Umsilikatsi, who had been driven into Matabililand by the terrible Chaka in 1828 and defeated by the Dutch in 1837, had finally reestablished his headquarters in Rhodesia in 1838.  Here he introduced the Zulu military system and terrorized the peaceful and industrious Bechuana populations.  Lobengula succeeded Umsilikatsi in 1870 and, realizing that his power was waning, began to retreat northward toward the Zambesi.  He was finally defeated by the British and native forces in 1893 and the land was incorporated into South Central Africa.

The result of all these movements was to break the inhabitants of Bechuanaland into numerous fragments.  There were small numbers of mulatto Gricquas in the southwest and similar Bastaards in the northwest.  The Hottentots and Bushmen were dispersed into groups and seem doomed to extinction, the last Hottentot chief being deposed in 1810 and replaced by an English magistrate.  Partially civilized Hottentots still live grouped together in their kraals and are members of Christian churches.  The Bechuana hold their own in several centers; one is in Basutoland, west of Natal, where a number of tribes were welded together under the far-sighted Moshesh into a modern and fairly well civilized nation.  In the north part of Bechuanaland are the self-governing Bamangwato and the Batwana, the former ruled by Khama, one of the canniest of modern rulers in Africa.

Meantime, in Portuguese territory south of the Zambesi, there arose Gaza, a contemporary and rival of Chaka.  His son, Manikus, was deputed by Dingan, Chaka’s successor, to drive out the Portuguese.  This Manikus failed to do, and to escape vengeance he migrated north of the Limpopo.  Here he established his military kraal in a district thirty-six hundred and fifty feet above the sea and one hundred and twenty miles inland from Sofala.  From this place his soldiery nearly succeeded in driving the Portuguese out of East Africa.  He was succeeded by his son, Umzila, and Umzila’s brother, Guzana (better known as Gungunyana), who exercised for a time joint authority.  Gungunyana was finally overthrown in November, 1895, captured, and removed to the Azores.

[Illustration:  Races in Africa]

North of the Zambesi, in British territory, the chief role in recent times has been played by the Bechuana, the first of the Bantu to return northward after the South African migration.  Livingstone found there the Makolo, who with other tribes had moved northward on account of the pressure of the Dutch and Zulus below, and by conquering various tribes in the Zambesi region had established a strong power.  This kingdom was nearly overthrown by the rebellion of the Barotse, and in 1875 the Barotse kingdom comprised a large territory.  To-day their king, Lewanika, rules directly and indirectly fifty thousand square miles, with a population between one and two and a half million.  They are under a protectorate of the British.