Historic

James Dawson’s account of finding the remains of Allan Wilson and his patrol
The final stages of the 1893 occupation of MatabelelandOn 29 October 1893 King Lobengula sent a...
Category: Historic
Location:
Matabeleland North
By Zeederberg Coach to Bulawayo in 1895
Mrs RA Fletcher of Umvutcha Farm[1] near Bulawayo with two children, one aged 2 years and the other...
Category: Historic
Location:
Bulawayo
The victorious march of the Salisbury and Victoria Columns into Matabeleland
Much of the material included in this article is taken from a presentation copy of Occupation of...
Category: Historic
Location:
Bulawayo
Rebellion days in Bulawayo: When the Matabele rose in 1896
This short article, chiefly useful for the photographs, appeared in the publication of the...
Category: Historic
Location:
Bulawayo
Bulawayo’s 40th Anniversary in 1933 celebrating the 1893 occupation of Matabeleland
This was commemorated with the publication of the Occupation of Matabeleland: A Souvenir and...
Category: Historic
Location:
Bulawayo
A veteran’s account from the Battle of Bembesi in 1893 and when Joe Smith knocked down Cecil Rhodes and saved his life in 1896
Much of the material included in this article is taken from a presentation copy of Occupation of...
Category: Historic
Location:
Bulawayo
Veterans of the 1893 Occupation of Matabeleland
Much of the material included in this article is taken from a presentation copy of Occupation of...
Category: Historic
Location:
Bulawayo
Vere Stent’s recollections of Raaff’s Rangers and the Southern Column in 1893
Who was Vere Stent?Vere Palgrave Stent (1872-1941) was a journalist and war correspondent...
Category: Historic
Location:
Matabeleland South
Matabele Thompson; his role in the Rudd Concession
IntroductionThompson’s parents[1] came to South Africa in 1850, Francis Robert ‘...
Category: Historic
Location:
Bulawayo
The 1903 Ivel Agricultural Motor No 141 in the Mutare Museum; one of only seven that still exist today
Author Photo courtesy of the Mutare Museum: 1903 Ivel Agricultural Motor No 141.Why is the Ivel...
Category: Historic
Location:
Manicaland
‘Chimurenga’: The Shona Rising of 1896-7; a summary of David Beach’s article
This summary of David Beach’s article of the same name that was published in the Journal of...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland East
The part played by religion in the Mashona Rebellion (First Chimurenga) in 1896-7 as told by Terence Ranger in Revolt in Southern Rhodesia 1896-7
Both this article and the article The part played by religious factors in the 1896-7 Matabele...
Category: Historic
Location:
Harare
The part played by religious factors in the 1896-7 Matabele Rebellion (Umvukela) as told by Terence Ranger in Revolt in Southern Rhodesia 1896-7 and the shooting of the Mlimo
Terence Ranger Obituary (29 Nov 1929 – 3 Jan 2015)In The Guardian Professor Terence ‘...
Category: Historic
Location:
Bulawayo
Bulawayo and the Matabele Rebellion (or Umvukela) – Part 2, after the first few weeks, a change in tactics
IntroductionMarshall Hole, the B.S.A. Company employee for over twenty-five years wrote, “...
Category: Historic
Location:
Bulawayo
Bulawayo and the Matabele Rebellion (or Umvukela) – Part 1, the first few weeks and the patrols sent to rescue outlying farmers, prospectors and storekeepers
IntroductionThis article has been written from a white perspective because the references used were...
Category: Historic
Location:
Bulawayo
Jack Parsonson – War ace and one of Mashonaland Country District’s most colourful characters
Original draft by Doug McClymontJack Parsonson was shot down three times - first, by Afrika Corps...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland West
William Irwin, a casualty of the assault on Kunzwi's kraal, Mashonaland
In the churchyard of St. Mary Magdalene’s Church, Hayton, east of Carlisle, Cumberland, is...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland East
Rhodesian Air Training Group (RATG) – a high price was paid in young lives
Much of the information below was originally included in the article The Rhodesia Air Training...
Category: Historic
Location:
Harare
The Rhodesia Air Training Group (RATG) 1940 – 1945
Places are referred to by their names in 1940: Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) Northern Rhodesia (...
