Mpezeni

Who was Mpezeni?

Mpezeni was warrior-king of one of the largest Ngoni groups of central Africa, based in what is now the Chipata District of Zambia, at a time when the British South Africa Company of Cecil Rhodes was trying to take possession of the territory for the British Empire. Mpezeni was courted by the Portuguese and the BSAC sent agents to obtain a treaty — Alfred Sharpe in 1889, and Joseph Maloney in 1895, who were both unsuccessful.

In 1897 with over 4000 warriors Mpezeni rose up against the British who were taking control of Nyasaland and North-Eastern Rhodesia, and was defeated. He signed the treaty which allowed him to rule as Paramount Chief of the Ngoni in Zambia's Eastern Province and Malawi's Mchinji district. His successors as chief take the title Paramount Chief Mpezeni to this day.