GAZALAND, a district of Portuguese East Africa. Formerly indicating a large region between Delagoa bay and the Pungwe river, the name is now confined to the lower Limpopo district. The modern territory of Gaza, part of the district of Lourenco Marques, is 73,584 sq.km. in extent, comprising 5 sub-districts. It is one of the chief recruiting grounds for negro labour in the Transvaal gold mines. The region derives its name from the Swazi chief Gaza, a contemporary of Chaka, the Zulu king. Refugees from various clans oppressed by Dingaan (Chaka's successor) were welded into one tribe by Gaza's son Manikusa, who took the name of Sotchangana, his followers being known generally as Mat shangana. Between 1833 and 1836 Manikusa made himself master of the country as far north as the Zambezi and captured the Por tuguese posts at Delagoa bay, Inhambane, Sofala and Sena, killing nearly all the inhabitants. The Portuguese reoccupied their posts, but held them with great difficulty, while in the interior the Mat shangana continued their ravages unchecked, depopulating large regions. Manikusa died about 186o, and his son Umzila established himself in independence north of the Manhissa river as far as the Zambezi and inland to the continental plateau, a position he main tained till his death (c. 1884). His chief rival was a Goanese named Gouveia, who came to Africa about 185o. Having obtained possession of a prazo in the Gorongoza district, he ruled there as a feudal lord while acknowledging himself a Portuguese subject. Portugal's hold on the coast had been more firmly established at the time of Umzila's death, and Gungunyana, his successor, was claimed as a vassal, while efforts were made to open up the interior. This led in 1890-91 to collisions on the borderland of the plateau with the newly established British South Africa Company, and to the arrest by the company's agents of Gouveia, who was, however, set at liberty and returned to Mozambique via Cape Town. An offer made by Gungunyana (1891) to come under British protec tion was not accepted. In 1892 Gouveia was killed in a war with a native chief. Gungunyana maintained his independence until when he was captured by a Portuguese force and exiled. He died in 1906. With the capture of Gungunyana opposition to Portu guese rule largely ceased. Later a considerable number of Euro peans settled in Gazaland, devoting themselves chiefly to the cul tivation of the sugar-cane, rice and maize. The chief town is Chai Chai (Villa Nova de Gaza), a port on the Limpopo. See G. McCall Theal, History of South Africa since 1795, vol. v. (1908) ; Eric Walker, A History of South Africa (1928).