Category: Historic
Location:
Harare
The 1893 Occupation of Bulawayo by the Salisbury and Victoria Columns
Photographs and descriptions of all the principal individuals involved in this article are given in...
Category: Historic
Location:
Bulawayo
Thomas Baines journey to Mashonaland in 1869 that resulted in a mineral concession granted by Lobengula and the first mining claim at Hartley Hills - Part 1
IntroductionMany readers might think that Karl Mauch was the first to discover the Mashona...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland West
Thomas Baines journey to Mashonaland in 1870 after Lobengula granted a verbal mineral concession and the first mining claim at Hartley Hills - Part 2
IntroductionPart 2 covers the journey Baines made to the northern goldfields for the second time in...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland West
Thomas Baines journey to Matabeleland in 1871 to obtain a written mineral concession from Lobengula and his return through the Limpopo Valley - Part 3
In May 1871 Baines set out once again to obtain a written concession from Lobengula, the London...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland West
Thomas Baines watercolours and sketches from the Natural History Museum (London) with the relevant text from The Northern Goldfields Diaries of Thomas Baines (1869-1872) edited by J.P.R. Wallis - Part 4
IntroductionJ.P.R. Wallis in his introduction to Volume 1 of the Northern Goldfield Diaries of...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland West
The Matabele Campaign of 1893 - the march on Bulawayo
Dr Jameson may have decided on 18 July 1893 that the only solution was a military one,  [i...
Category: Historic
Location:
Bulawayo
The 1893 Matabeleland campaign and the roles played by Jameson, Lobengula, Loch and Rhodes
This article covers the year 1893 in detail, the preceding period is covered only generally as a...
Category: Historic
Location:
Masvingo
Battle of Bembesi (called Egodade by the amaNdebele) on the 1 November 1893
Following the Battle of Shangani River (called Bonko by the amaNdebele) on 25th October, the...
Category: Historic
Location:
Matabeleland South
The Battle of Shangani (called Bonko by the amaNdebele) on 25 October 1893
The combined Columns cross the Shangani riverThe Salisbury and Fort Victoria Columns joined...
Category: Historic
Location:
Matabeleland South
Frederick Courteney Selous’ hunting trips from 1876 – 1885 with records from his original game book
BackgroundFrederick Courteney Selous needs no introduction to readers interested in the history of...
Category: Historic
Location:
Midlands
Travel by Ox-wagon in the 1890’s – Lt-Col H. Vaughn-Williams recollections after 57 years
BackgroundLieutenant-Colonel H. Vaughn-Williams (the author, who I shall call ‘H’...
Category: Historic
Location:
Matabeleland South
The Southern Column’s skirmish at the Singuesi river on 2 November 1893 revisited
Why has so little been written about the Southern Column’s campaign?Many readers may not be...
Category: Historic
Location:
Matabeleland South
Thomas Baines journey to present-day Mashonaland: His second journey described from 16 May to 30 October 1871 (Vol 3)
IntroductionThis synopsis is taken from The Northern Goldfields Diaries of Thomas Baines (1869...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland West
Thomas Baines journey to present-day Mashonaland: His first journey described from 16 February 1870 to 9 January 1871 (Vol 2)
IntroductionThis synopsis is taken from The Northern Goldfields Diaries of Thomas Baines (1869...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland West
Thomas Baines journey to present-day Mashonaland in 1869/70: His first journey described in his diaries from Tati on 4 June 1869 until the 15 February 1870 (Vol 1)
IntroductionJ.P.R. Wallis in his introduction to Volume 1 of the Northern Goldfield Diaries of...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland West
Thomas Baines journey to present-day Mashonaland in 1869 / 70 – background and travel by ox-wagon to Tati
IntroductionMuch of the biographic information below is from the excellent book Thomas Baines of...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland West
The build-up to the 1893 Matabele War
This article forms one of a series of six articles covering the 1893 Matabele War. It begins with...
