First Matabele War (1893): The Fall of Lobengula's Kingdom

The First Matabele War was the conquest of the Ndebele (Matabele) kingdom of King Lobengula by the British South Africa Company between October 1893 and January 1894. Company columns armed with Maxim machine guns defeated Ndebele regiments in two major battles, captured the royal town of Bulawayo and pursued the king north. The war opened present-day western Zimbabwe to white settlement and produced one of the most famous legends of British imperialism, the Shangani Patrol.

Background

The Ndebele kingdom was founded by Mzilikazi, a former commander of the Zulu king described in Shaka and the rise of the Zulu kingdom. After migrations across the highveld, the Ndebele settled north of the Limpopo in the late 1830s. Lobengula, Mzilikazi’s son, became king in 1870 and ruled from Bulawayo. His kingdom was organised in age regiments and received tribute from many neighbouring Shona communities.

In 1888 Lobengula signed the Rudd Concession, which Cecil Rhodes and the British South Africa Company used to justify the occupation of Mashonaland in 1890. The expected gold fields there proved poor, and settlers looked to the richer grazing lands of Matabeleland itself.

The Victoria incident

In July 1893 Ndebele regiments raided Shona villages near Fort Victoria (now Masvingo) to punish what Lobengula regarded as cattle theft by his tributaries. Several Shona working for settlers were killed in the town’s vicinity. The company’s administrator, Leander Starr Jameson, ordered the Ndebele to withdraw and his men fired on them.

Jameson and Rhodes then prepared for war. Under the Victoria Agreement, volunteers were promised about 6,000 acres of land each, gold claims and a share of captured cattle. Lobengula sent messages seeking to avoid conflict, but by early October the company had decided to invade.

The campaign

Two columns, from Fort Salisbury under Major Patrick Forbes and from Fort Victoria under Major Allan Wilson, joined and marched on Bulawayo in October 1893. Together they numbered around 700 Europeans, with African auxiliaries, field guns and several Maxim guns. A separate Bechuanaland Border Police column advanced from the south, joined by men of the Ngwato chief Khama III.

On 25 October 1893 Ndebele regiments attacked the company laager (a defensive ring of wagons) near the Shangani River and were driven off by machine-gun and rifle fire. On 1 November a larger attack at Bembesi (Egodade) met the same fate. Ndebele losses in the two battles ran into the high hundreds or more, while the company lost only a handful of men.

Lobengula set fire to Bulawayo and fled north. Company troops entered the burnt town on 4 November 1893.

The Shangani Patrol

Forbes led a force in pursuit of the king. On 3 December 1893 Major Allan Wilson crossed the Shangani River with a small advance party to try to capture Lobengula. Heavy rain flooded the river behind them, and the main column, itself under attack, could not cross.

On 4 December the patrol, about 34 men, was surrounded by Ndebele warriors and killed to the last man. In settler Rhodesia, “Wilson’s Last Stand” became a heroic legend, celebrated in paintings, plays and a memorial; the remains were later reburied in the Matobo Hills near Rhodes’s grave. Ndebele accounts also recalled the patrol’s courage, but historians note that the episode arose from a reckless pursuit of a king who had sought peace.

During the war, Lobengula also sent a payment in gold to the advancing forces as a peace offering. It never reached the commanders, and two company troopers were later convicted of keeping it.

Aftermath

Lobengula died in about January 1894, probably of illness; the details remain uncertain. Without him the kingdom collapsed, and the company seized much of the land and most of the Ndebele cattle. Matabeleland was joined to Mashonaland in the company’s territory, soon called Rhodesia.

Resentment over land, cattle seizures, forced labour and drought fed the Ndebele and Shona risings of 1896-1897. About three months before the Ndebele rising of March 1896, Jameson had led most of the territory’s police on the failed Jameson Raid into the Transvaal, leaving the settlers poorly protected.

Key people

• Lobengula (c. 1836-1894): Last king of the Ndebele, who tried to avoid war with the company.
• Leander Starr Jameson (1853-1917): Company administrator who planned and launched the invasion.
• Patrick Forbes (1861-1918): Commander of the combined company columns.
• Allan Wilson (1856-1893): Leader of the Shangani Patrol.

Timeline

• 1888, 30 October: Lobengula signs the Rudd Concession.
• 1890, 12 September: Company Pioneer Column founds Fort Salisbury.
• 1893, July: Ndebele raid near Fort Victoria.
• 1893, 25 October: Battle of the Shangani.
• 1893, 1 November: Battle of Bembesi.
• 1893, 4 November: Company forces occupy Bulawayo.
• 1893, 4 December: The Shangani Patrol is wiped out.
• 1894, c. January: Lobengula dies in the north.

Why it matters

The First Matabele War ended one of the most powerful African states in southern Africa and laid the basis of settler-ruled Rhodesia. It became a byword for the destructive power of the machine gun against African armies, and the competing memories of Lobengula and the Shangani Patrol still reflect the divided history of Zimbabwe.