| First Matabele War | |||||||||
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| Part of the Matabele Wars | |||||||||
Bulawayo native, ca 1890. |
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| United Kingdom British South Africa Police Tswana (Bechuana) |
Ndebele (Matabele) | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Cecil Rhodes Leander Starr Jameson Major Allan Wilson† Major Patrick Forbes Khama III |
King Lobengula† Mjaan, chief inDuna |
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| Strength | |||||||||
| 750 BSA Police troops 700 Tswana |
80,000 spearmen 20,000 riflemen |
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| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| ca. 100 | Over 10,000 | ||||||||
The First Matabele War was fought in 1893-1894 between the British South Africa Company military forces and the Ndebele (Matabele) people. 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 (units of Zulu warriors) 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 Tswana (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.
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The British government agreed that the British South Africa Company (BSAC) would administer the territory stretching from the Limpopo to Lake Tanganyika under charter as a protectorate. Queen Victoria signed the charter in 1889. Cecil Rhodes used this document in 1890 to justify sending the Pioneer Column, a group of settlers protected by well-armed British South Africa Police (BSAP) and guided by the big game hunter Frederick Selous, through Matabeleland and into Shona territory to establish Fort Salisbury (now Harare).
Throughout 1891 and 1892, Lobengula ensured that his raiding parties were directed away from their main target areas of Mashonaland and so precluded possible clashes between his zealous young commanders and the settlers.[1] However, in 1893, a chief in the Victoria district refused tribute feeling that he was now under the protection of the laws of the settlers. In order to save face, Lobengula was impelled to send a raiding party of several thousand warriors to bring his vassal to heel. The raiding party destroyed several villages and murdered many of the inhabitants. (In this they were more restrained than usual as they generally abducted the suitably aged young men and women and killed everyone else.) However, the local BSA Company administration felt that they had to intervene to avoid losing the confidence of the local people who complained that they were not being given any support against the raid. As a result the Company officials demanded from the raiders that they leave immediately. The Ndebele refused and in the hostilities that developed the Ndebele sustained an unknown number of casualties; this led to their withdrawal.
There was a delay just over two months (August to October) while Jameson corresponded with Rhodes in Cape Town and considered how to amass enough troops to undertake an invasion of Matabeleland.
The first battle in the war occurred on November 1, 1893 when the laager was attacked on open ground a few miles from the Bembesi River. The laager consisted of 670 British soldiers, 400 of whom were mounted along with a small force of native allies fought off the Imbezu and Ingubu regiments, the oldest and most battle-hardened regiments of Lobengula, estimated by Sir John Willoughby to number 1,700 warriors in all. The laager had with it a small artillery of five Maxim guns, two seven-pounders, one Gardner gun, and one Hotchkiss. The Maxim guns took centre stage and decimated the native force. The Ndebele dashed right up to the muzzles of the guns, but were swept down before the modern rifles and machine guns with which the invaders were armed. Other Ndebele regiments were waiting in ambush in woodland further along the route but this force took no part in the fighting and withdrew after the defeat of their comrades.
Jameson determined that the quickest way to end the war would be to march to Bulawayo, the headquarters of Lobengula and the capital of Matabeleland, and capture the king. The colonial force consisted of two columns: Victoria Column with about 400 men, under Major Allan Wilson, and the United Salisbury Column with less than 300 men under Major Patrick Forbes. An additional of 700 Bechuanas marching from the south under Khama, the most influential of the Bamangwato chiefs and a loyal friend of the British, would meet up with the two colonial columns.
The column of Khama's men from the south had reached the Tati, and won a victory on the Singuesi river on 2 November. Advanced scouts for the colonial forces, including Burnham and Selous, reached Bulawayo that same day, only to watch as Lobengula blew up his arsenal of ammunition rather than allow it to be captured by the British. The town, mostly made up of wood-beam huts with mud (dagga) walls, was largely destroyed.[2] On 3 November, Bulawayo was reached by the Victoria column from Mashonaland, accompanied by Jameson and Sir John Willoughby. By this time, Lobengula and his warriors were in full flight towards the Zambezi. An attempt was made to induce Lobengula to surrender, but no replies were received to the messages. The United Salisbury Column later arrived in Bulawayo, and on 13 November, Major Patrick Forbes organized his column and started in pursuit of Lobengula.
The pursuing party was delayed by difficult routes and heavy rains, and did not come up with Lobengula until the 3rd of December. Major Allan Wilson, in command of thirty-four troopers, crossed the Shangani river in advance, and bivouacked close to Lobengula's quarters. Efforts by Forbes to reinforce Wilson's patrol were too little and too late to make a difference. In the night the river rose, and the remainder of Forbes' forces were unable to cross. During the early morning the Matabele surrounded the little band.
Wilson and his followers all fought most gallantly, according Ndebele reports, but the opposing forces were too great. Except for three scouts, who under orders from Wilson, miraculously crossed the swollen Shangani and returned to Forbes to request reinforcements (the Americans Frederick Russell Burnham and Pearl "Pete" Ingram, and an Australian named Gooding), all 32 men of the Wilson party, known as the Shangani Patrol perished in what is viewed roughly as British/Rhodesian equivalent to Custer's Last Stand.
Lobengula eventually died under somewhat mysterious circumstances sometime in January 1894. The Ndebele warriors gradually succumbed to the superior British firepower and, after the king’s death, Ndebele izinDuna submitted to the British South Africa Company. An order in council of the 18th of July defined the administrative power of the company over Matabeleland. Charges were made in the British House of Commons against the company of having provoked the Ndebele in order to bring on the war and thus secure their territory, but after enquiry the company was exonerated from the charge by Lord Ripon, then Colonial Secretary. It was also discovered that Lobengula had in fact sent to Jameson gold dust worth about £1000, and communicated his desire for peace, but two troopers to whom the gold and message were entrusted kept the gold and suppressed the message. Their crime was afterwards discovered and the troopers sentenced to fourteen years' penal servitude, although they were released after just a few months due to technicalities.
In every step taken by the company the guiding hand was that of Cecil Rhodes, a fact which received recognition when, by a proclamation of 3 May 1895, the company's territory received officially the name "Rhodesia". During this year there was great activity in exploiting Matabeleland, " Stands " or plots were sold at extraordinary prices in Bulawayo. Within nine months the rebuilt town of Bulawayo had a population of 1,900 colonials and in the various goldfields there were over 2,000 colonial prospectors. The construction of telegraphs proceeded with rapidity and by the end of 1895, 500 m. of new lines had been constructed, making about 1,500 in all. A new company, the African Transcontinental Company, had been founded under the auspices of Col. Frank Rhodes, brother of Cecil, with the ultimate purpose of connecting the Cape with Cairo. By the end of 1895, 133 m. of these lines had been laid. At this time too, the railway from Cape Town, Cape Colony had passed Mafeking and was approaching the Rhodesian frontier. This railway reached Bulawayo in 1897. Meanwhile on the east coast the line to connect Salisbury (now Harare) with Beira, Mozambique (then Portuguese East Africa Colony) was under construction and this was completed in 1899.
The First Matabele War was the first wartime use of a Maxim gun by Britain and it proved to have a decisive impact. In less than optimal situations, such as hilly or mountainous terrain or dense vegetation with poor lines of sight, the Maxim gun resulted in little direct impact on enemy deaths. But as a psychological weapon, the Maxim gun was truly phenomenal. It generated a sense of fear in the Ndebele and made the British South Africa Police seem invincible. In one engagement, for example, 50 British soldiers with just four Maxim guns fought off 5,000 Ndebele warriors.