Category: Historic
Location:
Masvingo
The Portuguese Feiras and trading settlements of the 16th – 17th century on the Northern Mashonaland Plateau and Manicaland
IntroductionThis article does not attempt to describe in any detail all the feiras that were...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland Central
Massapa (Baranda Farm) – an Afro-Portuguese Feira site in Mashonaland Central
Innocent Pikirayi states that the feiras and other trading settlements established in the late 16th...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland Central
Dambarare – an Afro-Portuguese Feira site
The Portuguese explorer Pêro da Covilhã first visited Sofala in 1489 and by 1505 they were given...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland Central
Angwa (Ongoe) – Afro-Portuguese Feira sites in Mashonaland West
IntroductionIn August 1945, the same month that the United States dropped the first atomic bombs on...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland West
Rhodes’ Apostles – who were they and what happened to them?
SourcesI have used mainly Robert Cary’s book The Pioneer Corps and Colonel A.S. Hickman...
Category: Historic
Location:
Harare
Pilot Officer William (Bill) B Thomson – one of many aircrew who were part of the Rhodesian Air Training Group (RATG) and trained at Bulawayo to fly as Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR)
This article is a tribute to William Thomson and celebrates his connection and all those who served...
Category: Historic
Location:
Bulawayo
Re-examining the events leading up to the ‘Victoria incident’
Gold fever prior to 1890Galbraith reminds us that the young men who made up the Pioneer Column in...
Category: Historic
Location:
Masvingo
The Newton Commission conclusions on the ‘Victoria incident’
IntroductionThe events leading up to the ‘Victoria incident’ are included in the...
Category: Historic
Location:
Masvingo
How Portuguese trade developed in Mozambique during the 16th/17th Centuries prior to the establishment of the feiras in the Mutapa State
BackgroundMuch of the material quoted below is sourced from the comprehensive articles by Ana Roque...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland Central
The decline of the Mutapa state c.1623 – c.1902
The cultural, political and military decline of the Mutapa state had probably begun from the 1590...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland Central
The British South Africa Company and the impact of early gold mining regulations on smallworkers
In most parts of Southern Africa the landowner had the sole right to prospect on their farm, but...
Category: Historic
Location:
Midlands
Vasco Fernandes Homem and the search for the Mutapa state’s fabled gold mines 1574-5
SourcesMuch of the detailed information used here and in the article on Francisco Barreto is taken...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland Central
Why did Portugal establish bases on the East African Coast, now Mozambique in the early sixteenth Century?
IntroductionA number of historical articles on the Portuguese in Mozambique have been written in...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland Central
The Jameson Raid
IntroductionThe Jameson Raid caused enormous interest and controversy at the time and arguably was...
Category: Historic
Location:
Bulawayo
Colin Harding – the man in charge of the execution of Chief Chingaira Makoni – his life and career in early Rhodesia
Edwin Colin Harding had a very distinguished career being promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland East
The Selous Road from Fort Salisbury to Old Mutare and beyond
The Selous Road from Fort Salisbury to Old Mutare and beyondSelous cut many roads in Matabeleland,...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland East
The story of a nurse and authoress travelling on the Selous Road through Mashonaland in 1896 during the Mashona Rebellion or First Chimurenga
BackgroundThe title of the book relates to two of the most dramatic events in Southern Africa. The...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland East
The Adendorff trek and the planned invasion of Banyailand
BackgroundThe Adendorff or Banyailand trek was made up of  Afrikaners who ...
Category: Historic
Location:
Masvingo
Postal service in 1890 – 1892; the post-stations from Fort Tuli to Salisbury
Much of the detail, particularly quotes, contained below comes from the article by Dave Collis...
Category: Historic
Location:
Masvingo
Letters from the Siege of Ladysmith by Edward Carey Tyndale-Biscoe
Background The article Edward Carey Tyndale-Biscoe who raised the flag at Salisbury, now Harare on...
Category: Historic
Location:
Harare
Antonio Fernandes, probably the first European traveller to Zimbabwe in 1511 - 12
His life as we know it is summed up by Hugh Tracey in his Rhodesiana article: “Brought to...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland Central
Edward Carey Tyndale-Biscoe who raised the flag at Salisbury, now Harare on 13 September 1890
A summary of his remarkable careerOn 10 December 2014 an important set of medals awarded to...
Category: Historic
Location:
Harare
The Pioneer Column’s march detailed on maps
Of the men who made up the Pioneer Column Adrian Darter writes: “The Pioneers were men who...
Category: Historic
Location:
Harare
David Tyrie Laing and the near-disaster Matobo Hills engagement in the 1896 Matabele Uprising or Umvukela
The accounts below are based primarily on David Tyrie Laing's book The Matabele Rebellion...
