Pathisa Nyathi: The History of Zidube Ranch and Armed Struggle

Following is an excerpt from historian Phathisa Nyathi: I think it is important that we orient ourselves and get to know where Zidube Ranch is in geographical terms. We are in South Western part of Zimbabwe to arrive here we drove through Tshelanyemba and a bit of Bhewula. We crossed a river in Tshelanyemba and the river is Shashane River.

That river is very important as it is a tributary to the river that forms the border between Zimbabwe and Botswana which is Shashe. Shashane is the diminutive of Shashe meaning without a king. I think the name Shashe was a lament of the people who used to live here, the BaKalanga people. They used to cry “Oh Kushayashe” in their language. The border with Botswana is not very far, perhaps 15km away.

Between Bhewula and this area there are no settlements but it is presently being used as grazing area for their cattle. This area was from about 1825 occupied by the Babirwa group of people, these are the Nares and the Nyathis. More specifically our chief who was in this area was Patsalala who happens to be my chief. So west of us we have other areas such as Simukwe, Mambale and I have already made reference to Bhewula.

To the east there is Lubhalwe, Sankonjana, Babirwa, Kafusi, Manyuka and then there is Kafusi dam. The other side there is also Manyane “our Mnyane” as opposed to Manyane in Kezi.