Why is this article relevant?

Recently the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo managed to recover the Filabusi Rebellion Memorial, which had been toppled over in 2016 and transport the pieces to Bulawayo for restoration and then erection in December 2019 in the grounds of the Museum. The History Society of Zimbabwe and a number of organisations and individuals helped support this project with funding and transport. This makes it an opportune time to explore what these National Monuments represent and whom they commemorate.

Historical background to the 1896 Matabeleland Rebellion or Umvukela Memorials

Harry Archie Cripwell, one of the founders and first Chairman of the Rhodesiana Society and long-time editor of its magazine provided much of the information that C.K. Cooke, then Director of the Historical Monuments Commission, provides in his 1970 article on Memorials: Matabele Rebellion 1896.

One hundred and forty-five settlers were killed in Matabeleland during the Uprising, or Umvukela of whom the great majority of one hundred and twenty-one were killed between the 23 – 31 March 1896; sixteen in April and only eight others in the following months to December 1896. Obelisks, carved from red sandstone, with the names of those killed were erected in the veld, on or near the scene of death. The four National Monuments commemorating those killed in the Matabele Rebellion, or Umvukela are:

• Pongo Memorial (No 33) near Shangani on the A5 Gweru – Bulawayo national road.
• Filabusi Memorial (No 56) near the site of Edkins store
• Mambo Memorial (No 57) originally at the site of West’s store on the old hunter’s road, but subsequently moved in the 1960’s when the road was re-aligned
• Fort Rixon Memorial (No 58) at Claremont Mine
• Fort Umlugulu Memorial (No 71) honours purely military casualties killed or died of wounds during the military follow-up; the others list civilian victims, or a mix of civilian and military.

All are described on the website www.zimfieldguide.com The memorials followed the creation of a Rhodesia Memorial Fund in 1896; meetings were held in Bulawayo and Salisbury (now Harare) on the 12^th and 27^th of October 1896 with the aim of setting up memorials to those killed or wounded and for those that suffered financial loss and to erect hospitals, libraries and museums. The Memorials can all be identified by the words ‘Rhodesia Memorial Fund’ carved in the base. However, Mr Cripwell did not know if the Memorials were publicly unveiled and, if so, on what date.

There was a central committee with the Administrator, Earl Grey, as President and sub-committees at Salisbury and Bulawayo; the members at Bulawayo being T. Griffin, S. Redrup, P.D. Crewe, J. Mudie-Thomson, E.R. Townsend, G.S.D. Forbes, Father Daignault, C.C. Grenfell, E.C. Wallace, J.A. Spreckley and J.C. Knapp with C. Arnold as secretary.

Griffin was Commissioner of Mines and Public Works, Townsend was Civil Commissioner, Redrup, Crewe and Spreckley were members of the first Bulawayo Municipal Council; Forbes, Wallace and Grenfell were mining men, so the committee included many of the most prominent citizens.

Pongo Memorial - National Monument No. 33

GPS reference: 19⁰44′52.16″S   29⁰24′26.47″E

The Memorial is situated just to the west of the Shangani River Bridge and it is a mystery why it is called the Pongo Memorial, as the Pongo River is sited about 15 kilometres further to the west.  However, a number of the victims were killed at the Pongo store, and this probably accounts for the name. 

The obelisk shaped monument made of red sandstone commemorates those civilian prospectors, traders and farmers (thirty-two men, three women and nine children; forty-four in all) who were killed in the area during the 1896 Matabele uprising or Umvukela.

Filabusi Memorial - National Monument No. 56

GPS reference for the old Filabusi Memorial: 20⁰29′57.61″S 29⁰17′39.47″E now removed to the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe at Bulawayo

The Memorial site is located 28.5 kilometres from the A9 turnoff to Filabusi from Mbalabala on Annedale Farm on which the Filabusi Memorial site, Edkins store and Filabusi old cemetery are located. This historic site remembers some of the earliest European killings of the Matabele Rebellion, or Umvukela of 1896 which occurred on Monday 23 and Tuesday 24 March 1896. Arthur Bentley, the Assistant Native Commissioner was found at his desk on Monday 23 March with a half-written letter.

His killing and those at Edkins Store must have occurred in a coordinated way as there is no evidence that the other victims heard Bentley being killed or were in anyway prepared for the attack on them. There is some doubt about the actual date individual victims were killed, but Albert Baragwanath only left Bulawayo on Sunday evening the 22 March ‘after dinner to ride his rather decrepit horse back in the cool of the night to his store’ and was one of the victims.

