For the victorious Boer horsemen the sight of the amNdebele streaming north through the mountain passes of the Dwarsberg must have carried with it more than a sense of simple satisfaction. In the tradition of conquest and counter conquest theirs was now the principal claim to a fine country, and the greatest obstacle standing in its way had been broken and cast asunder. This was manifest destiny. The future of their race and the fulfilment of a cherished aspiration seemed secure.
It is also true that there would have been few among those who watched the evacuation that would not have been impressed by what they saw. The retreat was total, and the defeat absolute, but the amaNdebele were no fleeing rabble. First a wave of non-combatants began to make its way north in good order. These were the women, children and the elderly, followed by what cattle and livestock had been salvaged, supported on their flanks by a substantial militia, and all commanded by a senior Induna by the name of Gudweni Ndliweni. Behind Gudweni, separated by no more than a few hours, followed the bulk of the armed forces under the direct command of Mzilikazi himself.
At 47 years old Mzilikazi had for some time played a very limited role in active campaigning, but his physical capacity must still have been great as he embraced the command of this difficult situation. However, be it for a lack of communication or as part of a specific policy, the two groups failed to link up. Mzilikazi veered west and led his division into Bechuanaland while Gudweni and his division continued northeast through the land of earlier amaNdebele occupation, and over the course of weeks across the Zoutpansberg Mountains and on to the well-watered country north of the Limpopo River. They continued on until a settlement was chosen a little north of present day Bulawayo. This was near a conical hill named Intaba-ye-zinduna where a preliminary settlement called Gibixhegu was sited.
In the meanwhile Mzilikazi led his group, composed almost entirely of fighting men, deep into Bechuanaland. This was an epic passage that features large in the amaNdebele mythology of war and exodus. The route skirted the eastern fringes of the Kalahari Desert where the tried and tested mobile survival tactic was employed, and raids were conducted against all and any who happened into the path of the surging impi. In due course the amaNdebele wandered into lands unoccupied by any other than Bushmen and nomadic groups of Tswana hunter/gatherers. There was no one to fight and nothing to plunder, and the means of survival was reduced to foraging for edible roots, bulbs and berries, and hording precious water in disused ostrich eggs.
For all involved this was period of arduous struggle, and a test for every man, including Mzilikazi, whose physical capacity, that which Robert Moffat had noticed on his last visit had been visibly reduced, returned. With his innately spartan view of life it is possible that Mzilikazi exulted in this period. It is easy to imagine that from it he sought not only a homeland beyond the influence of the white man, but also a penance for defeat, and perhaps even a period of asceticism and self-cleansing. If this were so it would explain why Mzilikazi did not immediately seek to reunite with his estranged nation, even though he would have known more or less where they were, as they most likely knew in general terms where he was. It is possible also that, once satisfied that his people were safely settled in a land of reasonable plenty, that he and his division would exhaust all possibilities of finding somewhere better before reuniting his people.
In due course the wandering impi met up with the Makololo, an offshoot of the Batlokoa people of Mantatisi, seeded in Bechuanaland during the Mfecane, and thereafter pushed further north as part of the upheavals of amaNdebele occupation. Under their chief Sebituane the Makololo had settled on the upper Zambezi where it seems that some sort of a confrontation took place which, combined with the tsetse fly of the Zambezi Valley, finally tur