Analyse the means by which mzilikazi built the ndebele kingdom and identify its main features.
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mzilikazi
Synopsis:
King of the Matabele
Title: King
First name: Mzilikazi
Last name: Mzilikazi
Date of birth: ca. 1790, Mkuze
Location of birth: Mkuze, Zululand
Date of death: 9 September 1868
Location of death: Matabeleland, Entumbane, Matopo Hills, Zimbabwe
Mzilikazi (meaning The Great Road), was a Southern African king who founded the Matabele kingdom (Mthwakazi), Matabeleland, in what became Rhodesia and is now Zimbabwe. He was born ca. 1790 near Mkuze, Zululand (now part of South Africa). The son of Matshobana whom many had considered 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.
The territory of the Northern Khumalo was located near the Black Mfolozi River, squeezed between the lands of two strong rival groups: the expanding Mthethwa chiefdom of Dingiswayo and the land of the equally ambitious and much more ferocious Zwide of the Ndwandwe. Mzilikazi's boyhood was spent in the household of his grandfather Zwide. Inevitably, as he grew to manhood he observed the less powerful Khumalo being drawn into the conflict between Dingiswayo and Zwide.
On the death of Chief Mashobane, who had been murdered by Zwide, Mzilikazi was duly installed as chief of the Northern Khumalo clan. But, after Dingiswayo's death, instead of siding with Zwide, in exchange for the protection of his people, Mzilikazi swore allegiance to Shaka, who had risen to power as a commander of Dingiswayo's army and had usurped the Zulu chieftainship and taken over the Mthethwa confederacy after Dingiswayo’s death.