Gungunhana (Gungunyane) (ca. 1850–1906)

Abstract Known as the Lion of Gaza, Gungunhana, ruler of the indigenous Kingdom of Gaza in the Limpopo River Valley in the hinterland of the Portuguese East African colony of Mozambique, was one of the great figures of African resistance to European imperialism. The kingdom had been founded in the 1820s by remnants of the Ndwandwe people, who had lived between the Mkhuze and Black Mfolosi rivers in South Africa, following a crushing defeat in 1819 at the hands of a Zulu army led by Shaka Kasenzangakhona Zulu (ca. 1787–1828). The commander of the defeated army, Gungunhana's grandfather, Soshangane, led the Ndwandwe north on a long trek into the Limpopo valley. The newcomers, who would be known as Gaza Nguni (since they spoke an Nguni language very similar to that of their Zulu conquerors) or Shangane (the Portuguese called them Vátuas ), quickly brought neighboring Chope, Ronga, and Shona peoples under their sway. Never more than a minority of the population of their new realm, the Gaza Nguni nonetheless constituted its dominant element. While their Ronga subjects became “nguniized” over time and would provide the bulk of the warriors for the army of the Gaza Kingdom, the Chope were restive under Gaza Nguni rule, which gave the Portuguese an opening to pursue a “divide and conquer” strategy in their war against Gungunhana.