Ancient History

In the 16th Century the Portuguese tried to gain access of the Rozvi Empire, but were soon defeated by the Rozvi people. In 1834 the Matabele [Ndebele] people arrive in Zimbabwe - -- Mzilikazi fleeing Shaka

Mzilikazi Kumalo (King of Matabeleland)

King Mzilikazi, as portrayed by Captain William Cornwallis Harris, circa 1836.
Reign ca. 1820 - 1868
Born ca. 1790
Died 9 September 1868
Matabeleland, buried in a cave at Entumbane, Matobo Hills, Zimbabwe (on 4 November 1868)
Predecessor
Founder (father murdered; formerly a lieutenant Zulu King Shaka)
Heir-Apparent
Kuruman, son of Mzilikazi and royal wife, went missing.
Successor Lobengula
Kuruman (son), Lobengula (son), Nkulumane (son), and many others
Royal House
Kumalo Tribe; founder of the Ndebele people
Father
Matshobana KaMangete (c. late 1700s - c. 1820s),
Mother
Nompethu KaZwide, daughter of Chief Zwide of the Ndwandwe people (tribe).


Mzilikazi (meaning The Path of blood or The Great Road) (ca. 1790 - 9 September 1868), also sometimes called Mosilikatze, was a Southern African king who founded the Matabele kingdom (Mthwakazi), Matabeleland, in what became Rhodesia and is now Zimbabwe. He was born the son of Matshobana near Mkuze, Zululand (now part of South Africa) and died at Ingama, Matabeleland (near Bulawayo, Zimbabwe). Many consider him 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.
He took his tribe, the Khumalo, on an 800 km long journey from Zululand 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.
He was originally a lieutenant of Shaka, but in 1823 he had a quarrel with him and rebelled. Rather than face ritual execution, he fled northwards with his tribe. He first travelled to Mozambique but in 1826 he moved west into the Transvaal due to continued attacks by his enemies. As he conquered the Transvaal he absorbed many members of the conquered Shona and other tribes and established a military despotism. For the next ten years, Mzilikazi dominated the Transvaal.

Shaka

Only known drawing of Shaka standing with the long throwing assegai and the heavy shield in 1824 - four years before his death

Sekuru Kaguvi

Kaguvi or Kagube or Kagubi (Kagube and Kagubi arise out of the failure to pronounce Kaguvi by the Europeans), was a "lion spirit" or mhondoro of the Zezuru Shona people of Zimbabwe.

The name is also given to the spirit's medium, a man called Gumporeshumba (c1870-1898) who was one of the leaders of the Shona Rebellion against European rule in 1896-1897.
Gumboreshumba (meaning: The foot / claws of a lion) also known as Kagubi, lived in Chikwaka's Kraal in the Goromonzi Hill, near Harare Zimbabwe. He was obviously a man of some substance in the area. He was married to a daughter of Chief Mashonganyika whose kraal was some three miles to the south of the Goromonzi Hill and he also had wives from the kraal of headman Gondo which is also in the vicinity of Goromonzi Hill. He became known as a supplier of good luck in hunting and was able to speak to people “from the trees and the rocks”. He was believed to be the spirit husband of the other great Shona spirit, Nehanda. He was a powerful spirit medium, along with Mbuya Nehanda and Mkwati, he was instrumental in organizing the first nationwide resistance (known in Zimbabwe as the First Chimurenga), and known to the then colonial rule as the Rebellion of 1896-7 in the then Rhodesia.
The eye section of Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare under UZ is named in honour of Kaguvi and his medium.

Mbuya Nehanda

Living in the Hills around Mazoe , Zimbabwe , were various sub-chiefs including Wata and Chidamba. In the Chidamba Village lived the famous Shona spirit medium Mbuya Nehanda. She was a powerful woman spirit medium that was committed to upholding traditional Shona culture, she was instrumental in organizing the nationwide resistance to colonial rule during the First Chimurenga of 1896-7. Even Lobengula recognized her as a powerful spiritual medium in the land.

According to historical sources the original Nehanda was daughter of Mutota the first Monomatapa who was living in the escarpment North of Sipolilo in about 1430. Mutota was the founder of the Mutapa state, Mutota also had a son who later became the second Monomatapa, and the son was called Matope. Matope was Nehanda’s half brother, and to increase the power of Matope, Mutota ordered his son to commit incest with his half sister, Nyamhika, who became widely know as Nehanda. This incest ritual is believed to have increased Matope’s ruler and his empire, due to this Matope handed over a portion of his empire to Nehanda who became so powerful and well known that her spirit lived on in the human bodies of various spirit mediums over the years until almost 500 years later when we find it occupying the body of the Mazoe Nehanda. Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana was considered to be the female incarnation of the oracle spirit Nyamhika Nehanda.

As white settlement increased in the land, according to sources Nehanda initially welcomed the occupation by the Pioneers and counseled her followers to be friendly towards them