Ngungunyane

Ngungunyane, son of Mzila, was the last king of the Gaza empire, reigning from 1884 until his defeat in 1895. Ruling a vast tributary state over the Tsonga of southern Mozambique, he manoeuvred between Portuguese, British and Boer interests before Portuguese columns under Mouzinho de Albuquerque broke his power and captured him; he was exiled first to Lisbon and then to the Azores, where he died in 1906. Praised as the Lion of Gaza, he became the supreme symbol of Tsonga-Shangaan resistance, and in 1985 his remains were carried home to be reburied as a hero of independent Mozambique.

Parentage

• parent: MzilaDouglas L. Wheeler, 'Gungunyane the Negotiator' (1968), Gaza dynastic succession (secondary)

Domains

• kingship and resistance

Powers

• resists the Portuguese conquest of Gaza

Epithets

• Leao de Gaza — the Lion of GazaDouglas L. Wheeler, 'Gungunyane the Negotiator', Journal of African History 9.4 (1968) (secondary)

Relations

• parent: MzilaDouglas L. Wheeler, 'Gungunyane the Negotiator' (1968), Gaza dynastic succession (secondary)

Sources

• Ngungunyane, son of Mzila, was the last king of the Gaza empire, reigning from 1884 until his defeat and capture in 1895 by Portuguese columns under Mouzinho de Albuquerque, after which he was exiled to Lisbon and the Azores, where he died in 1906.: Douglas L. Wheeler, 'Gungunyane the Negotiator: A Study in African Diplomacy', Journal of African History 9.4 (1968) (secondary); Patrick Harries, Work, Culture, and Identity: Migrant Laborers in Mozambique and South Africa (1994) (secondary)
• Praised as the Lion of Gaza, he became the supreme symbol of Tsonga-Shangaan resistance, and in 1985 his remains were carried home to be reburied as a hero of independent Mozambique.: Patrick Harries, Work, Culture, and Identity (1994), on Gungunyane in Tsonga historical memory (secondary)