r. J. P. RICHARDSON was one of the Native Commissioners stationed near Bulawayo at the outbreak of the Matabele Rebellion. (His wife subsequently became one of the founders of the Women’s Institute in Rhodesia.) To Richardson is due the chief credit for initiating the peace talks which brought the fighting in Matabeleland to an end.

n 9 August 1896 a British patrol found an old African woman in a deserted kraal, “all alone with her cows and chickens”. She was brought back to the camp at Umlugulu for interrogation by Richardson. She turned out to be Nyambezana, a widow of Mzilikazi and the· mother of one of the fighting indunas.

y this time Mr. Rhodes had become determined to negotiate peace with the Matabele rather than carry out expensive attacks on their near-impregnable strongholds in the Matopo Hills, and he at once appreciated Nyambezana’s significance as a possible envoy to the chiefs leading the Rebellion: “a message might be taken for her by the other women in the camp” he suggested to Richardson, asking the rebels to negotiate a truce.

ut Richardson had a better idea: he suggested that the old lady herself be carried back to the kraal from which she could make contact with the rebel indunas. When this was agreed he instructed Nyambezana to fly a white flag over her hut if the Matabele wanted peace and a red flag if they were determined to go on fighting.

our days of anxious waiting followed; then on 14 Augusta white flag was seen hoisted over Nyambezana’s hut. This was the opportunity Mr. Rhodes was seeking and to demonstrate his good faith to the rebels he moved away from the security of Umlugulu and set up camp on his own.

e then induced three African emissaries, one of whom was the famous scout John Grootboom, to make further contact with the rebel leaders. On 21 August the envoys were back in Rhodes’s camp with news that the senior Matabele chiefs were prepared to discuss terms with him provided that he came to their bivouac with no more than four unarmed men.

n the panel Richardson is seen introducing Mr. Rhodes to Nyambezana.