Person

Lobengula

c. 1845–1894 · 19th century

Lobengula was the second and last king of the Ndebele kingdom in present-day Zimbabwe, succeeding his father Mzilikazi in 1870 and ruling from Bulawayo. Pressed by concession-hunters, he signed the Rudd Concession in 1888, which Cecil Rhodes's British South Africa Company used to occupy Mashonaland. The company defeated his forces in the First Matabele War of 1893, and he died while fleeing north in early 1894.

Lobengula
Image: The original uploader was Humansdorpie at English Wikipedia. · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 2 state histories

Ndebele KingdomCompany rule in Rhodesia

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Lobengula. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/lobengula
MLA
“Lobengula.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/lobengula. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Lobengula.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/lobengula.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Lobengula’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/lobengula (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