Politics in a Changing Society: A Political History of the Fort Jameson Ngoni (London, 1954), 36–41.Google Scholar

³ For example, Krige, E. J., The Social System of the Zulus (Pietermaritzburg, 1936), 261–5Google Scholar; Gluckman, M., ‘The Kingdom of the Zulu of South Africa’, in Fortes, M. and Evans-Pritchard, E. E., African Political Systems (London, 1940), 31–2.Google Scholar

⁴ Hughes, A. J. B. and van Velsen, J., ‘The Ndebele’, in The Shona and Ndebele of Southern Rhodesia, Ethnographic Survey of Africa, Southern Africa, Part IV (London, 1955), 68.Google Scholar

⁵ Becker, P., Path of Blood: The Rise and Conquests of Mzilikazi, Founder of the Ndebele (London, Panther Books, 1972 reprint), 78.Google Scholar

⁶ Omer-Cooper, J. D., The Zulu Aftermath: A Nineteenth Century Revolution in Bantu Africa (London, 1966), 135.Google Scholar

⁷ Summers, R. and Pagden, C. W., The Warriors (Cape Town, 1970), 41–2.Google Scholar

⁸ Tabler, E. C., The Far Interior: Chronicles of Pioneering in The Matabele and Mashona Countries, 1847–79 (Cape Town, 1955), 13.Google Scholar

⁹ Selous, F. C., Travel and Adventure in South-East Africa (London, 1893), 81, for example.Google Scholar

¹⁰ The villages were not in any way physically linked but separated by tracts of countryside. The habit of referring to Ndebele settlements as ‘towns’ may have reflected the familiarity of most Ndebele travellers with Ngwato settlements which were much larger. The map on p. 609 is misleading because it shows only a small percentage of Ndebele villages. The majority were those of private individuals (imisi zamathanga) which are now extremely difficult to locate. The main conclusion from this is that the settlement ‘revolution’ which was meant to have taken place in 1894–5 never occurred.

¹¹ For a detailed discussion of the major Ndebele chiefly families see my Ph.D. thesis on the Ndebele under the Khumalos, now in preparation.

¹² Hughes, and Van, Velsen, ‘The Ndebele’, 67;Google ScholarOmer-Cooper, , Zulu Aftermath, 148–9.Google Scholar

¹³ Hughes, A. J. B., Kin, Caste and Nation Among the Rhodesian Ndebele, Rhodes– Livingstone Papers No. 25 (Manchester, 1956), 5. The terms ‘segment’ and ‘segmentation’ are of little practical use in describing Ndebele settlement or society.Google Scholar

¹⁴ It is not true, as claims, W. F. Lye in ‘The Ndebele Kingdom South of the Limpopo’, Journal of African History, X, 1 (1969), 99, that ‘this regimental organization of the male population broke down any clan or local affiliations’. Indeed, the amabutho and the imisi which evolved from them became local affiliations; and the hereditary families which established themselves in power parallel to the evolution of settlement provided clan affiliations. Thus the Mafus of Godhlwayo or the Mkwananzis of Intunta were families with a tremendous local and personal following, as Mzilikazi found to his cost, for example, in the civil war of c. 1841–2, when both Godhlwayo and Intunta opposed him.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Kirby, P. R. (ed.), The Diary of Dr Andrew Smith, 1834–6, 2 vols. (Cape Town, 1939–1940), 1, 293.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Woods, G. G. B., ‘Extracts from Customs and History; Amandebele’, Native Affairs Department Annual (henceforth NADA), IX (1931), 18.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Lewis, D. G., ‘Lobengula's Regiments: Recruiting and Lobolo’, NADA, XXXIII (1956), 5.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Hist. MSS W18/1/2, Reminiscences of R. Foster Windram, Statement of Ntabeni Khumalo, 4 Feb. 1940.

