ABSTRACT
The tribes of Southern Rhodesia number more than one hundred, of whom the great majority are known as Shona; most of the others are Ndebele, and there are smaller groups of Venda, Sotho, and Bushmen. The various tribes are not distinguished for administrative purposes under the present system of government. Past contacts between Shona tribes and the Ndebele have had particularly important cultural effects, and for that reason the surveys of the two groups, though written by different authors and to some extent emphasising different aspects, benefit by being published in the same volume. The Ndebele came as conquering invaders under Nguni leadership into a territory long occupied by scattered Shona tribes, and were in the process of incorporating some of these into a military nation when Europeans entered the country7. Later conflict with Europeans led to the defeat of the Ndebele ruler and Ndebele military expansion stopped, but the Ndebele settled as a people over a large area between Central and Western Shona.
