NAME: MUGANDE PROGRESS
[Link]: 2011/561
SUBJECT: NASS PERSONAL NOTES
TOPIC: FIRST NDEBELE WAR
The First Matabele War was fought between 1893 and 1894 in the country today called
Zimbabwe. It pitted the British South Africa Company against the Ndebele (Matabele)
Kingdom. Lobengula, king of the Ndebele, had tried to avoid outright war with the
company's pioneers because he and his advisors were mindful of the destructive power of
European-produced weapons on traditional Matabele impis (units of Zulu warriors) attacking
in massed ranks. Lobengula had 80,000 spearmen and 20,000 riflemen, armed with nine-
pound Martini-Henrys, which were modern arms at that time. However, poor training meant
that these were not used effectively. The British South Africa Company had no more than
750 troops in the British South Africa Company's Police, with an undetermined number of
possible colonial volunteers and an additional 700 Tswana (Bechuana) allies. Cecil Rhodes,
who was Prime Minister of the Cape Colony and Leander Starr Jameson, the Administrator
of Mashonaland also tried to avoid war to prevent loss of confidence in the future of the
territory. Matters came to a head when Lobengula approved a raid to forcibly extract tribute
from a Mashona chief in the district of the town of Fort Victoria, which inevitably led to a
clash with the Company.
Events leading to war
The British government agreed that the British South Africa Company would administer the
territory stretching from the Limpopo to the Zambezi under royal charter. Queen Victoria
signed the charter in 1889. Cecil Rhodes used this document in 1890 to justify sending the
Pioneer Column, a group of settlers protected by well-armed British South Africa Company's
Police (BSAP) and guided by the big game hunter Frederick Selous, through Matabeleland
and into Shona territory to establish Fort Salisbury (now Harare).
NAME: MUGANDE PROGRESS
[Link]: 2011/561
SUBJECT: NASS PERSONAL NOTES
TOPIC: FIRST NDEBELE WAR
Throughout 1891 and 1892, Lobengula ensured that his raiding parties were directed away
from their main target areas of Mashonaland and so precluded possible clashes between his
zealous young commanders and the settlers.[1] However, in 1893, a chief in the Victoria
district refused tribute feeling that he was now under the protection of the laws of the settlers.
In order to save face, Lobengula was impelled to send a raiding party of several thousand
warriors to bring his vassal to heel. The raiding party destroyed several villages and murdered
many of the inhabitants. (In this they were more restrained than usual as they generally
abducted the suitably aged young men and women and killed everyone else.) However, the
local British South Africa Company administration felt that they had to intervene to avoid
losing the confidence of the local people who complained that they were not being given any
support against the raid. As a result the Company officials demanded from the raiders that
they leave immediately. The Ndebele refused and in the hostilities that developed the
Ndebele sustained an unknown number of casualties; this led to their withdrawal.
Start of the war
There was a delay just over two months (August to October) while Jameson corresponded
with Rhodes in Cape Town and considered how to amass enough troops to undertake an
invasion of Matabeleland.
BSAP columns rode from Fort Salisbury and Fort Victoria, and combined at Iron Mine Hill,
around the centre point of the country, on 16 October 1893.[2] Together the force totalled
about 700 men, commanded by Major Patrick Forbes and equipped with five Maxim machine
guns. Forbes' combined column moved on the Matabele king's capital at Bulawayo, to the
NAME: MUGANDE PROGRESS
[Link]: 2011/561
SUBJECT: NASS PERSONAL NOTES
TOPIC: FIRST NDEBELE WAR
south-west. An additional force of 700 Bechuanas marched on Bulawayo from the south
under Khama III, the most influential of the Bamangwato chiefs, and a staunch ally of the
British. The Matabele army mobilised to prevent Forbes from reaching the city, and twice
engaged the column as it approached: on 25 October, 3,500 warriors assaulted the column
near the Shangani River.[3] Lobengula's troops were well-drilled and formidable by pre-
colonial African standards, but the pioneers' Maxim guns, which had never before been used
in battle, far exceeded expectations, according to an eyewitness "mow[ing] them down
literally like grass".[4] By the time the Matabele withdrew, they had suffered around 1,500
fatalities; the BSAP, on the other hand, had lost only four men.[4] A week later, on 1
November, 2,000 Matabele riflemen and 4,000 warriors attacked Forbes at Bembesi, about 30
miles (48 km) north-east of Bulawayo,[3] but again they were no match for the crushing
firepower of the major's Maxims: about 2,500 more Matabele were killed.[3] Lobengula fled
Bulawayo as soon as he heard the news from Bembesi.[3] On reaching the outskirts of
Bulawayo on 3 November 1893, the pioneers blew up the magazine there, setting the royal
town ablaze.[2] They marched into the settlement the next day, set up base in the "White
Man's Camp" already present, and nailed the company flag and the Union Jack to a
conveniently placed tree.[5] The reconstruction of Bulawayo began almost as soon as the fires
were out, with a new white-run city rising atop the ruins of Lobengula's former residence.[6]
Destruction of Bulawayo
The column of Khama's men from the south had reached the Tati River, and won a victory on
the Singuesi river on 2 November. Advanced scouts for the colonial forces, including
Burnham and Selous, reached Bulawayo that same day, only to watch as Lobengula blew up
NAME: MUGANDE PROGRESS
[Link]: 2011/561
SUBJECT: NASS PERSONAL NOTES
TOPIC: FIRST NDEBELE WAR
his arsenal of ammunition rather than allow it to be captured by the company. The town,
mostly made up of wood-beam huts with mud (dagga) walls, was largely destroyed.[7] On 3
November, Bulawayo was reached by the Victoria column from Mashonaland, accompanied
by Jameson and Sir John Willoughby. By this time, Lobengula and his warriors were in full
flight towards the Zambezi. An attempt was made to induce Lobengula to surrender, but no
replies were received to the messages. The United Salisbury Column later arrived in
Bulawayo, and on 13 November, Major Patrick Forbes organized his column and started in
pursuit of Lobengula.
