Treasure Hunters

On the eve of 125 years since the Mashona Rebellion, Gerry van Tonder delves into this bloody battle between British troops and African tribesmen

TRADITIONAL DRESS OF THE SHONA PEOPLE 
AKG IMAGES

“A  pparently no one in Mashonaland had even dreamt it was possible that the Mashonas might rise,” wrote Lieutenant-Colonel Edwin Alfred Hervey Alderson, upon receiving deployment orders to quell a local uprising.

In mid-June 1896, Shona-speaking tribesmen attacked isolated mines, farms and trading posts, murdering all white men, women and children they could find. In the space of a week, 117 civilians had been slaughtered in Mashonaland, a large tract of real estate south of the Zambezi River, in what would become part of the colony of Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe.

On June 18, word was received at Fort Salisbury that Porta Farm to the south had been attacked by a mob of armed Mashona.

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