Editing History of South Africa (section)

====Wars with the Ndebele====
[[File:G.S. Smithard; J.S. Skelton (1909) - The Voortrekkers.jpg|thumb|Boer ''Voortrekkers'' depicted in an early artist's rendition]]In 1836, when Boer V''oortrekkers'' (pioneers) arrived in the northwestern part of present-day South Africa, they came into conflict with a Ndebele sub-group that the settlers named "Matabele", under chief Mzilikazi. A series of battles ensued, in which Mzilikazi was eventually defeated. He withdrew from the area and led his people northwards to what would later become the Matabele region of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).<ref>''A history of the Voortrekkers Great Trek 1835 – 1845'',
[http://www.voortrekker-history.co.za/mzilikazi_great_trek.php#.VVXcZ46qqko Mzilikazi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150622070736/http://www.voortrekker-history.co.za/mzilikazi_great_trek.php#.VVXcZ46qqko |date=22 June 2015 }}. Accessed 15 May 2015</ref>

Other members of the Ndebele ethnic language group in different areas of the region similarly came into conflict with the Voortrekkers, notably in the area that would later become the Northern Transvaal. In September 1854, 28 Boers accused of cattle rustling were killed in three separate incidents by an alliance of the Ndebele chiefdoms of Mokopane and Mankopane. Mokopane and his followers, anticipating retaliation by the settlers, retreated into the mountain caves known as Gwasa, (or Makapansgat in Afrikaans). In late October, Boer commandos supported by local [[Kgatla tribe|Kgatla]] tribal collaborators laid siege to the caves. By the end of the siege, about three weeks later, Mokopane and between 1,000 and 3,000 people had died in the caves. The survivors were captured and allegedly enslaved.<ref>Isabel Hofmeyr, ''We Spend Our Years as a Tale that is Told: Oral Historical Narrative in a South African Chiefdom''. Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg: 1993, pp.109–111</ref>