First Matabele War
First Matabele War | |||||||||
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Part of the Matabele Wars | |||||||||
The Battle of the Shangani (25 October 1893), as depicted by Richard Caton Woodville Jr. (1856–1927) | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
British South Africa Company Tswana (Bechuana) | Ndebele Kingdom | ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
King Lobengula † Mjaan, Chief inDuna | |||||||||
Strength | |||||||||
750 Company troops 1000 Tswana |
80,000 spearmen 20,000 riflemen | ||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
ca. 100[1] | Over 10,000[1] |
The First Matabele War was fought between 1893 and 1894 in modern-day
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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed] 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).[2]
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 white settlers.[3] However, in 1893, a chief in the Victoria district named Gomara refused tribute, asserting 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.)[citation needed] 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 about 40 casualties; this led to their withdrawal. King Lobengula had given stern warning to his fighters when they started the raid. "If you shed one drop of the white man's blood on this raid into Mashonaland, I will have every one of you killed when you return". [4]
Start of the war
There was a delay of 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
A week later, on 1 November, 2,000 Matabele riflemen and 4,000 warriors
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 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.[10] 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 catch up with Lobengula until December 3. Major
Defeat of the Matabele
Death of Lobengula, and submission of the izinDuna
Lobengula died from
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 white people that the king admitted defeat, and offered this money in tribute if the BSAP would turn back.[12] "Gold is the only thing that will stop the white men," Lobengula reportedly said.[13] 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.[12] Two officers' batmen were accused of accepting the gold, then keeping it for themselves and not passing on the message. The evidence against them was inconclusive, but they were found guilty and sentenced to 14 years' hard labour by the Resident Magistrate.[12] 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.[14] The truth of the matter has never been conclusively resolved.[12]
Aftermath
In every step taken by the company, the guiding hand was that of
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 effective. 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 four Maxim guns fought off 5,000 Ndebele warriors.[citation needed]
See also
Notes and references
- Notes
- ^ a b Panton 2015, p. 321.
- ^ Pakenham 1991, pp. 374–375, 389–391.
- ^ Knight-Bruce 1892, Ch. V.
- ^ Burnham 2016, p. 113.
- ^ a b c History Society of Zimbabwe 1993, pp. 5–6
- ^ a b c d Knight 1989, pp. 35–36
- ^ a b Ferguson 2004, p. 188
- ^ a b c Ranger 2010, pp. 14–17
- ^ Ransford 1968, p. 13
- ^ Oliver 1985.
- ^ Hopkins 2002, p. 191
- ^ a b c d Gale 1958, pp. 156–157
- ^ Cary 1968, p. 153
- ^ Marshall Hole 1926, p. 320
- Journal articles
- "1893 Sequence of Events; The Wilson (Shangani) Patrol" (PDF). Centenary of the Matabele War of 1893. Harare: Mashonaland Branch of the History Society of Zimbabwe. 25–26 September 1993. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 January 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2012.
- Ransford, O. N. (July 1968). "'White Man's Camp', Bulawayo". Rhodesiana (18). Salisbury: The Rhodesiana Society: 13–21.
- Bibliography
- ISBN 978-1-78625-958-5.
- Cary, Robert (1968). A Time to Die. Cape Town: Howard Timmins.
- ISBN 978-0465023295.
- Gale, W. D. (1958). Zambezi Sunrise: How Civilisation Came to Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Cape Town: Howard Timmins.
- ISBN 978-0-226-35168-1.
- Knight, Ian (July 1989). Queen Victoria's Enemies: Southern Africa. Oxford: ISBN 978-0-85045-901-2.
- Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.
- Marshall Hole, Hugh (1926). The Making of Rhodesia. London: Macmillan Publishers.
- Oliver, Roland Anthony (1985). The Cambridge history of Africa. Vol. 6 : From 1870 to 1905. Cambridge: University Press. ISBN 9780512228031.
- Pakenham, Thomas (1991). The Scramble For Africa: White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876 to 1912. New York: ISBN 0-380-71999-1.
- Panton, Kenneth J. (2015). Historical Dictionary of the British Empire. London: ISBN 978-0810878013.
- ISBN 978-1847010209.
External links
- "Britain Matabele War 1893". Armed Conflict Events Database. Archived from the original on 2012-02-24. Retrieved 2014-03-18.
- "Map of the First Matabele War". Retrieved 2014-03-18.