Harry Cumming’s from Insiza reached Bulawayo on Tuesday 24 March in the morning; Arthur Cumming and Lucas from Filabusi reached Bulawayo on Wednesday 25 March at 2am with the news. The fact that both have the surname of Cumming has caused much confusion!

Joseph O’Connor was the only survivor of the killings and his account was initially taken as fact; subsequent research has proved that at least some of his story was false.

The story told locally is that the Filabusi Memorial was pushed over by artisanal gold miners’ resident in the area who believed that a pot of gold had been buried beneath the base.

Mambo Memorial – National Monument No. 57

GPS reference: 19°30´41"S 29°01´12"E

Contemporary accounts say the West brothers fought a splendid but hopeless, defence of their store at the southwest corner of the Mambo Hills and kept the amaNdebele at bay for ten long hours before being killed about 26 March 1896.

However, this is contradicted by the statements and the oral evidence collected by Foster Windram in 1936 – 1938 when, as a reporter at the Bulawayo Chronicle, he interviewed the only amaNdebele participant in the West killings who was not executed, Nganganyoni, and confirmed that the West brothers were in fact, like most victims in Matabeleland, surprised and killed without resistance.

For a number of versions of the reasons behind the uprising and the methods by which it was carried out, refer to the article on the oral statements made to Foster Windram listed under Matabeleland North on the website www.zimfieldguide.com

Fort Rixon (Claremont Mine / Cunningham) Memorial – National Monument No. 58

GPS reference: 20⁰09′01.51″S 29⁰19′56.18″E

The Memorial is located nineteen kilometres south east of Fort Rixon and six kilometres south west of Zinjanja Monument; it is on the right-hand side of a track forty metres from the road and almost obscured by thick thorn – ask for final directions locally.

The Memorial in the shape of an obelisk with the names of thirteen civilians on the north side panel and three military casualties on the south side panel is barely visible from a few metres away and stands hidden and forgotten in this remote place far away from any towns and the nearest village of Fort Rixon. Those whose deaths it commemorates are long forgotten; the Cunningham family suffered nine fatalities. Although the local people may not sympathise with the Memorial, their respect for the dead has meant that it has remained in as good condition today as when it was erected.

On the evening of Monday 23 March 1896 at the Nellie Reef Mine at Insiza Thomas Maddocks was sitting at sunset and smoking with Hocking and Hosking when they were attacked by a group of fifteen amaNdebele with knobkerries and axes; Maddocks was killed, but the other two managed to escape to Harry Cumming’s store five kilometres away, at that time no one knew that nine members of the Cunningham family were already dead.

When the killings at the Cunningham farm were discovered it was also reported that all the surrounding amaNdebele villages and kraals lay deserted, leading to the assumption that again it was natives of the immediate vicinity who had been responsible for the killings. ‘From the Umzingwane,’ Selous wrote, ‘the flame of rebellion spread through the Filabusi and Insiza districts, to the Tchangani (Shangani) and Inyati, and thence to the mining camps in the neighbourhood of the Gwelo and Ingwenia rivers, and indeed throughout the country wherever white men, women, and children could be taken by surprise and murdered either singly or in small parties ; and so quickly was this cruel work accomplished, that although it was only on 23rd March that the first Europeans were murdered, there is reason to believe that by the evening of the 30^th, not a white man was left alive in the outlying districts of Matabeleland.’

Fort Umlugulu Memorial - National Monument No. 71

GPS reference for the cemetery: 20⁰24′40.59″S 28⁰53′07.94″E

GPS reference for Fort Umlugulu: 20⁰24′38.49″S 28⁰52′52.78″E

For Fort Umlugulu continue straight on past Esibomvu Clinic (ignore the Diana’s Pool Road) another 180 metres and turn left at Patsy Store (opposite Hanyana Store on the other side of the road) and continue south towards the Matobo hills. At 400 metres turn right and follow the track west past houses and a modern cemetery on the left. At 950 metres follow the dogleg left, at 2.1 kilometres cross the stream and park on the left immediately afterwards. Fort Umlugulu is 300 metres south east of this point and the Memorial is at the cemetery, which is 440 metres east of Fort Umlugulu and just south of the dam wall and was erected by the Rhodesia Memorial Fund from the same red sandstone and has the same decorative features as the above four Memorials. It is not however mentioned by C.K. Cooke, although he was then Director of the Historical Monuments Commission.

