might be expected the Ndebele found little in Mashona life and culture that was worth preserving, and they heaped the usual derision on those they intended to use as severely as was their custom. An exception to this was in the matter of spirituality, which is an area in which the Mashona had always been extremely strong, and which even today embellishes and clouds their contemporary responses and their interpretations of any event. It was perhaps simply pragmatic that Mzilikazi, a superstitious man himself, should treat with caution anything verging on the supernatural, and at the same time see merit in seconding the powerful Mwari theocracy to himself as an additional weapon in his arsenal of government.
Mashona traditional spiritual custom is in essence a kind of agnosticism, with a general adherence to the principal of a supreme being, but with a sense also that God, or Mwari, lives in such a state of removal from the day-to-day affairs of men, and so far beyond common understanding, that routine observance is applied to spiritual entities much closer to home. These are usually tribal progenitors who are revealed to the living through oracles and mediums.
In common with cults and religions the world over certain geographic locations possess special spiritual significance. In the case of what has come to be known as the Cult of Mwari such a place is the Matopo hills situated some 20 miles south of Bulawayo. The region is an area of broken granitite kopjes and interlocking valleys of extraordinary complexity and beauty, covering some 1800 square miles, and a landscape that has held special significance to human populations far predating the relatively recent arrival of the Bantu. The vitality of an esoteric form of this cult survives to this day, in particular with regards to the Njelele Cave, which was one of several oracular caves from which the voice of ‘God’ was reputed to emanate. The word of Mwari was and is spoken through either disembodied communication or via an adept or priest going by the name of a Mlimo.[ii]
The Ndebele accepted the cult with a minimum of adaptation, but called the cult after its chief officers, the Mlimo, which was a name taken up in the vague manner of the time by incoming Europeans to describe the god-figure himself. This has tended to cause considerable confusion when examining historic literature written at the time of early European activity, and it is clear that for a long time colonial whites had no clear understand what exactly was the structure and hierarchy of black religion.
For those Mashona not protected by a close association to the theocracy, and scattered within reach of the amaNdebele impis, life took an almost immediate and undesirable turn. Most villages and settlement throughout the region had no defensive capacity, and the disunited and clan and family oriented political structure of the Mashona allowed for no mass mobilisation nor the mounting of any viable common defence. It was exactly this type of circumstance upon which Mzilikazi had built his dominance, and it seemed that he had led his people to a land ideally suited to their murderous talents.
The contempt felt by the amaNdebele for the Mashona manifest itself most noticeably in the clearly defined class system that had evolved since the removal of the original Khumalo clan from Zululand. As we have seen those at the pinnacle of this structure were the AbeZanzi, or Those of The South, who all bore Nguni names, or izibonga, and who occupied all the principal offices of administration. Into their ranks where very occasionally seconded the abeNhla into such positions as headmen, and among these were those of Sotho stock inducted into the tribe during the mid period of its existence. The latter day inductees were the lowly Mashona, who regarded almost universally as slaves, or amaHoli, and less derisively when occasion demanded as abeTshabe. These were usually the few who became recognised as junior members of the families to which they had become associated, and some might by payment of a redemption fee buy their 