Lobengula (died ca. 1894) was a South African Ndebele king. His kingdom was the last of the major African states to be destroyed by the colonialists in southern Africa.

From the second decade of the 19th century to about 1840 southern Africa had been convulsed in turmoil and destruction. Shaka the Great had usurped the Zulu throne in or about 1818 and had created a powerful military machine with which he laid waste large parts of southern Africa in the bid to create a united Zulu nation.

One of the most brilliant commanders of this period of destruction, which the Zulu call Imfecane, was Mzilikazi. He had been chief of the Kumalo clan and one of Shaka's ablest generals. After a quarrel with Shaka, Mzilikazi fled Zululand with his people and fought his way into what is now Rhodesia, where he established the Ndebele (Matabele) kingdom. Lobengula was his son.

Lobengula...