Category: Historic
Location:
Matabeleland South
George ‘Joros’ Westbeech’s influence in the lower Zambesi Valley and his 1885-1888 diaries
George Westbeech did keep a diary but sadly most of it has been lost except for those parts...
Category: Historic
Location:
Matabeleland North
The 1896 siege of Belingwe, now Mberengwa as told by David Tyrie Laing
This account from Tyrie Laing’s book The Matabele Rebellion, 1896 with the Belingwe Field...
Category: Historic
Location:
Midlands
The Pioneer Column’s march from Macloutsie to Mashonaland
This article is intended to provide an overview of the route and the men who made the journey in...
Category: Historic
Location:
Harare
An 1886 journey through the Bechuanaland Protectorate along the Western Old Lake Route to the Victoria Falls that nearly ended in disaster
The book by Alfred James Bethell is compiled from a series of articles that he wrote up for The...
Category: Historic
Location:
Matabeleland North
Major Stabb’s hunting trip in 1875 to the Zambesi Valley via Gubulawayo
IntroductionHenry Stabb’s meticulously kept diary provides a wealth of information on the...
Category: Historic
Location:
Matabeleland North
George Westbeech and the road to Pandamatenga
IntroductionThis article is about two subjects; George Westbeech and the road which he built and...
Category: Historic
Location:
Matabeleland North
Thomas Leask (1839 – 1912) and “my last hunt” to Hartley Hills in 1870
Background For biographical details see the article Thomas Leask’s Life and Diaries...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland West
Thomas Leask’s two journeys to the Zambezi in 1868 and 1869
Background For biographical details see the article Thomas Leask’s Life and Diaries...
Category: Historic
Location:
Matabeleland North
Thomas Leask (1839 – 1912) and his first two hunting trips into Matabeleland and Mashonaland in 1866 and 1867
For background on the life of Thomas Leask visit the article Thomas Leask’s Life and Diaries...
Category: Historic
Location:
Bulawayo
Thomas Leask’s Life and Diaries describing Matabeleland and Mashonaland in the 1860’s
Some backgroundThomas Leask (1839 – 1912) was born at Aglath, Stenness in the Orkney Islands...
Category: Historic
Location:
Harare
The Hunter’s Road - followed on maps
To those unfamiliar with the term ‘the Hunter’s Road’ a brief explanation for an...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland West
First Baronet Lieutenant-Colonel Sir John Norton-Griffiths, KCB, DSO – the Great War engineer whose mine explosions at Messines Ridge on 7 June 1917 were heard 240 kms away in London
Sir John Norton-Griffiths, First Baronet, KCB, DSO (13 July 1871 – 27 September 1930)...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland West
1896-7 Rebellion Memorials
Why is this article relevant?Recently the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo managed to...
Category: Historic
Location:
Bulawayo
Field Marshall Herbert Charles Onslow Plumer, 1st Viscount Plumer, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, GBE and his connection with Matabeleland
Field Marshall Herbert Charles Onslow Plumer, 1st Viscount Plumer, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, GBE and his...
Category: Historic
Location:
Bulawayo
Richard Frewen, the man who annoyed Lobengula and the consequent deaths of the Colonial government emissaries on their way to the Victoria Falls
Frewen’s journal was copied from the original into a manuscript volume along with many of his...
Category: Historic
Location:
Bulawayo
Frederick “Freddy” Hugh Barber, hunter, trader, artist – visited the Victoria Falls in 1875 and Matabeleland in 1877
The narrative is taken from the book Zambezia and Matabeleland in the Seventies published in 1960...
Category: Historic
Location:
Bulawayo
Land and the British South Africa Company - the Renny-Tailyour and Lippert concessions
The article Were Lobengula and the amaNdebele tricked by the Rudd Concession? under Bulawayo on the...
Category: Historic
Location:
Harare
Contemporary criticism of the British South Africa Company (BSAC) in 1889 – 90 from Henry Labouchère the editor of the journal Truth
IntroductionThis article is largely based on Eleanor Mabin’s thesis for an MA at Simon Fraser...
Category: Historic
Location:
Harare
The British South Africa Company
IntroductionThis article explores the preliminary manoeuvres prior to the formation of the British...
