By Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu

RIVALRY over the colonisation of southern Africa among Germany, Portugal and Britain intensified after the 1884-85 Berlin Conference.
Germany wished to occupy the African region lying between the Atlantic Ocean in the west right across the Kalahari Desert to Maputoland on the Indian Ocean in the east.
The Portuguese had, however, already hoisted their flag over Maputoland, a word derived from a name given the Portuguese, Maputo(kezi) by the Congolese people, and later adopted by King Ngola and his subjects.
King Ngola’s territory was later expanded eastwards by the Portuguese colonialists and was officially called Angola.
After settling in Mozambique, the Portuguese entertained an idea of building a road linking the colonised African territories.
They would call that road ‘Viagem, a Contra Costa’, a trade route linking the east and west African coasts.
Lobengula had been king for some 14 years when the Berlin Conference was convened.
For their part, the Portuguese had slowly encroached into Monomotapa’s eastern region and established some amicable trade relations with Chief Mutasa.
The Germans were trying to entrench themselves in what they called German West Africa (now Namibia), having already struck colonial roots in German East Africa (Tanganyika).
From German West Africa, they were casting covetous eyes eastwards across the Kalahari Desert into both what soon became Bechuanaland Protectorate (now Botswana), north-eastwards into Lobengula’s kingdom.
Meanwhile, in the south, the Boers had dispossessed Tswana, Rolong, Venda, Pedi and Ndebele tribes and founded the Republic of South Africa (SAR).
In the early 1870s, Britain annexed the recently founded Boer republic of Natalia, and declared the Natal coastal region British territory.
The then British Colonial Secretary was Lord Carnarvon, a secretive plotter who believed that the success of British colonial policy in southern Africa lay in the annexation of the Boer-ruled areas, especially the South African Republic leading to the formation of a confederation.
Sir Theophilus Shepstone was his man in southern Africa.
He led a few colonial officials from Natal into the SAR in 1877 and sent the president of that Boer republic, Burgers, packing and back to the Orange Free State from where he had migrated.
Although the rash annexation was soon neutralised by Boer commandos and lasted only up to 1879, when Paul Kruger became SAR President, the move had shown that Britain was the dominant power in southern Africa.
King Lobengula certainly showed that he was obviously an anxious and worried person when white prospectors went to him one after another for concessions.
He was much more comfortable when dealing with white traders than with prospectors as we can see from a letter he wrote to his western neighbour, the Ngwato monarch, Machen, whom he addressed as chief and not king.
The letter, written on May 2 1870 while the recently enthroned king was at his Gxibi Gxegu Palace, stated: “I send you greetings – and I hope that we may long live in friendship and in good relations, but you must not forget that you were placed in your present position by my late father, the great Moselikatze.
To the king, my father, you owe everything you now possess, and he looked upon you as a Chief who cheerfully owned the paramount authority of the Matabele.
Now, I, NoBengula, am king of the Matabele Nation – I have gone through all the ceremonies of coronation, am accepted by my people, and am friend and ally of the whiteman.
But while I open my roads and my country to all traders, travellers and hunters, you on the contrary endevour to levy tax on wagons and on gold seekers who pass through your district, the district which you hold from my father, Moselikatze, and which you now hold from me, his son and his successor.
It is then my wish that you desist from levying any such taxes whereby you hinder people from coming into the Matabele and increase the prices of goods to my injury and the injury of my people.
The white men at the Tati are my friends and supporters and their wagons also shall be allowed to travel to and fro Matabele without tax or hindrance. Do not then attempt obstinately to shut the road, and occasion difficulties with the white people and we shall continue as friends. I do not wish to seek a cause of quarrel with you, neither am I inclined to be your enemy.
But if you wish to be my enemy, you will find the King of the Matabele and his nation ready for you. You, Machen, have been in my country. I think you know us well, also your people know us well.
The Matabele do not talk like children. Do not hide this letter, but show it to all your people. They will give you an answer to my words.
Let my people pass you in peace. We are not your enemies, and your people in our country shall as they now do, pass us in peace. Given under my mark in the presence of the under-mentioned chiefs and indunas – namely:
l Umlizane — Chief of Mhlanhlandhlela
l Magobela — Chief of Enkanini
l Mpiliwa – Chief of Enzwananzi
l Mankayiyana – Chief of Magoloza
l Loyiswayo – Chief of Enxa
l Sifo – Chief of Ematshetsheni
l Mcetshwa – Chief of Emagokweni”
In addition to the above traditional leaders, three white traders were present at that occasion and were asked to sign that letter.
Their names were Arthur Lionel Levert, Fredrick Elton and Noble Acutt. Also in attendance was the special messenger of Sir Theophilus Shepstone, Elijah Kwambule, who also signed as a fourth witness.
King Lobengula was indeed a genuine friend of white traders and LMS missionaries. He respected the white people’s advanced military technology, but had a traditional obligation to maintain the kingship created by his great, great grandfather, Langa.
He had, in addition, vowed to protect and promote the Ndebele Kingdom, founded by his father 30 years ago that year.
Eleven years later, 1881, Rhodes became an MP representing the Cape Colony’s rural constituency, and began his imperial dream to turn the entire African continent, from the Cape to Cairo, into a British colonial possession in the same way that Canada and Australia had become their Imperial Majesty’s dominions.
We shall see how he combined his mammoth wealth and recently acquired political power in the Cape Colony to penetrate the African interior, with Lobengula’s kingdom as his first conquest.