Municipality of Bulawayo

Rhodesia

Bulawayo was founded around 1840 as the kraal of Mzilikazi, the Ndebele king. His son, Lobengula, succeeded him in the 1860s, and ruled from Bulawayo until 1893, when the settlement was captured by British South Africa Company soldiers during the First Matabele War. That year, the first white settlers arrived and rebuilt the town. The town was besieged by Ndebele warriors during the Second Matabele War.