The Lost Kingdom (Part 4)

The Bakalanga also subsequently became renowned for their possession of imported firearms, including cannon. By the 19th century they, along with their Vashona cousins had begun to construct guns of local manufacture known by the Chishona name “chigidi” or “zvigidi”, as well as make their own gunpowder by combining charcoal with salt-petre extracted from soils found in certain caves.

From as early as the 15th century until the late 17th century, the ancestors of modern Bakalanga thus prospered under the rule of a series of kings (mambo) remembered by the dynastic name Chibundule (or Tshibundule). While the Chibundule state was known to the Portuguese by the names Torwa/Tolwa and Butwa, and archaeologists sometimes speak of “Khami culture”, Ikalanga traditions associate the dynasty with the Bawumbe sub-group of the Balilima-Bakalanga.