Shangani Patrol
The pursuing party was delayed by difficult routes and heavy rains, and did not come up with
Lobengula until the 3rd of December. Major Allan Wilson, in command of thirty-four
troopers, crossed the Shangani river in advance, and bivouacked close to Lobengula's
quarters. Efforts by Forbes to reinforce Wilson's patrol were too little and too late to make a
difference. In the night the river rose, and the remainder of Forbes' forces were unable to
cross. During the early morning the Matabele surrounded the little band.
Wilson and his followers all fought most gallantly, according Ndebele reports, but the
opposing forces were too great. Except for three scouts, who under orders from Wilson,
miraculously crossed the swollen Shangani and returned to Forbes to request reinforcements
(the Americans Frederick Russell Burnham and Pearl "Pete" Ingram, and an Australian
named Gooding), all 34 men of the Wilson party, known as the Shangani Patrol perished in
what is viewed roughly as a Rhodesian equivalent to Custer's Last Stand.
NAME: MUGANDE PROGRESS
[Link]: 2011/561
SUBJECT: NASS PERSONAL NOTES
TOPIC: FIRST NDEBELE WAR
Defeat of the Matabele
Death of Lobengula, and submission of the izinDuna
Lobengula eventually died from smallpox on 22 or 23 January 1894. Meanwhile, the Ndebele
warriors gradually succumbed to the company's superior firepower. Soon after the king’s
death, Ndebele izinDuna submitted to the British South Africa Company. An order in council
of 18 July defined the administrative power of the company over Matabeleland. Charges were
made in the British House of Commons against the company of having provoked the Ndebele
in order to bring on the war and thus secure their territory, but after enquiry the company was
exonerated from the charge by Lord Ripon, then Colonial Secretary.
Lobengula's box of sovereigns
Following the end of the war, one of Lobengula's izinDuna said that just before Forbes'
column had reached the Shangani on 3 December 1893, the king had attempted to buy the
pioneers off. According to this story, two Matabele messengers, Petchan and Sehuloholu, had
been given a box of gold sovereigns, and instructed to intercept the column before it reached
the river. They were to tell the whites that the king admitted defeat, and offered this money in
tribute if the BSAP would turn back.[9] "Gold is the only thing that will stop the white men,"
Lobengula reportedly said.[10] Petchan and Sehuloholu reportedly reached the column on 2
December 1893, and gave the money and the message to two men in the rear guard. No man
who had been attached to the column confirmed this, but company authorities thought it
unlikely that the Matabele would simply invent such a story.[9] Two officers' batmen were
accused of accepting the gold, then keeping it for themselves and not passing on the message.
NAME: MUGANDE PROGRESS
[Link]: 2011/561
SUBJECT: NASS PERSONAL NOTES
TOPIC: FIRST NDEBELE WAR
The evidence against them was inconclusive, but they were found guilty and sentenced to 14
years' hard labour by the Resident Magistrate.[9] They were released after two years, however,
because the maximum term the Magistrate could give was three months; the convictions were
ultimately quashed altogether on a re-assessment of the evidence by the High Commissioner's
legal team.[11] The truth of the matter has never been conclusively resolved.[9]
Aftermath
In every step taken by the company the guiding hand was that of Cecil Rhodes, a fact which
received recognition when, by a proclamation of 3 May 1895, the company's territory
received officially the name "Rhodesia". During this year there was great activity in
exploiting Matabeleland, " Stands " or plots were sold at extraordinary prices in Bulawayo.
Within nine months the rebuilt town of Bulawayo had a population of 1,900 colonials and in
the various goldfields there were over 2,000 colonial prospectors. The construction of
telegraphs proceeded with rapidity and by the end of 1895, 500 m. of new lines had been
constructed, making about 1,500 in all. A new company, the African Transcontinental
Company, had been founded under the auspices of Col. Frank Rhodes, brother of Cecil, with
the ultimate purpose of connecting the Cape with Cairo. By the end of 1895, 133 m. of these
lines had been laid. At this time too, the railway from Cape Town, Cape Colony had passed
Mafeking and was approaching the Rhodesian frontier. This railway reached Bulawayo in
1897. Meanwhile on the east coast the line to connect Salisbury (now Harare) with Beira,
Mozambique (then Portuguese East Africa Colony) was under construction and this was
completed in 1899.
NAME: MUGANDE PROGRESS
[Link]: 2011/561
SUBJECT: NASS PERSONAL NOTES
TOPIC: FIRST NDEBELE WAR
Maxim gun
The First Matabele War was the first wartime use of a Maxim gun by Britain and it proved to
have a decisive impact. In less than optimal situations, such as hilly or mountainous terrain or
dense vegetation with poor lines of sight, the Maxim gun resulted in little direct impact on
enemy deaths. But as a psychological weapon, the Maxim gun was truly phenomenal. It
generated a sense of fear in the Ndebele and made the British South Africa Police seem
invincible. In one engagement, for example, 50 company soldiers with just four Maxim guns
fought off 5,000 Ndebele warriors.
