Military History of Zimbabwe - Second Matabele War

Second Matabele War

The Second Matabele War—or the First Chimurenga, as it is often called in modern Zimbabwe—comprised revolts against British South Africa Company rule by the Ndebele and Shona peoples during 1896 and 1897.

According to UNESCO General History of Africa - VII Africa under Colonial Domination 1880-1935, the "Chimurenga, as the Shona termed their form of armed resistance, began in March 1896 in Matabeleland and June in Mashonaland. The first casualty was an African policeman employed by the British South Africa Company, killed 20 March. The first attack upon Europeans occurred in the town of Essexvale on 22 march, when seven Europeans and two Africans were killed ... Within a week, 130 Europeans had been killed in Matabeleland. Africans were armed with martin -Henry rifles, Lee Metfords, elephant guns, muskets and bludenerbusses, as well as with the traditional spears, axes, knobkerries and bows and arrows".

Mlimo, the Ndebele spiritual/religious leader, is credited with fomenting much of the anger that led to this confrontation. He convinced the Ndebele and Shona that the white settlers (almost 4,000 strong by then) were responsible for the drought, locust plagues and the cattle disease rinderpest ravaging the country at the time. Mlimo's call to battle was well timed. Only a few months earlier, the British South Africa Company's Administrator General for Matabeleland, Leander Starr Jameson, had sent most of his troops and armaments to fight the Transvaal Republic in the ill-fated Jameson Raid. This left the country’s defenses in disarray. The Ndebele began their revolt in March 1896, and in June 1896 they were joined by the Shona.

The British South Africa Company immediately sent troops to suppress the Ndebele and the Shona, but it took months for the British to re-capture their major colonial fortifications under siege by native warriors. Mlimo was eventually assassinated in his temple in Matobo Hills by the American scout Frederick Russell Burnham. Upon learning of the death of Mlimo, Cecil Rhodes boldly walked unarmed into the native's stronghold and persuaded the impi to lay down their arms. The war thus ended in October 1897.