The cemetery nearby has the graves of the men of the Matabeleland Relief Force, the Bulawayo Field Force and the Matabeleland Mounted Police who were killed in skirmishes in the nearby Matobo Hills. After the battle at the Mambo Hills, or Thabas zika Mambo, ninety kilometres north east of Bulawayo, the rebellion or Umvukela, shifted strategically from an offensive to a defensive situation. Mtini, Umlugulu, Sikombo and Banyaan / Dhliso’s men moved to the more easily defensible and relative safety of the Matobo Hills south of Bulawayo.

The Matobo are a rugged mountainous and thickly wooded area about eighty kilometres long and forty kilometres deep, situated south of Bulawayo where there was plenty of water and grain could be hidden in grain bins deep within caves which were hard to find. The rocky kopjes were ideal for sniping from and many of the African Police had deserted with their Martini-Henry rifles and were trained shots. The 1893 War had also taught them the futility of attacking fixed positions such as the laagers at Shangani and Bembezi and they had felt the deadly killing power of the Maxim guns. In addition, they soon realised that horses were a liability in the rocky jumble of the Matobo, another advantage which could be denied the European soldiers and local volunteers. 

A series of engagements took place on 25 July at Inugu led by Capt. Nicholson and 30 July at Tshingengoma, and the severest engagement on 5 August at Sikombo’s stronghold when the Matabeleland Relief Force suffered its worst casualties.

Other Memorials that were not erected by the Rhodesia Memorial Fund

The following are not National Monuments; but they are listed because they serve the same purpose, have the same obelisk design as the above Memorials, and were erected to honour those Europeans killed in 1896-1897.

Gwelo (now Gweru) Memorial

GPS reference: 19⁰27′37.82″S 29⁰48′55.55″E

The Memorial is situated at the entrance to the Zimbabwe Military Museum, Lobengula Avenue, Gweru.  This Gweru Memorial was set up by the Pioneer Memorial Fund; this is not carved into the memorial but does appear on the east facing metal plate beneath; however, I have been unable to trace any further information about this Fund. The Memorial is made from the same red sandstone as the four above, with an obelisk set upon a plinth upon which the names being commemorated are carved.

Inyati (now Inyathi) Memorial

GPS reference: 19⁰40′30.14″S   28⁰52′07.55″E

The Memorial is reached by taking the road running east out of Inyathi town; nine hundred metres after crossing the Ingwingwisi River turn left into Inyathi Mission, travel four hundred metres and the small cemetery should be visible on the left set back one hundred metres from the road.

One of the early patrols from Bulawayo made up of Captain Pittendrigh with ten members of the Afrikander Corps had left Bulawayo on Saturday 28 March 1896 to reinforce a small party at Jenkin’s store and then to relieve Assistant Native Commissioner Graham and Sub-Inspector Hanley and five other men at Inyati Mission. The small patrol fought a series of running battles with the amaNdebele who numbered in their hundreds and only escaped on a number of occasions because they were mounted on horseback. At Campbell’s Store they learnt from a miner named Patrick Madden that those at Inyati had been attacked on 26 March 1896 and all killed, except for Madden and another miner named Tim Donovan and a colonial native; although Donovan was killed during the escape. 

The resident missionary in the turbulent times of 1893 and 1896 was Reverend Bowen Rees, isitsha senkosi, who served at Inyati Mission from 1888 to 1918 and was spared certain death because he had left Inyati Mission with his wife and children on the 26 March for Bulawayo; their two houses and the Church were all burnt down.

Selous reports in Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia that the bodies of ANC Graham and his companions Case, Corke, Handley and Hurford were found about a mile from the Inyati police camp on the road to Bulawayo with two servants; they had clearly put up a fight as eighty-five cartridge cases were picked up.  

Inyati Memorial has the same obelisk shape, but appears to be made of a concrete material, without naming who constructed it and only some of the victims are named.

Mashonaland 1896 – 1897 Rebellion or First Chimurenga Memorials

There is no equivalent of the Matabeleland Memorials in Mashonaland; perhaps because the victims were killed as they travelled on the road to Umtali, now Mutare or on isolated farms and mining claims and at more scattered locations than in Matabeleland.

