ONE interesting phenomenon was that among the young Shona, the Ndebele and Gaza States were received with enthusiasm and the Ndebele and Gaza identities were assumed without much problem. As a result, among the Ndebele, “60 percent were of Shona origin, people who had adopted the Ndebele language. “By the early twentieth century there were bilingual villages, with the men speaking Ndebele and the women, Shona.” (Beach, 1984). King Mzilikazi protected the worship of Mwari at the Matopo Hills (at Njelele, a Tonga name for an animal bigger than a springbuck, but smaller than an impala. According to Jacob Mudenda, September 2010, at the memorial service of Obert Mpofu’s mother in Nyamayendlovu, let us remember too that at one time the Tongas were the predominant group in Zimbabwe in terms of population, that is why quite a good percentage of the Zimbabwean population has Tonga blood, and many names are originally Tonga names, e.g. Kadoma and Ngezi). Mzilikazi had a deep respect for Mwari priests, he “… never attempted to hurt them, and contributed his annual offering of black cattle to Mwari, the great god, speaking oracularly in the Matopos”. In fact, the aMakalanga magicians enjoyed the privilege of being summoned periodically to the king’s palace to give advice on important religious matters.” (Matshazi, 2008). The Ndebele nation eventually became so integrated that the Karanga members completely adopted the Ndebele language, costume and customs to the extent that they did not want to know they were descendants of the Karanga, although they kept on visiting their Karanga relatives. (Beach, 1984). Around 1860, King Mzilikazi called for a national census (Matshazi, 2008). The results of the census were that only 15 percent of the nation was made up of the Nguni people, 25 percent was made up of the Suthu people, and the rest of the population (60 percent) was made up of the locals, that is Shona, Khalanga, Tonga, Venda and San people, but mainly Shona. “Upon being presented with the statistical picture of the nation Mzilikazi is said to have exclaimed: ‘Hawu! This nation no longer reflects the nation I started off with from Zululand. It is now a new nation built on ABATHWA. Ngu ‘‘‘MTHWAKAZI!’’’ (Matshazi, 2008). The aBathwa are the San people. To the Ngunis, anybody who did not speak a Nguni or Suthu language was a Muthwa as the rest of the languages were regarded very different from Nguni or Suthu languages. And “UMTHWAKAZI” is a very big Muthwa. King Mzilikazi was bold and proud about it. To him the Ndebele nation was a great achievement on his part, a nation crafted out of several tribes and clans! Gazi (2004) says King Lobengula’s nation was a people of mixed Ndebele-Shona- Suthu-Khalanga extraction, 80 percent of whom were of non- Nguni. The Ndebele nation therefore was founded as an inclusive nation in terms of ethnicity, just like all black rules anywhere in Africa before colonialism. For instance, Chigwedere (1998) says descendants of Arabs in Zimbabwe were accepted by the Shona to the extent they too became Bantu. “The Arabs and Bantu along the coast did not only trade in goods such as gold, iron ore and leopard skins, but also traded their bodies and hybrids were born between them.” These descendants “adopted the trading systems of their Arab ancestors. Some of them filtered into the interior and ultimately settled down. In due course, a number of their descendants were to establish their own chieftainships in the interior, surrounded by black African majorities. Inevitably, they were completely submerged and became Bantu in practically everything”. That is to say, these outsiders were accepted and became part of the rest of society. In other words, the issue of ruling a people yet excluding them from the process did not make any sense, everybody just had to belong. So that even those who were captured at war were made to feel at home under the new ruler. That is why we saw a man from Seke, Sindisa Mpofu (a Shava/Mhofu) being appointed commander of the Mpangeni regiment, Hubane Ngwenya being appointed commander of the Nkanyezi regiment, Nkantiwo Sibanda being appointed commander of the Mgoqo regiment and Dakamela Ncube being appointed commander of the Babambeni regiment. This means these commanders felt at home, they felt they were part of the system, they were totally accepted and relied upon. Yet in the Rhodesian system blacks were never allowed to be commanders in the army, police force, prison services and in the intelligence services, the position of commander was the preserve of the ‘superior white race’. In Rhodesia, blacks were not even allowed to be managers of businesses of any kind. In the Ndebele system, on the other hand, Shonas, Khalangas, Vendas, Suthus and Nambyans, were not only appointed commanders, they were also part of the lower ranks of the army and intelligence services. Whilst the centre of the Ndebele kingdom was where the king resided, that is, around the Matopo Hills, the power and influence of the Ndebele state was felt right across the country. However, naturally the farther one moved away from the centre of power, the less control there was from the centre. The Ndebele state exercised its influence through its army and tributary chiefdoms from the Kalahari Desert through the Victoria Falls area to Buhera, Chiweshe, Chitungwidza, Chihota, Njanja country, Mazowe, Save River area, Chipuriro, Chirimuhanzu and Gutu (Nyathi, 1994). Therefore some eastern parts of present-day Botswana used to be part of the Ndebele kingdom, but these were hived off when the British drew the current boundary between Zimbabwe and Botswana. As can be seen, in the east and southeast, the Ndebele state had common borders with the Gaza state. Even across the Zambezi River and along it up to present day Western Province of Zambia, the Ndebele State was felt. This was so long before Lobengula succeeded his father as king. After the death of King Mzilikazi, King Lobengula continued building and strengthening the Ndebele nation and its state using both military and diplomatic means, that is why he even got married to one of King Mzila’s daughters, Xhwalile, of the Gaza Empire in 1879. “In return, King Lobengula set aside one daughter by the name of Mcuphela to be married off to King Mzila in order to cement relations between the two monarchs. As we know the powerful Chief Gampu Sithole messed up the daughter for which crime he had to seek refuge among the Afrikaners in the Boer Republic. He returned later before the demise of the State,” (Phathisa Nyathi, Sunday News Magazine, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, 23-29 January 2011). Chief Gampu Sithole (the son of Maqhekeni Sithole and whose greatgrand son is today’s Chief Gampu Sithole of Tsholotsho and Plumtree) was married to five of King Lobengula’s daughters.