Ndebele

The Ndebele people trace their origin to a breakaway faction of the Zulu kingdom. In 1823, following a violent dispute with Zulu king Shaka, a chief named Mzilikazi led a group of warriors northward across the Vaal River and eventually settled in the high plateau of present-day Zimbabwe in the 1840s. The Sotho and Tswana farming peoples encountered by these Nguni-speaking raiders called them maTebele or amaNdebele, a term connected to the Sotho root for hiding or concealment behind long shields.

The etymology of Ndebele itself is debated among linguists. The most commonly cited account connects the name to a Sotho word describing warriors who disappeared behind long shields in battle. A competing account links the name to an Nguni verb meaning 'to hide repeatedly,' but this reconstruction is less phonologically consistent with Sotho morphology. What is certain is that Mzilikazi's people called themselves amaZansi, 'the people of the south,' and that the name Ndebele was given to them by those they raided.

Mzilikazi built what European travelers called the Matabele Kingdom in the southwestern corner of present-day Zimbabwe. His son Lobengula succeeded him in 1868 and maintained a substantial state until 1893, when British South Africa Company forces defeated the Ndebele in a brief but decisive war. The British preferred the anglicized form Matabele; the Sotho-derived form Ndebele reasserted itself gradually through the twentieth century as the people's own preferred designation.

Today Ndebele names two distinct peoples: the Northern Ndebele of Zimbabwe, descendants of Mzilikazi's kingdom, and the Southern Ndebele of South Africa, who remained in what is now Mpumalanga and Limpopo when Mzilikazi moved north. Both speak Nguni languages closely related to Zulu. IsiNdebele is an official language of Zimbabwe, while the South African Ndebele became internationally known for their bold geometric painted murals. The people named for shields have become famous, instead, for paint.