Ndebele/Matabele Tribe Collection

The Ndebele tribe, also known as the Ndebele of Zimbabwe (formerly known as the Matabele under British rule), was a result of a break away from Zulu empire. They are a Bantu-speaking people who live primarily in and around city of Bulawayo in southwestern Zimbabwe. The people who became known as the Ndebele in Zimbabwe (originally of the Khumalo clan) split from their Zulu kindred in the 1820s and moved from present-day Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa, creating an enormous and ethnically diverse nation en route under the leadership of Mzilikazi. Mzilikazi moved north, invading what is now Southern Zimbabwe and founding the Matabele Kingdom, eventually settling in Zimbabwe's Matabeleland.