Lobengula

King of the Ndebele (r. 1870-1894)

• Born: c. 1836
• Birthplace: Near Pretoria, Transvaal (now in South Africa)
• Died: January 1, 1894
• Place of death: Near Bulawayo, Matabeleland (now in

Lobengula was the second and last independent ruler of the Ndebele kingdom, which dominated what is now Zimbabwe before it was colonized. Tricked into signing a treaty he could not fully understand, he lost control of his kingdom to a chartered British company headed by Cecil Rhodes.

Early Life

Little is known about the early life of Lobengula (loh-behn-GEW-lah) beyond the fact that he was born in the western part of the Transvaal around the time that the Ndebele kingdom was preparing to move north to relocate in the southwestern part of what is now Zimbabwe—a region that became known as Matabeleland. Lobengula was the son of the Ndebele founder-king Mzilikazi by a Swazi princess. As his mother was considered one of his father’s lesser wives, he was not next in line for the kingship when his father died in September, 1868. However, the recognized heir, Nkulumane, had disappeared during the Ndebele migration into Matabeleland a generation earlier, and Lobengula was installed as king in 1870.

Lobengula was known for his intelligence and prodigious memory, both of which served him well in royal council meetings. Standing more than six feet tall and weighing a prodigious amount, Lobengula had a commanding presence. As a first act of his rule, he moved from his father’s palace at Mhlahlandela and built a new chief village at Bulawayo. He then extended Ndebele domination over the Shona-speaking tribes to the north and east and eventually came to rule much of the region of what is now Zimbabwe.

Lobengula was only the second ruler of the Ndebele kingdom. His father, Mzilikazi, created the kingdom after breaking away from service to the famous Zulu conqueror Shaka around 1822. He then established his own power base on the interior highlands of the Transvaal, using the Zulu fighting methods perfected by Shaka. In their new home in Matabeleland, the Ndebele (who were known to their Sotho- and Tswana-speaking neighbors as “Matabele”) enjoyed much greater security than they had had in a series of settlements in the Transvaal during the 1820’s and 1830’s, when they had been repeatedly attacked by the Zulu, Afrikaners (Boers), and Griquas.

As Lobengula settled into power in Matabeleland during the 1870’s, far to the south, the English immigrantCecil Rhodes was making a fortune from his consolidation of the chaotic diamond mines at Kimberley. During the mid-1880’s, he began making a second fortune in the new Witwatersrand gold mines of the Transvaal. Meanwhile, he and his associates were taking an increasing interest in the rumored mineral wealth of the Zimbabwe plateau, which had been known in earlier centuries for its gold mines.

Life’s Work

Lobengula was a popular figure among the few European traders, hunters, and missionaries who entered his kingdom during the 1870’s, and he gained a reputation for kindness to visitors. In 1875, he permitted the British missionary Charles Helm to establish the Hope Fountain Mission near Bulawayo. Over the years, he came to trust Helm. In 1879, Lobengula permitted three Jesuit missionaries to travel through Matabeleland, but he did not permit them to proselytize to his subjects.

In 1880, agents sent by Cecil Rhodes arrived at Bulawayo to negotiate concessions to prospect for gold in one limited part of the Matabeleland, in return for annual payments to Lobengula. The king signed the concession in September and renewed it the following year. In 1887, he signed two additional concessions. The holders of the mining concessions faithfully made the required payments to Lobengula in order to build a relationship of trust.

In early 1888, John Smith Moffat came to Bulawayo as an agent of the British government. His task was to convince Lobengula of the advantages he would receive by signing a treaty of friendship with the British. Moffat was a former missionary in Matabeleland and was also the son of the missionary Robert Moffat, who had been Mzilikazi’s most trusted European friend and adviser. Moffat’s past connections with the Ndebele kingdom placed him in a special position of trust with Lobengula, to whom he conveyed the idea that if he were to sign a treaty of friendship with the British government, he had everything to gain and nothing to lose. Such a treaty, Moffat promised, would protect Ndebele lands from the expansion of the Afrikaners, provide him with an annual income and arms, and develop Ndebele mineral wealth. After Lobengula signed the so-called Moffat Treaty on February 11, the path was cleared for Rhodes to send his own delegation later in the year.

In August, 1888, a three-man team led by Rhodes’s business partner Charles Rudd arrived in Bulawayo to negotiate a new treaty that would give a syndicate headed by Rhodes a mineral rights concession. During negotiations that lasted two months, many members of Lobengula’s royal council expressed their doubts about the wisdom of permitting European mining interests into their domain. However, the promise of a payment of one hundred pounds sterling per month and delivery of one thousand modern rifles with 100,000 rounds of ammunition in return for what appeared to be merely the right for a small number of British miners to explore for gold seemed too good an offer for Lobengula to turn down.

Before signing what became known as the Rudd Concession, Lobengula had his trusted friend Charles Helm translate the provisions of the treaty for him. This proved to be a costly mistake. Over the years, Helm had grown frustrated over the resistance of the Ndebele to Christian proselytizing and Lobengula’s own lack of interest in changing traditional belief systems. Helm perceived that removal of Lobengula might open Ndebele society to Christianity. He therefore knowingly mistranslated a clause of the treaty that gave Rhodes’s syndicate broad permission to take “whatever action they considered necessary” to exploit Ndebele mineral wealth. Without realizing it, Lobengula surrendered legal control of his country when he signed the concession on October 30, 1888.

