Lobengula

Lobengula Khumalo ( 1835 – 1894) was the second and last official king of Mthwakazi (historically called Matabeleland in English). Both names in the Ndebele language mean "the men of the long shields", a reference to the Ndebele warriors' use of the Nguni shield.

== Background == The Matabele were descendants of a faction of the Zulu people who fled Transvaal in South Africa after the Boers invaded the area running away from the English in the Cape Colony. Mzilikazi settled in Transvaal after running away from Shaka in KwaZulu-Natal. Shaka's military, Mzilikazi led his followers away from Zulu territory after a falling-out. In the late 1830s, they settled in Transvaal. He was ruthless and he pillaged and slaughtered, Mzilikazi rounded up the strong men and women, turning the men into army recruits and the women into concubines for his warriors, his possessions increasing with his power and prestige, and his followers numbering, in due course, more Sotho youths than Zulu. He made himself a king of the Transvaal area. Between 1827 and 1832, Mzilikazi built himself three military strongholds. The largest was Kungwini, situated at the foot of the Wonderboom Mountains on the Apies River, just north of present day Pretoria. Another was Dinaneni, north of the Hartbeespoort Dam, while the third was Hlahlandlela in the territory of the Fokeng near Rustenburg.