By HRH Princess Eugene Majuru, Princess of Harare
The official colonial timeline of 1890 to 1892 in Mashonaland, with its dry list of Pioneer Column movements, flag-raisings, and fort completions, paints a picture of peaceful, administrative conquest. Yet, beneath the calm surface of these dates lies a period of brutal displacement, war, and cultural catastrophe for the indigenous landowners: the Mbari people, whose territory was the very epicenter of British consolidation.
The “million-dollar question”—”So what happened to the Mbari people during these periods?”—demands an answer that transcends the sanitised history of the colonial press.
The Immediate Impact: Dispossession at the Sacred Heart
The events of 1890 were direct, targeted assaults on Mbari sovereignty and spiritual life:
September 13, 1890: The Symbolic Act of War: The Pioneer Column’s act of raising the Union Jack flag at Kopje was more than a claim of territory; it was a profound act of desecration. The Kopje was the sacred mountain and the epicentre of Mbari cultural activities. To claim this site was to attack the very soul of the Mbari society and announce the immediate replacement of Mbari spiritual and political authority with British power.
October 1, 1890: The Economic Annihilation: The disbanding of the Pioneer Column and the granting of vast tracts of land to members around present-day Harare and Mazowe formalized the dispossession. This land, the ancestral territory of King Mbari, was seized without compensation, dialogue, or negotiation. The Mbari people, overnight, went from being sovereign landowners to landless tenants in their own kingdom.
What Was Kopje Fort? The Consolidation of Power
The completion of Kopje Fort in Salisbury on June 22, 1892, was a crucial step in the military and administrative occupation of Mbari land.
Kopje Fort was a military structure built on the very site of the initial flag-raising. Its function was threefold:
Symbolic Domination: Built on the Mbari’s most sacred hill, the fort physically asserted British military superiority and dominance over the indigenous spiritual landscape.
Military Control: It provided the necessary garrison and defensible position for the British South Africa Company (BSAC) forces to control Salisbury (later Harare) and the surrounding vital farming land.
Base for Expansion: It served as a launching pad for further military expeditions against any remaining resistance in the region.
The fort’s construction confirmed that the colonial project was not a settlement, but a military occupation designed to suppress any attempt by the Mbari people to reclaim their land.
Commentary: The Inevitable Conflict and the Scars of Genocide
For the British to achieve all these things—raising their flag, seizing land, and building a fort in the heart of the capital—they must have put up a big battle against the land owners, the Mbari people. The events in the timeline are the results of the conflict, not the conflict itself.
The historical timeline deliberately omits the fierce resistance and the horrific consequences that followed. When settlers violently seize land, the local population does not simply vanish; they are forcibly removed, suppressed, or eliminated.
The genocide in the area was the biggest in Zimbabwean history and its immediate aftermath ensured the Mbari Clan suffered the most profound and immediate systemic destruction. While the timeline records a “protectorate,” the reality on the ground was a sustained campaign of terror and violence designed to break the will of the Mbari.
Forced Silence: The rapid consolidation of power (1890–1892), followed by the publication of The Rhodesia Herald (October 29, 1892), ensured that the British narrative—the triumphant “opening up” of the country—was the only one recorded. The Mbari voice was silenced, their trauma unacknowledged.
Lasting Suffering: The enduring legacy of this era is that the Mbari clan suffers till today. Dispossession led to land poverty, the destruction of their political structures led to the loss of governance, and the cultural desecration led to a spiritual wound that has never fully healed.
The timeline of 1890–1892 is a record of colonial triumph built on Mbari tragedy. It marks the violent beginning of a new administrative order that successfully erased the official political existence of King Mbari’s people in their own capital, setting the stage for the First Chimurenga that would erupt just a few years later.
The Mbari clan were however spread across their Kingdom and as later years could tell their power of resistance battles ensued across the wider area of King Mbari and King Makombe’s territory, fierce battles took place in areas like Mazoe where the Mbari gave the British a very hard time , with their superior weapons the British were left with egg on their faces at being held under siege in instances like the siege in Mazoe, a siege by people with inferior weapons. The Mbari Chieftainship was however finally destroyed and ended in 1897. When the clan strategically decided to disperse and spread out across Zimbabwe , s strategy meant to preserve the ones who had survived so they can later reclaim their land. The reclamation is currently in progress.
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