The current geographic distribution of Nguni peoples largely reflects the turbulent political developments and population movements of the 19th century. įor centuries, the Nguni peoples are thought to have lived in scattered patrilineal chiefdoms, cultivating cereal crops such as millet and raising cattle. Soshangane also imposed Shaka Zulu's military system of dominion and taught the people the Zulu ways of fighting. Young Tsonga men were assigned to the army as " Mavulandlela" (those who open the road). Soshangane insisted that Nguni customs be adopted, and that the Tsonga learn the Zulu language. The Shangaan descend from Nguni speakers ( Swazi and Zulu) and Tsonga speakers ( Ronga, Ndau, Shona and Chopi), many of whom Soshangane conquered and subjugated. North of the Zambezi, Islamic slave traders rose to power from their base in Angoche, and the Yao chiefs of the north migrated south to the highlands along the Shire River, where they established their military power. The most powerful of these warlords was Manuel António de Sousa, also known as Gouveia, a settler from Portuguese India, who by the middle of the 19th century controlled most of the southern Zambezi Valley and a huge swath of land to its south. In their place, valley warlords established fortified strongholds at the confluence of the major rivers, where they raised private armies and raided for slaves in the interior. With the prolonged drought, the rise of Gaza, the dominance of the slave trade, and the expansion of Portuguese control in the Zambezi Valley, the once-mighty African chieftaincies of the Zambezi region declined. Soshangane's grandson, Gungunyana, took over the Gaza Empire from his father Mzila and moved the capital southward to Manjakazi, putting him in closer proximity with the Portuguese. With help from the Portuguese, Mzila eventually gained power in 1861 and ruled until 1884. Soshangane died in 1856 and there was a bitter struggle for power between his sons Mawewe and Mzila. Soshangane named his empire "Gaza" after his grandfather. Eventually Soshangane established his capital in the highlands of the middle Sabi River in what is present day Zimbabwe. One Nguni chief, Nxaba, established a short-lived kingdom inland from Sofala, but in 1837 he was defeated by Soshangane, a powerful Nguni rival. In the 1820s, during a period of severe drought, after the abolition of slavery caused the Great Trek, Nguni armies, Southern (Xhosa) and especially Northern Nguni (Zulu, Swazi, Shangani, Gaza, Matabele or Ndebele, and Ngoni) people who spoke related Bantu languages and inhabited southeast Africa from Cape Colony to southern Mozambique, began to migrate to Mozambique from what is now South Africa. Gungunhana, the last dynastic emperor of the Gaza Empire
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