Portal:Zimbabwe/Featured article/March 2008

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The first Matabele War was fought in 1893 between the British South Africa Company military forces and the Ndebele nation. Lobengula, king of the Ndebele, avoided outright war with the British settlers because he and his advisors were mindful of the destructive power of the European weapons on traditional Matabele impis attacking in massed ranks. Lobengula had 80 000 spearmen and 20 000 riflemen, armed with nine pound Martini-Henrys which were modern arms at that time. However, poor training meant that these were not effective weapons. The British South Africa Company had no more than 750 BSA Police troops with an undetermined number of possible colonial volunteers and an additional 700 Bechuana allies. Cecil Rhodes, who was Prime Minister of the Cape Colony and Leander Starr Jameson, the Administrator of Mashonaland also avoided war to prevent loss of confidence in the future of the territory. Matters came to a head when Lobengula approved a raid to forcibly extract tribute from a Mashona chief in the district of the town of Fort Victoria, which inevitably led to a clash with the BSA Company.