There were a few cases of groups of victims in Mashonaland; the Norton family and their staff and those at the siege of the Alice Mine at Mazoe (now Mazowe) The Norton family victims were buried together where the Morton Jaffray water treatment plant is situated today.

In order to highlight the surprise that was caused in Mashonaland by the killings I have quoted a passage from J.A. Cope-Christie’s article in Heritage Publication No 6 of 1986 in which he says: “The news of the Norton murders was brought into Salisbury by a young fellow named Talbot, a farming pupil of Norton, on the night of 17 June 1896. I met Talbot looking a complete wreck. He told me that Norton, not liking the attitude of his farm boys, had sent him to Salisbury in the morning on his bicycle with a letter to the Police asking for advice and assistance. The distance being about forty kilometres, the Police immediately sent off a mounted trooper with Talbot to the farm. In their arrival they found nobody about, the place looted and bloodstains everywhere. Eventually they traced the mutilated bodies of the nurse and baby to the long grass. The trooper and Talbot cleared back to Salisbury as fast as they could. It was just the moment of Talbot’s arrival that I met him, thoroughly exhausted. He had travelled about one hundred and twenty kilometres during the day – practically all on bush paths – a wonderful performance on a bicycle. After a little rest and refreshment, I took him to the Administrator, Judge Vincent, and reported the murders. The Judge was very upset with the news; next day, 18 June 1896, we were all ordered into the laager and martial law proclaimed.”

In another example of the bombshell news H.D. Zimmerman (who later changed his name to Rawson) wrote: “Early in June of that year a man called Stunt came to the store to buy goods for a prospecting trip out Hartley way, and as we had some boys who had been sinking a well for us, whose time was not up, we let Stunt have them to help carry his kit. On opening the store at about 6 am on June 16, I found, to my great surprise, that two of the boys who had gone with Stunt were standing there, and one was wounded. They told me that Stunt had been killed by natives close to Mashongombi's [Mashayamombe] kraal in the Hartley District. I took the boys up to Mr. Mark Lingard, who was acting Chief Native Commissioner at that time. This was the first murder to be reported; during the day several other murders were heard of, and towards evening the news came in of the terrible massacre of the Norton family.”

The same day Van Rooyen and Fourie, two traders and transport-riders, were killed just twenty kilometres from Salisbury, now Harare.

The Alice Mine graves

Randolph Nesbitt, being the only soldier, was awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry in leading the Mazoe Patrol; the George Cross, which the civilians would have been eligible for, was only awarded from 1940. In view of the acts of heroism displayed, it is remarkable that so little is known about the fate of those killed in the action.

Dr Howland in his article states that in August 1896 the Reverend Douglas Pelly found and buried the bodies of John Leonard Blakiston and T. G. Routledge. In November 1929, Mr J.R. Jarvis wrote a letter to the Rhodesia Herald stating: “I was one of the garrison of the fort near the Alice Mine, and I remember a funeral service which took place there. There were two or more graves, one of which, I understood, contained the remains of three men, another of the remains of such rescuers that were killed as could be found. A considerable time elapsed between their deaths and when their bones were found, as they were only found after the grass, which was very tall, was burnt off. These graves are situated near the bottom of the hill on which the fort was built, below the south west corner of the fort.”

In the same month, November 1929, Alfred Drew wrote to the Herald: “Your leader reads as though the two heroes were buried at Mazoe, but I should like to say that while at Mazoe as Native Commissioner – I transferred there about ten years after the rebellion [i.e. 1906] I tried to find out where they were buried but was always told that their bodies were never found.”  

The souvenir brochure of a visit by the Rhodesiana Society in June 1971 on the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Mazoe Patrol states that the remains of Blakiston, Routledge and the others were collected and buried at Fort Mazoe and states: ‘The site of the fort and of the graves passed from local knowledge until they were identified in 1968. It is not certain that the graves still contain the remains of those buried there in 1896, as it is possible that they were removed to and re-buried in Salisbury, but of this there is no record.’

R. Trevor Jones in a 1962 article in the Central African Journal of Medicine states that six months after the Alice Mine was abandoned the remains of the Europeans were recovered and buried near the Mine [i.e. in the graveyard below Mazoe Fort] The Mashona had previously buried all their dead near the present Mazowe Police Station.

