One song went —./O-
Vamos ver se vamos para o Transvaal *~
Para Fugirmos ao Gungunhana.
Mas eles nao deixam        2
Mandam-nos voltar para tras.
Gungunhana had dreamed of migrating south to British territory;
some of his young men had travelled to Natal and Transvaalto work in
the mines and businesses in order to earn gold as their cattle were
dying of rinderpest and their economy was being revolutionzed.
Gungunhana1s mangas were felled by European bullets as well as a
host of disruptive influences which were changing Mozambique; that
Ngoni King was caught in a whirlwind of forces and unwillingly
became a man on a tightrope.  When he left Mozambique for exile in
January 1896, there remained enduring influences which were to cause
a serious rebellion in 1897 and which would keep musicians singing
and old men talking for decades to come.
Early Years of Gungunhana, l839?-l881+
Gungunhana, or Mudungazi, was born about the year 1839 or l81j_0
in southern Mozambique.  He saw his first light in a kraal of his
father Umzila (or Muzilla) in Bilene in the fertile Limpopo valley.
His father was Chief or King of the Gaza Ngoni who had invaded the
territory after 1820; Umzila1s father was Soshangane, Chief of the
Ngoni clan driven out of Natal by Shaka Zulu in 1519 and attacked
by Shaka1s armies in 1826.  Soshangane, or Manikosi, as some called
him, swept the coast of Mozambique,sacking Lourenco Marques and
Inhambane in I833-I83I4-, and settled In the lower Limpopo valley near
Bilene; when he died in 1858, his bones were placed In a sepulchre
in the village of Chamimite, near the present-day village of
Kangunhana.
The Ngoni settled in the Limpopo valley but frequently moved
the royal kraal of their King from place to place.  It is therefore
difficult to locate the place of Gungunhana1s birth; sometime between
I86I and 1869 Umzila moved the great kraal, and presumably his son
Gungunhana, from the Limpopo valley to the upper Buzi River; later
tho Ngoni King was visited on the upper Save. River.  The first
mention of Gungunhana came as a result of the 1882-83 expedition of
Antonio Maria Cardoso to the interior to visit Umzila; thus the first
appearance of our subject comes when he was over I4.O years of age
and close to ascending the throne of Gaza.
Although we lack details of his early life, v/e can understand
his later life and subsequent fall only by studying the reign of his
father Umzila.  For Umzila entered a unique relationship with the
Portuguese on the coast after 1858, and Gungunhana was later
burdened with his father's indebtedness to the Portuguese authorities
as well as with a legacy of decreased Ngoni military power.  The
weaknesses of Gungunhana were but reflection of his father's problms.
2. Amadeu Cunha, Mousinho (Lisbon, 19l\l\.) ,p .I4.38 •
Let us see if we can go to Transvaal
To fly to Gungunhana.
But they do not allow us
They order us to turn back.