With the Rudd Concession document in hand, Rhodes traveled to London to obtain permission to settle Central Africa under the auspices of the British government. In October, 1889, Queen Victoria signed a charter authorizing the newly created British South Africa Company (BSAC) to take control of territories north of the Limpopo River. As head of the chartered company, Rhodes was empowered to act as he wished without first obtaining government permission. He could make treaties, pass laws, and exercise police powers over the native population.

When Lobengula discovered that he had been deceived, he angrily protested to Queen Victoria and renounced the Rudd Concession. His protests, however, went unheeded. In 1890, the BSAC sent two hundred “pioneers” into Shonaland—over which the Ndebele had exercised control for four decades—accompanied by two hundred heavily armed guards. This so-called Pioneer Column was led by Rhodes’s close associate, Dr. Leander Starr Jameson. In September, the column established a township that they named Salisbury, after the serving British foreign minister. (That location is now the capital of Zimbabwe, Harare.) The members of the column and those who followed them were soon disappointed by the pitifully small amounts of gold that they found in the remains of mines that had been depleted centuries earlier. However, Rhodes had other plans to satisfy the pioneers and his company stockholders. Large tracks of fertile land, large cattle herds, and a mild climate made Lobengula’s domain an appealing region for European settlement. The BSAC’s offering of six-thousand-acre tracts attracted a flood of settlers to Mashonaland. By the turn of the twentieth century, more than 16 million acres would be settled by Europeans.

Meanwhile, Lobengula was becoming increasingly militant. When he sent a raiding party into a Shona village near the British base at Fort Victoria in July, 1893, the local settlers demanded that the company retaliate. It is unlikely that Lobengula—who never received rifles promised under the Rudd Concession—wanted war with the British. Nevertheless, in October, 1893, heavily armed forces under Jameson’s command converged on Bulawayo. Lobengula’s efforts to negotiate a peace were ignored. In several pitched battles, more than three thousand Ndebele warriors, armed mainly with spears and cowhide shields, died under the withering fire of Gatling guns and rifles, while Jameson’s force suffered only one casualty. After having Bulawayo put to the torch, Lobengula fled north with his few remaining loyal warriors. He continued to send out emissaries to arrange for negotiations but failed to connect with the enemy commanders.

Lobengula’s exact fate is unknown. He appears to have died from some disease in January, 1894. His remains were never found by the British. After Lobengula’s death was reported, Jameson declared that all Ndebele land and cattle were the property of the BSAC. The company’s defeat of Lobengula was more a symbolic victory than a complete conquest of the Ndebele, most of whom were little affected by their king’s fall. However, major risings of both the Ndebele and the Shona peoples in 1896 were soundly crushed, and company control over most of present Zimbabwe was complete.

Significance

Lobengula’s life is significant for what it reveals about nineteenth century Africa. His father was caught in the tidal wave of Zulu expansion into South Africa, successfully breaking away to form his own kingdom. Both he and Lobengula expanded their rule to dominate the Shona people of Mashonaland. Lobengula’s possible involvement in the elimination of Nkulumane, the rightful successor to the kingship, and his harsh exploitation of Shona communities indicate a ruthless side to his nature.

On the other hand, Lobengula’s reign also illustrates the even more unscrupulous nature of European imperialism. Lobengula was duped into signing over control of his kingdom to a company created by England’s most ambitious imperialist, Cecil Rhodes. Lobengula signed away not only mining concessions but also the farmland, cattle, and basic livelihoods of the Ndebele and Shona tribes. His domain later became the British crown colony of Southern Rhodesia, the vast majority of whose people became less than second-class citizens.

The great “scam” perpetrated on Lobengula forms a dismal chapter in the ethically bleak period after 1870, when European powers scrambled for control of Africa. The end result of Lobengula’s downfall was the creation of a state in which a tiny European minority controlled the majority population. The descendants of the original European settlers in Rhodesia would pay a heavy price more than a century later, when the African government of independent Zimbabwe began seizing the rich lands of the country’s remaining white farmers for redistribution to African citizens.

Bibliography

Bhebe, Ngwabi. Lobengula of Zimbabwe. London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1977. Brief illustrated account of Lobengula’s life for African schools by an Ndebele historian.

Cloete, Stuart. African Portraits: A Biography of Paul Kruger, Cecil Rhodes, and Lobengula, the Last King of the Matabele. London: Simon, 2001. Originally published in 1969, this book contains clear biographical sketches of Lobengula and his nemesis, Cecil Rhodes.

Glass, Stafford. The Matabele War. London: Longmans, 1968. Fullest scholarly account of the war that ended Lobengula’s reign.

Rubert, Steven C., and R. Kent Rasmussen. Historical Dictionary of Zimbabwe. 3d ed. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2001. Comprehensive reference work on Zimbabwe history that contains lengthy entries on the Ndebele, Lobengula, Jameson, Rhodes, and many other related subjects that are written by a specialist in Ndebele history.

Samkange, Stanlake. On Trial for My Country. London: Heinemann Education Books, 1967. Novel by an Ndebele historian in which Lobengula is called to account for the loss of his kingdom.

Watt, Duncan. Legacy of Lobengula. Singapore: Graham Brash, 1996. A study of the role played by Lobengula’s fall in the development of Rhodesia.