The Chameleon and the Fly: The Amandebele War of 1893

The AmaNdebele War was part of the expansion of the British Empire in Africa in the late Nineteenth Century and part of Cecil Rhodes’ plan to expand two Empires: his own through the British South Africa Company, and that of Queen Victoria.

It discusses the international conflict which this expansion caused, especially with Portugal and the Boer Republics, who both claimed the rights to the region which eventually became known as Rhodesia.

Rhodes’ plans had only lukewarm support from the British Government which tried to ensure that the rights of the indigenous peoples of southern Africa were protected from the most outrageous attacks on their way of life. Which meant it was wary of allowing Rhodes to execute his most outrageous plans to exploit Southern Africa.

However it was Company’s desire to develop the land which had been given to them by Charter from the Government which brought them into conflict with native Africans whose way of life was not compatible to Victorian sensibility and morality and eventually led to war.

The book describes the hazardous journey to Mashonaland which was taken by would be prospectors and settlers who had been promised riches in gold and land by the Company in order to boost its shares. The horror of AmaNdebele raids on the people of Mashonaland which were part of their accepted way of life and the terrifying effects their brutality had on the settlers who demanded that GuBulawayo and the AmaNdebele king be captured and the raiding stopped. This was partly achieved but only after the famous massacre of a patrol by AmaNdebele Impis.

The story is full of larger-than-life characters such as Jameson the Administrator, Patrick Forbes, the out of place military commander, Allan Wilson, the Scottish hero and leader of men, Pieter Raaff , a survivor of the First Boer War , Sir Henry Loch, the High Commissioner and , Burnham and Ingram, the American Scouts without whose assistance British casualties would have been much higher and of course, Lobengula the Chief of the AmaNdebele, who having unwittingly given away his land for money and guns was forced to attempt to drive away an invading army armed with superior weapons but failed. His escape and pursuit became one of the tales of daring do in the Victorian psyche but the search for who to blame almost cost the Company its Charter.

The book concludes with a detailed examination of the characters three leaders of the invading force and analyses how Leander Starr Jameson’s decision to select them to lead the pursuit of Lobengula contributed to its failure.