ABSTRACT
Historical evidence suggests that the ancestors o f the Chishona-speaking Karanga tribe were among the earliest permanent inhabitants o f what is now Zimbabwe, followed by the Vazezuru. Both groups became dominated by the Varozwi clan after the fourteenth century. The Varozwi were probably the builders o f Great Zimbabwe, headquarters of the Monomotapa Empire (Robinson, 1966), near present-day Masvingo. It was only when the Nguni groups began invading from the south in the 1830s that this empire was destroyed. Having fled Shaka, the Matabele under chief Mzilikazi clashed with the Basotho and the Boers, before selecting the area o f present-day Bulawayo as their new base. The military and organisational skills o f the Matabele were far superior to those of any of the diversity o f Chishonaspeaking inhabitants. The latter offered little resistance and ‘lived as hunted beasts rather than human beings’ under Mzilikazi’s rule (Hole, 1967).
