AFRICANWARSAND WHITEINVADERS
highveld. In about
182
I, one of Shaka's allies, a chief named Mzilikazi,
fled over the escarpment to the highveld with a small band of warriors.
There, they became known as Ndebele (Nguni) or Matabele (Sotho). Using
Zulu military methods, they carved out a state between the Vaal and the
Limpopo rivers, conquering several Sotho and Tswana chiefdoms and
incorporating many of their people as subordinates, exacting tribute from
others, and, like the Zulu, sending irnpis out to terrorize more distant
cornrnunities.V
Other states were developing on the periphery of the areas dominated by
the Zulu and the Ndebele. Several militant bands of refugees from the
northern Nguni area, enthused with similar zeal for conquest, struggled to
establish themselves in modern Mozambique. The most successful were
those led by Soshangane, who created the Gaza kingdom there and drove
out others led by Zwangendaba
and Nxaba, who eventually carved out
new chieftaincies for themselves in parts of modern Malawi, Zambia, and
Tanzania. Similarly, a Sotho community known as the Kololo, harrassed by
the Ndebele, fled northward from the highveld and eventually founded a
kingdom in modern Zambia. In mountainous territory northwest of the