¹⁹ Ibid. Some informants say that it was the grandmothers who did the menial tasks for the amajaha; others that at the beginning of an ibutho's life there were no women at all.

²⁰ Wallis, J. P. R. (ed.), The Northern Goldfields Diaries of Thomas Baines, 3 vols. (London, 1946), III, 658.Google Scholar

²¹ Hist. MSS W18/1/1, Reminiscences of R. Foster Windram, Statement of Ginyalitshe Hlabangana, 6 April 1940.

²² Posselt, J. W. and Perham, M., ‘The Story of Ndansi Khumalo of The Matabele Tribe’, in Perham, M. (ed.), Ten Africans (London, 1936), 66–7.Google Scholar

²³ For other accounts of ibutho-raising see Wallis, , Baines Diaries, I, 265;Google ScholarMackenzie, J., Ten Years North of the Orange River (Edinburgh, 1871), 327;Google Scholar and Thomas, T. M., Eleven Years in Central South Africa (London, 1873), 183.Google Scholar

²⁴ Kirby, , Smith Diary, II, 246.Google Scholar

²⁵ Interview with Nyamabani Khumalo, Shabani, 6 Dec. 1973.

²⁶ Wallis, J. P. R. (ed.), The Matabele Journals of Robert Moffat, 1829–60, 2 vols. (London, 1945), I, 281.Google Scholar

²⁷ Interview with Mabhena by E. M. Mhlanga, Avoca, Godhlwayo TTL, 24. Aug. 1972.

²⁸ For example, Mukontshwana Tjili had married at Ndinana before being drafted into Mbuyaswe, where he married a second wife; interview with Tjavu Tjili, Godhlwayo TTL, 24 Jan. 1974.

²⁹ Hist. MSS W18/1/1, Statement of Ginyalitshe Hlabangana, 6 April 1940.

³⁰ Hist. MSS TH2/1/, T. M. Thomas Journal, 1874–83, entry for 25 April 1877.

³¹ Interview with Mkhwezeli Bozongwana by J. B. Dube, Ntabazinduna TTL, 24 June 1972.

³² C 4643, ‘Further Correspondence Respecting the Affairs of The Transvaal and Adjacent Territories’, Feb. 1886, Enclosure 8 in No. 34, Matabeleland, by Lieut. Maund, B.F.F., 115.

³³ As implied in Summers, and Pagden, , Warriors, 148.Google Scholar

³⁴ Hist. MSS W18/1/2, Statement of Ntabeni Khumalo, 4 Feb. 1940. Lye, ‘Ndebele Kingdom’, 99, is incorrect when he writes: ‘the wives were either a gift of the king or were paid for with royal cattle’. A man's choice of wife was his own. Lobola was never paid with the king's cattle (izinkomo enkosi), but, at least for the first marriage, usually out of the private cattle (izinkomo zamathanga) of the father.

³⁵ NB1/1/2, Lanning to C. N. C., 11 Dec. 1897.

³⁶ NB3/1/6, Campbell to Jackson, 20 May 1909.

³⁷ Maund, , C 4643, 116;Google Scholar interview with Mpuqa Msiza, Lundi TTL, 4 Dec. 1973. Summers, and Pagden, , Warriors, 47Google Scholar, refer to a ‘junior company’ of Imbizo called Encinyane. The view of Child, H., The amaNdebele (Salisbury, 1968), 20, that ‘regiments did not expand within themselves, losses in war being made up from recruitment’ is thus incorrect.Google Scholar

³⁸ Mjaan Khumalo, chief of Imbizo, had at least two imisi zamathanga where he kept some of his wives; interview with Nqagwana Khumalo by J. B. Dube, Ntabazinduna TTL, 5 06 1972.Google Scholar

³⁹ NB6/1/1 C. N. C. Annual Report for year ending 31 Mar. 1898, and Annual Report, Bulawayo, same year. Imbizo's dispersal may have been largely a result of the excessive attention it received from the Europeans, as well as its position on the main Bulawayo–Inyati wagon road. Other settlements probably broke up in the migrations prior to 1840.

