MATABELELAND, A dis trict in British South Africa, extending about 200 miles north of the Limpopo River, which separates it from the Transvaal Colony (Map: Africa, H 7). It now constitutes the southeast ern part of Rhodesia (q.v.). In MS the Slatabele came within the British sphere of in lint-nee by a treaty signed by their chief, Loben gula. The following year they were brought un der the administration of the British South Africa Company (see RuonEsiA), against whom they declared war in 1S93. They were subdued after a spirited campaign, during which Loben gula died. In 1S96, soon after the Jameson raid, there was another revolt, after which the natives were allowed a share in the government, the country being divided into districts, each with a native commissioner, who was responsible for the good conduct of his people and subject to the general commissioner residing at the capital, Buluwayo (q.v.). The population of Matabele land was in 1900 estimated at 155.000. The capital is Buluwayo, which is connected by rail with Cape Town.
The Matabele, or Matabili, are a Zulu people of Bantu stock driven out of the Transvaal by the Boers into South Zambezia, thenceforth known as Matabeleland. The celebrated chief Umsilikatzi in 1S3S led the exodus and after crossing the Limpopo established his seat of government at Buluwayo. His successor (1S70)
was the chief Lobengula. The Zulu military organization copied from Europeans enabled the Matabele, previous to British domination, to harass and almost destroy the surrounding Ma shonas and other peoples and rendered much of the territory beyond the Limpopo a wilderness.
The Matabele are herdsmen and to their cattle they attach the highest importance. hut they also raise great crops of maize, tobacco, and other agricultural products. Their houses are thatched, circular in plan, and have conical roofs. The villages have no particular arrangement. The women brew beer and grind maize as their principal duties. The men are brave hunters and are accustomed to attack the lion with their as sagais. They smelt iron and work it into spears, battle-axes. hoes, etc. Rude pottery is made and cloth from bark. They are polygamists. Con trary to the custom of most African tribes, they do not kill twins. Ancestor worship is the most prominent feature of their religion. Consult: Montague, The interior of Central Africa (Lan doll, 1886) ; Wills and Collingridge, The Down fall of Lobengula (London, 1894) ; Norris, Mata belcland (London, 1395).