obert Moffat was born at Ormiston in Scotland in 1795. He was educated at home and at the Grammar School in Falkirk and then apprenticed to a gardener. Moffat next entered a theological college and in 1816 was accepted by the London Missionary Society for the African Mission Field. In 1824 Dr. Moffat founded the famous mission station at Kuruman, in the Northern Cape Province adjoining Botswana, which is so closely associated with his name. Five years later he paid a visit to Mzilikazi, chief of the Matabele, a migrant branch of the Zulu tribe which was then living in the western Transvaal. Moffat cultivated his friendship with Mzilikazi during a second visit in 1835. Soon afterwards the Voortrekkers heavily defeated the Matabele, and Mzilikazi led them across the Limpopo, conquered the Karanga and established a new kingdom within the boundaries of modern Rhodesia.

t was not until 1854 that Moffat undertook a 600-mile journey by ox-wagon to Mzilikazi’s new home in Matabeleland, meeting him near Bulawayo on 22 July. The two men spent the next eleven weeks together and their already incongruous friendship then assumed its most florid proportions. The missionary was back at Kuruman on 8 December having despatched mail and provisions to his son-in-law Dr. Livingstone on the Zambezi. Moffat went again to Matabeleland from Kuruman in 1857, this time to prepare the way for the introduction of an L.M.S. Mission to the Matabele. Two years later Moffat accompanied the members of the mission into Matabeleland and waited there until it was firmly established at Inyati.

zilikazi’s friendship with Robert Moffat was a most significant influence in Rhodesian history. Mzilikazi was a warrior king with 300 wives, and he had very little time for Christianity, but because of his respect for and trust of Moffat he allowed himself to be persuaded to admit the Matabele mission to his realm. Once established there he and his successor Lobengula always gave protection to the missionaries. Mzilikazi died in 1868 and is buried in a splendid natural sepulchre lying in one of the loveliest valleys in the Matopos. Robert Moffat died in Kent in 1883 and lies buried in a London cemetery.