E.E. Burke in an article in Rhodesiana Publication No 25 states that the Rev. D.R. Pelly, an Anglican accompanied the column that built Fort Mazoe as Chaplain. In a letter dated 15 August 1896 he wrote to his parents: “I forgot to say that yesterday Friday the 14^th, in the evening I buried Routledge and Blakiston.” On the 17^th he describes a day of fort building and writes: “and at night I buried four more men killed in this district. The grass has now burnt and the bodies have been easily seen. I believe all but two are buried.” He returned with the column to Salisbury on the 18^th writing: “We started away early and got to the Salvation Army farm for breakfast picking up on the way the body of another murdered man, whom I buried before we went on.”

The last remains buried by Rev. Pelly must have been Lieutenant Christian McGeer who was subsequently reinterred from near the Salvation Army farm and buried by the Rev. H.H. Foster at the Pioneer Cemetery on 3 August 1897.  

The same article has a report by Lieutenant Fairbairn, a survivor of the Mazoe Patrol and O.C. of the Fort Mazoe, who stated that two miles on the Mazoe side of the Salvation Army farm he: “found remains of Trooper van Staaden, collected remains and proceeded two miles further, where I found the remains of Dickinson and Cass, which were carefully collected and conveyed to Mazoe Fort for burial.” In a further report, Fairbairn found the remains of Faull which were then: “buried by the side of other bodies.”

Thus, it appears that Rev. Pelly buried in the left grave Blakiston and Routledge and in the right grave Cass, Dickenson, Jacobs and van Staden. Lieutenant Fairbairn buried Faull in the middle grave.

Fort Mazoe (National Monument No. 121) was abandoned in November 1896 after just four months occupation, when a new site was chosen at Fort Alderson (National Monument No. 155) nearly three kilometres away on a small hill which commands the Mazoe valley 700 metres from the A11 national road.

Blakiston and Routledge were honoured with a Memorial very close to the Mazowe hotel (National Monument No. 55) but which is now destroyed and which is featured in a separate article on this website on the Mazoe Patrol and a plaque in the General Post Office. Both were erected, according to E.E. Burke in Rhodesiana Publication No 25, by public subscription under a Committee chaired by E.C. White of Concession and unveiled on 19 June 1936. There was an earlier plaque in St George’s Chapel of the Anglican Cathedral erected by their “Comrades in the Rhodesian Post and Telegraph Service” but this is also now missing.  

Blakiston and Routledge’s final resting place remains an enigma as knowledge of their whereabouts seems to have dropped from public memory. There have been various efforts to solve this mystery including efforts by the BSAP in 1953, the Salisbury MOTHS in 1957, and Dr R. C. Howland and Col. A. S. Hickman in the 1960’s. A search in April 1968 revealed a rectangular area below Fort Mazoe which appeared to have been prepared at some time and contained scattered stones with three pieces of flattened paraffin tin which were often used at the time as grave markers.

A letter to the Rhodesia Herald of 22 December 1968 from Mrs Hepple of Que Que (now Kwekwe) provides further confirmation of the graves as she recalls how her father, H.G. Bennet, a blacksmith at the Blenheim Mine near the Alice Mine, pointed out the graves to her: “They were quite close to a path we used to take from the mine to Mazoe and were covered with stones…I was about nine and a half years old at the time. I remember being puzzled how there could be graves without crosses.”

What is known is that many of the remains of victims in Mashonaland were exhumed from their temporary graves and reinterred at the memorial vault at the centre of the Harare Pioneer cemetery.

The Salisbury Committee of the Rhodesian Memorial Fund, which like that in Matabeleland was formed to commemorate the lives of those lost in the Mashona Rebellion, or First Chimurenga caused to be erected:  