⁴⁰ Hughes, , Kin, Caste and Nation, 13.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Interview with Chief Ngungumbane Mkwananzi, Ngungumbane, Belingwe TTL, 5 Dec. 1973.

⁴² Interview with Nqagwana Khumalo by J. B. Dube, 5 June 1972.

⁴³ Interview with Makwakwa Ngwenya by J. B. Dube, Nkai TTL, 10–15 Nov. 1972.

⁴⁴ Interview with Sihiangu Tshabalala by J. B. Dube, Bulawayo, 16–24 Sept. 1972.

⁴⁵ Haynes was clearly referring to Zwangendaba when he claimed in 1885, ‘old regiments die out or are broken up and distributed among others’; see C 4643, Enclosure 9 in No. 34, ‘Report on Matabililand’, by Lieut. Haynes, C. E., 120–1.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Interview with Mpuqa Msiza, 4 Dec. 1973.

⁴⁷ Interview with Tjavu Tjili, 24 Jan. 1974.

⁴⁸ This is only a rough guide since settlements such as Iliba and Induba did not break up but continued to reproduce until the end of the kingdom. Thus Manqikila, the eldest son and heir of Mehlomakulu, head of the Dhlodhlo family, was drafted into Inqobo some time after 1869 and was still attached to Inqobo in 1893, where and in which year his son, Ndabayenduku, was born.

⁴⁹ Interview with Mkhwezeli Bozongwana by Dube, J. B., 24 06 1972.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ On the other hand, informants often say that recruits to an ibutho were taken from a particular group of imisi. For example, Insuga had special links with the imisi of Inqobo and Ujinga in the Inkwegwesi valley. The identification of post-1840s imisi in the Matopos area with one or other of four original or proto-amabutho (discussed below) also suggests the linkage of an ibutho with a specific hinterland. Nevertheless, it seems that the amabutho of Lobengula's reign contained men from most parts of the kingdom.

⁵¹ Interview with Ntolwane Dhlodhlo and Tito Matshazi, Lundi TTL, 4 Dec. 1973. This is in no way a complete list of Ndebele settlement.

⁵² Interviews with Mpuqa Msiza, 3 Dec. 1973; and with Zimu Moyo, Ngungumbane, Belingwe TTL, 5 Dec. 1973. Informants often arrived at this process only after much thought, and that such an evolution took place had seldom occurred to them.

⁵³ Hughes, , Kin, Caste and Nation, 11, uses the word ixhiba for ‘province’, but ixhiba simply means a hut (for unmarried boys or girls) or a group of warriors.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Kirby, , Smith Diary, II, 76, 79.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Thomas, , Eleven Years, 224–5.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ The exact status of both the umnumzana and the induna in nineteenth-century Ndebele society awaits clarification. Amongst the Zulu umnumzana means ‘village- headman’, whereas Barnes, Politics, 9, describes him as a ‘regional governor’ of the Fort Jameson Ngoni. Barnes seems, however, to be referring to no more than the head of a lineage. Amongst the Ndebele the umnumzana was, roughly, a ‘headman’, and is today, according to Pelling, the equivalent of ‘Mr’; see Wallis, , Baines Diaries, I, 79Google Scholar and Pelling, J. N., A Practical Ndebele Dictionary (Bulawayo, 1966), 52.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ For Maund's interpretation, see C 4643, Enclosure 8 in No. 34, Matabeleland, 113–16.

⁵⁸ LO5/6/8, Lawley's speech at the Meeting of Headmen and Indunas at Bulawayo, 5 Jan. 1897.

