Matabeleland, a country stretching northwards from the South African Republic or Transvaal towards the Zambesi, and having Khama's territory on the south-west. It measures about 180 miles from north to south and 150 from east to west, and embraces the watershed between the river-systems of the Zambesi and the Limpopo. When the despotic Chaka ruled over the Zulus (q.v.), a section of the nation under a rival chief, Mosilikatze, rebelled and moved off towards the north. After remaining for a while in what is now the Transvaal, they finally settled in 1840 beyond the granitic Matoppo Mountains, subduing and almost exterminating the peoples they found there—the Mashona, the Makalaka, and the Banyai. The Matabele, who preserved the warlike habits of the Zulu race, were divided into four territorial divisions, and numbered in all some 200,000 persons, of whom 15,000 were fighting men. The country was handed over in 1890 to the Imperial British South Africa Company, who, as the Matabele still continued their periodical raids and forays, renewed in July and August 1893, organised an expedition in three columns, supported by some regular British troops, and by Khama and his Bamangwato, against King Lobengula, the son of Mosilikatze. The expedition, which began to advance on 2d October, was brilliantly successful in repeatedly defeating the savage warriors, who could not stand before the Maxim guns, and, after some sharp fight- ing, in breaking up their military organisation. Lobengula died in hiding in February 1894. Quartz reefs rich in gold exist in various parts of the country. Soon after the Jameson Raid into the Transvaal (at New Year 1896) the Matabele seized the opportunity of reasserting their independence; the native armed police mutinied, and Buluwayo, the capital, was blockaded. The British South African Company, its officers, and settlers strained every nerve to maintain their position and repress the rising; and after much sharp fighting and with the help of British troops had practically pacified the country by the latter part of the year.
See Baines, Gold Regions of South-east Africa (1877); Montagu Kerr, The Far Interior (1886); Oates, Matabeleland (2d ed. 1889); Selous, A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa (1881), and Travel and Adventure in South-east Africa (1893); Mathers, Zambesia (1891); Colquhoun, Matabeleland (1894).