1. The memorial vault in the Pioneer Cemetery pictured above. The Committee book records that the intention was to place each individual’s remains in a tin container which was inscribed with the individual’s name. A ceremony was held on 30^th October 1898 when between 70 – 100+ human remains of civilians killed in the Mashonaland uprising / First Chimurenga were buried in the memorial vault. No record was kept of the names on the metal boxes when they were interred, although extensive searches have been carried out subsequently by E.E. Burke at the National Archives and the old Salisbury Council and in newspaper records without result. Even the staff at the Pioneer cemetery itself were not aware there are bodies buried under the memorial vault when I spoke to them in 2016!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    The Rhodesia Herald of 30 October 1898 states the vault contained the remains of: “about seventy colonists” but the Mayors Minutes’ state the figure was: “over one hundred.” In 1970 the pointing on the vault was renewed and it was found that the vault continues over two metres below ground level. The cover slab was moved sufficiently to see that the vault contains metal boxes up to ground level.  In writing an article on the Loyal Women’s Guild, I saw as did E.E. Burke, in their Graves Register an entry under Salisbury Cemetery stating: “No list has yet been found of those buried under the vault” to which a later note has been added: “Cass, Dickenson – Mazoe. Salvation Army says these two were buried under the vault.”                                                                                                                                                                
2. The placing of iron crosses over the graves of the victims in the Pioneer Cemetery and elsewhere. These predate the Loyal Women’s Guild (LWG) Pioneer memorial crosses by ten years and have a very distinctive shape. [There is an article on the LWG Pioneer memorial crosses on the website www.zimfieldguide.com under Harare]    

3. Erecting a memorial in the Salisbury Gardens. However, the only surviving memorial is the obelisk to the memory of soldiers who served in WWI and WWII.

Overall Conclusions

There are differences in all the accounts of casualties arising from the Matabele and Mashona rebellions or Umvukela or First Chimurenga.

The first refers to the ’96 Reports produced by the British South Africa Company, the second refers to Baden Powell’s The Matabele Campaign being a Narrative of the Campaign in suppressing the Native Rising in Matabeleland and Mashonaland and this article has Excel tables compiled from all of these sources.

In Matabeleland most of the civilian casualties are commemorated on a Memorial; 129 of 147 or 88% have names recorded on a Memorial. I am not sure why some are excluded; it may have been an administrative oversight or something else. Examples of those omitted include:

1. Morrison and Rowlands both refused to leave the Queen’s Reef Mine and should be commemorated on the Fort Rixon Memorial but are not.
2. Why is Timothy Donavan not included on the Inyathi Memorial? – he was killed at the same time as those others commemorated.
3. The two transport riders Fourie and Potgieter are not included – is it because they were South African residents delivering supplies only?
4. Joseph Ross and his wife are commemorated on the Pongo Memorial; but Agnes Kirk his step-daughter is not?
5. Colas and Loutzouvelis both Greek traders and Lund a Dane are not included on Memorials; is it because of their nationality?

The remaining military memorials offer rather a mixed picture. There are military commemorations on the Gwelo, Fort Rixon, Pongo, Mambo and Umlugulu Memorials although they include only 38 of 122 casualties, a mere 31% of the total.

In Mashonaland the only two civilians recorded on Memorials are Blakiston and Routledge, although the Memorial near the Mazowe Hotel is now demolished. If indeed the remains of between 70 – 100 civilian casualties were indeed buried at the Harare Pioneer Cemetery Memorial Vault then most of the 115 civilian casualties would be accounted for.

There are no military Memorials for the 1896-7 Mashona Rebellion or First Chimurenga. I have no idea why although a committee of the Rhodesian Memorial Fund was set up in Salisbury at the time. Most casualties were buried near where they were killed. For example see the descriptions of the small cemeteries in the articles  under the article Chief Chinengundu Mashayamombe’s stronghold, Fort Martin and cemetery and Fort Hill and the cemetery at Hartley Hills goldfield under Mashonaland West on the website www.zimfieldguide.com

But may were buried in remote locations and their descriptions of the gravesite are very inexact; see the article The Loyal Women’s Guild and the Pioneer Memorial Crosses under Harare on the website www.zimfieldguide.com

References

C.K. Cooke. Memorials: Matabele Rebellion 1896. Rhodesiana Publication No 22, July 1970

The ’96 Rebellions - The British South Africa Company Reports on the Native Disturbances in Rhodesia, 1896-7. Books of Rhodesia, Bulawayo 1975

D. Judson 1896 report to Judge Vintcent / H. Marshall Hole. Old Rhodesian Days. Books of Rhodesia, Bulawayo 1976

R.S. Baden-Powell. The Matabele Campaign being a Narrative of the Campaign in suppressing the Native Rising in Matabeleland and Mashonaland. Methuen and Co, London 1901

E.E. Burke. Mazoe and the Mashona Rebellion, 1896-7. Rhodesiana Publication No 25. December 1971

R.C. Howland. The Mazoe Patrol. Rhodesiana Publication No 8. 1963

For detailed instructions to all of the National Monuments see the articles in www.zimfieldguide.com