second and last king of the South African Ndebele (Matabele) nation. Lobengula, the son of the founder of the Ndebele kingdom, Mzilikazi, was unable to preserve the independence of his people in the face of growing pressure from British and Boer settlers.

Though Mzilikazi died in 1868, Lobengula only succeeded to the throne in 1870, after a period of serious civil war. Feeling that his throne was threatened, he attempted to form an alliance with the British to forestall both internal and external dangers, granting first farming (1886) and then mineral (1888) concessions to the British authorities in South Africa and to Cecil Rhodes's British South Africa Company in Rhodesia. Not satisfied with these concessions, and anxious to exploit gold fields near Bulawayo, the company undertook a military expedition that destroyed the kingdom in October 1893.