Category: Historic
Location:
Harare
The Wood-Chapman-Francis syndicate of concession seekers
The Wood-Chapman-Francis syndicate appealed to Lobengula, King of the amaNdebele for a mineral...
Category: Historic
Location:
Bulawayo
Were Lobengula and the amaNdebele tricked by the Rudd concession?
Many concession-seekers had petitioned Mzilikazi and Lobengula over the years for the right to mine...
Category: Historic
Location:
Bulawayo
Why Lobengula sent envoys to Queen Victoria in the late nineteenth century
Neil Parsons in an essay entitled “No longer rare birds in London” explored the...
Category: Historic
Location:
Bulawayo
How Mutare and Manicaland were annexed from the Portuguese
First – a tributeIn carrying out the background research I have been greatly impressed by the...
Category: Historic
Location:
Manicaland
The Pink Map; how credible were Portuguese claims to Mashonaland and Manicaland before 1890?
Reality is described as the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or...
Category: Historic
Location:
Harare
The story of a Trooper’s experiences in the Imperial Yeomanry and Rhodesia Field Force during the second Boer War 1899 - 1902
Boer War disasters for the British Army resulted in the formation of the Imperial YeomanryThe...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland East
The Beira and Mashonaland Railway – the Contractor’s stories
The railway was an important element of the country’s development and many excellent articles...
Category: Historic
Location:
Manicaland
Dan Judson and the Africa Transcontinental Telegraph Co
In the article on the Mazowe Patrol, under Mashonaland Central, I have noted that Dan Judson, the...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland Central
Rhodes first journey into Mashonaland in 1891 through Penhalonga
Rhodes travelled through Penhalonga on his second trip to what would become Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe...
Category: Historic
Location:
Manicaland
The June 1896 Mazoe Patrol skirmish with detailed accounts from those besieged and their Mashona attackers
GPS LocationsAlice Mine laager 17°30´44"S 30°57´33"EFort Mazoe 17...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland Central
The arrival of the AmaNdebele in Matabeleland and the succession of King Lobengula
Migration of the amaNdebele to MatabelelandWhen Mzilikazi left the Transvaal[1] they all came...
Category: Historic
Location:
Matabeleland South
Three oral history statements made in 1937 by amaNdebele warriors present at the killing of Allan Wilson and thirty-three other Europeans on 4 December 1893 at the Shangani River
Three oral history statements were made in 1937 by amaNdebele warriors present at the killing of...
Category: Historic
Location:
Matabeleland North
Reminiscences of Percy Durban Crewe of Nantwich Ranch, Hwange
IntroductionThe notes below are from the handwritten reminiscences of Percy Crewe (1862 –...
Category: Historic
Location:
Matabeleland North
Mambo Rebellion Memorial – with three oral history accounts collected by Foster Windram in 1936 and 1938 concerning the killings at West’s store
For the associated articles on the battle of Ntaba zika Mambo and the Manyanga Monument ruins and...
Category: Historic
Location:
Matabeleland North
Battle of Ntaba zika Mambo, Manyanga or Mambo Hills
 In addition to the above names, the battle is also called Thabas Amamba, or Thabas a Mambo,...
Category: Historic
Location:
Matabeleland North
Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Graham Pennefather (1850 – 1928)
Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Graham Pennefather (1850 – 1828) first commander of what became...
Category: Historic
Location:
Harare
Filabusi Memorial and the Edkins Store killings
Much of the detail has been covered by Fraser Edkins of the killing of Ebenezer Crouch Edkins at...
Category: Historic
Location:
Matabeleland South
Fort Usher No. 3
William Filmer (his mother’s maiden name) Usher was born on 16 September 1851 and baptised at...
Category: Historic
Location:
Matabeleland South
Maramuca, a Portuguese Feira dating from 1660 - 1680
There a number of direct and indirect nineteenth century references to the feira at Maramuca. In...
Category: Historic
Location:
Mashonaland West
Fort Que Que (now Kwekwe)
Background   In late March 1896 many isolated prospectors and traders were killed in the...
Category: Historic
Location:
Midlands
Early Mail Services
The earliest mail service was by runner through Bechuanaland (modern-day Botswana) between Mafeking...
Category: Historic
Location:
Bulawayo

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