⁵⁹ Posselt, F. W. T., ‘The Rise of the Amandebele’, Proceedings of the Rhodesian Science Association, XVIII (1919–1920);Google Scholar this is reprinted with minor changes in Posselt, F. W. T., Fact and Fiction (Bulawayo, 1935), 161–93.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Summers, R., ‘The Military Doctrine of the Matabele’, NADA, XXXII (1955), 7–15.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Summers, ‘Military Doctrine’, 8, admits that there is no Ndebele word for ‘divisional commander’; he suggests induna yomuzi, which means, however, induna of a village.

⁶² The military bias of Summers and Pagden is especially implicit in Appendix 2, ‘Estimates of Regimental Strength at various times in 1893’, Warriors, 148–51. Isikulu, for example, means ‘important men,’ and was never a formal council.Google Scholar

⁶³ 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), 132;Google ScholarHughes, , Kin, Caste and Nation, II, 69.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Hughes, , ‘Restructuring’, 134. See also footnote 13.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Hughes, , Kin, Caste and Nation, 15–16. It is rather the use of the word regiment which has created unnecessary confusion in Ndebele studies.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ They are usually referred to as amabutho.

⁶⁷ Hist. MSS W18/1/2, Statement on the Organization of the Matabele Nation by Ntabeni Khumalo.

⁶⁸ See especially Mahiangu, P. S., Umthwakazi (Cape Town, 1957), 23–7. For Maund's lists see C 4643, 115–16.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Hist. MSS W18/1/1, Statement of Mvumi, 11 Nov. 1937. Lye, , ‘Ndebele Kingdom’, 91, refers to Amhlope as Mzilikazi's older married regiment.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ ‘Mziki’ (Campbell, A. A.), 'Mlimo. The Rise and Fall of the Matabele (Pietermaritzburg, 1926), 53, 59, 67;Google ScholarBryant, A. T., Olden Times in Zululand and Natal (London, 1929), 426, 438–9;Google ScholarMahlangu, , Umthwakazi, 23–7.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Hist. MSS W18/1/, Second Statement of Ginyalitshe, 6 April 1940.

⁷² Interview with Ngungumbane Mkwananzi, 5 Dec. 1973; interview with Mabhena by E. M. Mhlanga, 24 Aug. 1972; Hist. MSS W18/1/ Statement of Ginyalitshe, 23 Nov. 1937.

⁷³ ‘Mziki’, ‘Mlimo, 59; Hist. MSS W18/1/1, Statement of Mvumi, 11 Nov. 1937, who said: ‘when Amnyama became very few they were put with Inzimazana [Mzinyati]’. Mzinyati, led by the Gwebu and Khumalo families, was always regarded as the most important of the Amnyama-descended imisi. Godhlwayo was formed at Mkwahla in the 1830s, some say as an offshoot of Mzinyati.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ ‘Mziki’, 'Mlimo, ch. 12. Gundwane's Amakanda–Amnyama group made Mzilikazi's son Nkulumane king. It is likely that this was at first regarded as a permanent solution, and symbolic of the emergence of a new but small Nguni state north of the Limpopo.

⁷⁵ Hist. MSS W18/1/1, Second Statement of Ginyalitshe.

⁷⁶ ‘Mziki’, 'Mlimo, ch. 11.

⁷⁷ Hist. MSS W18/1/1, Second Statement of Ginyalitshe; Mahlangu, , Umthwakazi, 25.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Interview with Zimu Moyo, 5 Dec. 1973. A glance at the map is enough to dispose of the idea of four large administrative divisions. The umbrella-handle is made by drawing a line connecting the imisi of Nqama, Amagogo, Nyamandlovu, Ujinga and Umcijo, all of which identified themselves with Igapha. Note that Nqama is separated from Amagogo by Amhlope-connected imisi such as Isizinda. Que Que is a modern town just to the north of the map.

