Aspects of the decline of the Ndebele military system

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Periodical article

Title:	Aspects of the decline of the Ndebele military system
Author:	Bhebe, N.M.B.
Year:	1974
Periodical:	Africana Research Bulletin
Volume:	5
Issue:	1
Pages:	28-46
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Southern Africa
Subjects:	militarism Ndebele (South Africa) Ndebele (Zimbabwe)
Abstract:	A number of historians and commentators have unintentionally committed mistakes by explaining Ndebele relations with their black neighbours and with Europeans in terms of their militarism. Until recently little progress could be made in the study of Ndebele reactions to missionary penetration because students of Ndebele history simply assumed that Christianity was largely a peaceful ideology, incompatible with the Nguni martial spirit. Ndebele-Shona relations have been viewed mainly from the standpoint of a peace-loving people victimized by a set of predatory raiders. This paper marshals evidence and possible explanations for the decline of the Ndebele military system. It tentatively indicates some of the far-reaching political and social consequences of this development. The paper casts serious doubts on approaches to Ndebele history that emphasise the military factor. The military factor can no longer be an excuse for the failure to gain an understanding of the Ndebele reactions and responses to European religious, economic, and political expansion in the 19th century. Notes.