Mzilikazi, African King of Matabeleland

Mzilikazi (1790 - September 9, 1868) was a Southern African king who founded the Matabele Kingdom, Matabeleland. He was originally a lieutenant of Shaka but had a quarrel with him in 1823 and rebelled. Rather than face ritual execution, he fled northwards with his people, the Khumalo, on an 500 mile journey from the Zulu Kingdom to what is now called Zimbabwe. Along the way, he showed considerable statesmanship, as he was able to weld his own people and the many tribes he conquered into a large and ethnically diverse but centralized kingdom. While Mzilikazi was generally friendly to European travelers, he remained mindful about the danger that they posed to his kingdom and, in later years, he refused some visitors any access to his realm. The many European travelers who met with Mzilikazi include Henry Hartley the hunter and explorer, Robert Moffat the missionary, David Hume the explorer and trader, Andrew Smith the medical doctor, ethnologist and zoologist, William Cornwallis Harris the hunter and the missionary explorer David Livingstone. Image taken from page 158: The Wild Sports of Southern Africa by William Cornwallis Harris, 1839

Picture No

12696984

Media ID

47683955

Size

3241px x 4350px (2.1MB)

Credit

British Library/Science Source/Mary Evans