⁷⁹ For Zwangendaba, Mncwazi and Ujinga see Jackson, H. M. G., ‘Boer Invasion of Rhodesia’, NADA, 11 (1924), 58–60;Google ScholarMhlagazanhlansi, (N. Jones), My Friend Khumalo (Bulawayo, 1944), 11.Google Scholar For Mahlokohloko and Inyati see Wallis, , Moffat Journals, 1, 229; 11, 72–2, 249.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ For Induba see ‘Mziki’, 'Mlimo, 110;Google Scholar for Mhlahlanhlela see Wallis, J. P. R. (ed.),The Matabele Mission, a Selection from The Correspondence of John and Emily Moffat (London, 1945), 211;Google Scholar for Intemba see Wallis, , Baines Diaries, 11, 535.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Summers and Pagden, Warriors, say that Inqobo was formed out of the Mbuyaswe ibutho which Mzilikazi formed at the close of his life. Thomas, , Eleven Years, 183 (writing in about 1871), describes umbuyazwi as ‘the preparatory course of the [in the context, any] ibuto’, which may or may not support this.Google Scholar

⁸² London Missionary Society Archives (School of Oriental and African Studies), Matabeleland, Box 1, Folder 3, Jacket B (henceforth LMS ML1/3/B), Sykes to Mullens, 21 June 1878. The reasons for the change are unclear. Perhaps Intemba and Inyati had ‘matured’ and were no longer militarily effective; perhaps Lobengula was doubtful of their loyalty, or perhaps they were moved south to defend against the anticipated invasion by Mangwane, Lobengula's half-brother, who was supported by the Ngwato king, Macheng. The attack did not take place until January 1872, however.

⁸³ Rhodesian Government Delineation Report, Gwelo District, The Gambiza Chieftainship, 1963.

⁸⁴ Thomas, , Eleven Years, 190–2; CT1/8/4, Colenbrander to Harris, Telegram, July 1892.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Interview with Sihiangu Tshabalala by Dube, J. B., 16–24 11 1972; Hist. MSS W18/1/1, Second Statement of Ginyalitshe, 6 April 1940, who observed that Lobengula ‘only wanted young men [for Imbizo] because they would have no knowledge of Nkulumane’. Nkulumane was almost certainly dead by 1871, but was being impersonated by a man called Kanda. The real threat to Lobengula was Mangwane.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Mahlangu, , Umthwakazi, 60.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ LMS ML1/2/D, Thompson to Mullens, 14 Aug. 1871; Wallis, , Baines Diaries, 111 657–8; ‘Mziki’, 'Mlimo, 119.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ See, for example, NB1/1/1, Robinson to C. N. C., 6 Aug. 1900; NBE7/1/1, Stuart to C. N. C., 8 June 1897; NB1/1/5, Statement of Tala Ndiweni, 19 Nov. 1902; Hist. MSS MA1/2/2, Diary of Major Thomas Maxwell 1889–91, entry for 27 Dec. 1890.

⁸⁹ Hist. MSS TH2/1/, ‘Thomas Diary’, entry for October 1879.

⁹⁰ Mbizo, (Johnstone, F. V.), ‘Mtikana ka Mafu’, NADA, IV (1926), 54–5.Google Scholar

⁹¹ Gelfand, M. (ed.), Gubulwayo and Beyond: Letters and Journals of the early Jesuit Missionaries to Zambesia, 1879–87 (London, 1968), 463.Google Scholar

⁹² CTI/13/10, J. S. Moffat to Harris, 6 Oct. 1890.

⁹³ Hist. MSS MOI/1/5/6, J. S. Moffat Correspondence—Official and Political, Moffat to Loch, 24 May 1892. For Jameson's misrepresentation of Lobengula's permission for the pioneer column to enter Mashonaland, see Cobbing, J., ‘Lobengula, Jameson and the Occupation of Mashonaland’, to be published in Rhodesian History, IV (1974).Google Scholar

⁹⁴ Hist. MSS W18/1/1, Joint Statement of Mvutu and Posela; and Statement of Siatcha, 20 Nov. 1937; Pitout, J. A., ‘Lobengula's Flight and the Shangani Battle’, NADA, XL (1963), 71; C 8547, ‘Report by Sir Richard Martin on the Native Administration of the British South Africa Company’, 1897, 32–3, Carnegie to Martin, no date. The distinction between the umlisa and the umnumzana has not yet been cleared up.Google Scholar

⁹⁵ CT1/13/4, Doyle to Harris, 25 July 1890.

