First Matabele War

The First Matabele War grew from mounting conflict between Lobengula’s Ndebele kingdom and the British South Africa Company, which had established a settler colony in Mashonaland under Cecil Rhodes’s charter. Disputes over authority, cattle and raids escalated into a company invasion of Matabeleland in 1893.

Company columns armed with modern rifles, artillery and Maxim guns defeated larger Ndebele forces at several engagements and occupied Bulawayo after Lobengula abandoned the capital. The war destroyed the political independence of the Ndebele kingdom and expanded company rule across what became Southern Rhodesia.

John Wilcox uses the war as the setting of The Shangani Patrol, placing Simon Fonthill between Lobengula, Cecil Rhodes and the company forces pushing into Matabeleland.