When was mzilikazi born

Trouble started for Mzilikazi for when he suspected that Zwide, who had had his father Matshobana assassinated, wanted him killed. In preparation, he had an alliance with Tshaka , which allowed him to be a leader of one of his regiments. Mzilikazi's reputation, bravery and skill in combat grew, much to the displeasure of King Tshaka.

King Tshaka saw Mzilikazi as a future potential threat and therefore hatched a plot to get rid of Mzilikazi. Unfortunately for King Tshaka , his plot did not produce his desired results. Mzilikazi then decided to setup his own kingdom. Links in this Section. Bulawayo has some wonderful places that you can visit. You can preview some, see Bulawayo in Pictures. If you are in Bulawayo these are the Bulawayo tourist attractions and the things to keep in mind.

Mzilikazi, King of the Matebele. With nothing more than five hundred men and women, Mzilikazi departed from King Tshaka 's Zululand, by this time Mzilikazi was already had three sons, but none of these could be the heir to the throne. In accordance with Ndebele customs, successors to the throne could not come from children the Mzilikazi bore before he was King. Thus Nkulumane was the heir.

Meanwhile on learning of Mzilikazi exodus, King Tshaka sent two army contingents to stop him. King Tshaka 's army contingents failed to stop Mzilikazi , about Mzilikazi and his fledgling kingdom crossed the Drakensburg mountains.

Mzilikazi ca. Ayounger son of the Kumalo chieftain Mashobane, Mzilikazi spent his early life in the north of what was later to become the Zulu kingdom. During his young manhood, the Kumalo were victims of a power struggle between the Zulu chief, Shaka, and the Ndwandwe chief, Zwide. The latter, Mzilikazi's maternal grandfather, had Mashobane killed, but Mzilikazi, who was elevated to the vacant Kumalo chieftainship, identified his interests with the rising star of Shaka.

Although Shaka's program of conquest and expansion commonly involved the elimination of members of former chiefly houses, Mzilikazi received specially favored treatment and seems to have been left, after the destruction of the Ndwandwe ca.

In , after endangering his position by refusing to surrender to Shaka certain cattle captured in a raid, Mzilikazi fled Zululand. With a few hundred warriors he began a career of conquest that contributed to the Difaqane, a violent upheaval among the South African chiefdoms of the interior, which produced political consolidation in certain areas but left much of the central plateau practically uninhabited.

Shifting westward, in stages, across the Transvaal, Mzilikazi eventually settled at Mosega on the Marico River. The son of Matshobana whom many had considered to be the greatest Southern African military leader after the Zulu king Shaka. In his autobiography, David Livingstone referred to him as the second most impressive leader he encountered on the African Continent. The territory of the Northern Khumalo was located near the Black Mfolozi River, squeezed between the lands of two strong rival groups: the expanding Mthethwa chiefdom of Dingiswayo and the land of the equally ambitious and much more ferocious Zwide of the Ndwandwe.

Mzilikazi's boyhood was spent in the household of his grandfather Zwide. Inevitably, as he grew to manhood he observed the less powerful Khumalo being drawn into the conflict between Dingiswayo and Zwide.

On the death of Chief Mashobane, who had been murdered by Zwide, Mzilikazi was duly installed as chief of the Northern Khumalo clan. Proving himself a fearless warrior, Mzilikazi soon became one of Shaka's advisers. Shaka's trust, however, was misplaced. Mzilikazi dreamed of being a potentate himself. Dissatisfied with a life of subservience, he plotted to free himself and his people from Shaka's influence. They pounced on the Sotho chief's defenceless rabble and drove away their herds.

Defying Shaka, Mzilikazi refused to give up the spoils of battle and in June , he bolted with his followers. Moving north and northwest, as he pillaged and slaughtered, Mzilikazi rounded up the strong men and women, turning the men into army recruits and the women into concubines for his warriors, his possessions increasing with his power and prestige, and his followers numbering, in due course, more Sotho youths than Zulu.

Having cleared for himself a wide area, in about Mzilikazi temporarily joined forces with Nxaba, a chieftain of the Nguni-speaking Ndzundza Ndebele community who lived in the Middelburg area. Here, he built the royal kraal ekuPhumuleni Place of Rest.

By then, the size of the Khumalo clan was swollen by other Nguni-speakers who had settled in the area. After the arrival of Mzilikazi on the highveld, the name Matabele became especially attached to his fearful hordes, and historians later wrote of this period referring to the Matabele wars. While living among the Ndzundza, Mzilikazi subjugated the old baPedi kingdom of Chief Thulare, killing five of his nine sons, but one son, Sekwati, fled north to the Soutpansberg Mountains, where his people were able to repulse Mzilikazi's attacks.

Mzilikazi settled for a while along the Vaal River until Korana cattle raiders became a threat. In the winter of , Mzilikazi decided to move northwards. Mzilikazi established temporary settlements near present-day Rustenburg, then launched into action against the baKwena, roasting some alive, clubbing most to death, and piling the infants onto mounds of brushwood, which were set ablaze. After falling on the Kwena at Silkaatsnek the Matabele turned on the Po who were easily overwhelmed.

Kgatla Chief Pilane fled to the hills that now bear his name. Mzilikazi ruthlessly, massacred the remaining Tswana groups in the area. Using the Magaliesberg as his centre, Mzilikazi expanded his kingdom, which by then stretched from the Vaal River in the south to the confluence of the Crocodile and Limpopo Rivers.

Between and , Mzilikazi built himself three military strongholds. The largest was Kungwini, situated at the foot of the Wonderboom Mountains on the Apies River, just north of present day Pretoria. Another was Dinaneni, north of the Hartbeespoort Dam, while the third was Hlahlandlela in the territory of the Fokeng near Rustenburg.

By , the total Matabele population numbered about 70, , consisting of the Matabele elite and a vast number who had been enslaved.

Most of the Tswana settlements were desolate. In , Mzilikazi received a visit from Robert Moffat , the Scottish missionary who worked among the Tswana from to Moffat's friendship with Mzilikazi is one of the most remarkable stories to emerge from Southern Africa. Moffat described the king as charming, dignified, good-looking, with a ready smile; and added, had he not himself been present at some executions it would have been hard to believe the man's terrible reputation.

Mzilikazi admired Moffat so much that he honoured him with the name of his own father, Mashobane, and called Moffat the King of Kuruman'. Henceforth, ordered Mzilikazi, all traders and hunters had to enter his country on the road that led from his friend Moffat's mission at Kuruman.