⁹⁶ Hist. MSS W18/1/2, Statement of Ntabeni Khumalo.

⁹⁷ Beach, D. N., ‘The Rising in South-Western Mashonaland, 1896–1897’, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, London University (1971), 221.Google Scholar

⁹⁸ J. White, ‘History of Shabani’ (forthcoming), draft chapter: ‘The Ndebele Influence’.

⁹⁹ LO5/6/7, W. I. S. Driver to C. N. C., 20 Dec. 1896.

¹⁰⁰ It was present in the Bulawayo area by 1889; see MO1/3/1/1, J. S. Moffat Diary 1887–92, entry for 10 Dec. 1889.

¹⁰¹ Hist. MSS W18/1/1, Statement of Mvumi; Mahlangu, , Umthwakazi, 23.Google Scholar

¹⁰² Beach, ‘Rising’, 225; Hist. MSS WI1/1/1, Wilkerson, G. T., ‘The Matabele Nation’, 19;Google ScholarSummers, and Pagden, , Warriors, 115.Google Scholar

¹⁰³ Hist. MSS CO4/3/1, J. W. Colenbrander Diary, June–July 1890, entry for 8 June 1890.

¹⁰⁴ Gambo, F., ‘The Royal House of the “Gambos”’, NADA, XXXIX (1962), 49; Rhodesian Government Delineation Report. Nyamandhlovu District, The Matapula Chieftainship, 1965.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁵ Newman, C. L. Norris, Matabeleland and How We Got It (London, 1895), 161.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁶ Hist. MSS W18/1/2, Statement of Ntabeni Khumalo; Perham, , Ten Africans, 67–8.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁷ For this defensive cordon see CT1/13/3, Colenbrander to Curry, 1 June 1892. A major link in it was Amaveni, a Rozvi settlement which Ndansi Khumalo referred to as ‘baboons; we called them this because they were a mixed lot, not pure Matabele’. Amaveni was in the upper Gwelo region at least by the mid-1880s; see Perham, , Ten Africans, 68; CT1/6/8, Selous to Selous Exploration Syndicate, 2 and 12 Oct. 1889.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁸ Posselt, , Fact and Fiction, 76;Google Scholar Hist. MSS WI1/1/, Wilkerson, , ‘Matabele Nation’, 19. Other Kalanga settlements under Ndebele control on the highveld to the west of Bulawayo were Usaba, Zinyama, Mpande and Lulwane (see map). Although ‘governed’ by Ndebele izinduna, they do not seem ever to have been amabutho in the formal sense.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁹ Hist. MSS W18/1/2, Statement of Ntabeni Khumalo; Posselt, , Fact and Fiction, 76;Google Scholar WI1/1/1, Wilkerson, , ‘Matabele Nation’, 39.Google Scholar

¹¹⁰ Interview with Nqagwana Khumalo by Dube, J. B., 5 06 1972;Google ScholarMhlagazanhlansi, , My Friend Khumalo, 23;Google ScholarVaughan-Williams, H., A Visit to Lobengula in 1889 (Pietermaritzburg, 1941), 103; Hist. MSS FR2/2/1, The Reminiscences of lvon Fry, 1938, 92. According to Nqagwana the Imbovane lived in a part of Bulawayo called Engoqeni.Google Scholar

¹¹¹ The careers of Mtikana and Gambo, as well as other chiefs, are discussed in my forthcoming Ph.D. thesis.

¹¹² Men could exploit other talents such as those of the isaxsnusi (‘doctor’) or umkhanda (blacksmith), or even a personal hold over the king.