Lobengula

King Lobengula

Lobengula (* 1833 ; † January 23, 1894 in Matabeleland ) was the second and last king of the Matabele kingdom in southern Africa .

Lobengula took over the rule from his father Mzilikazi after his death in 1868. Lobengula was a ruler of imposing figure and married to 68 women, but had no heir to the throne. Contemporaries describe Lobengula as a ruler who acted with draconian severity towards members of his tribe in order to subordinate them to his autocratic regime. He was so feared among his own kind that after a lost battle in the Matabele War, his general Unondo preferred to hang himself from a tree than return to Lobengula.

During his reign, the capital Bulawayo became an important trading hub in southern Africa. Lobengula continued his father's reforms and introduced progressive social systems. Modern Western principles of commercial trade were recognized. Unique on the African continent, a code of individual, albeit very limited, rights has been established.

Lobengula initially cooperated with the British. Since he received large monthly donations from Cecil Rhodes , the latter could not imagine that Lobengula would enter into a conflict with the British. Lobengula came under criticism in his own camp, so that an attack on the British was inevitable for him. This led to the First Matabele War in 1893 .

After the enormous losses in the First Matabele War and the conquest of Bulawayo by British colonial troops in November 1893, the 60-year-old king fled the burning capital. But he was no longer able to cope with the exertion and died on January 23, 1894 in what is now Zimbabwe .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Lewis Michell: The Life of the Rt.Hon. Cecil John Rhodes. Edward Arnold, 1910, Volume 1, pp. 242f.
2. ↑ Lewis Michell: The Life of the Rt.Hon. Cecil John Rhodes. Edward Arnold, 1910, Volume 2, p. 88.
3. ↑ Lewis Michell: The Life of the Rt.Hon. Cecil John Rhodes. Edward Arnold, 1910, Volume 2, pp. 81f.