Bulawayo was the royal kraal of Shaka Zulu, and as such was the capital of the early Zulu empire. It was founded after Shaka's conquest of the Ndwandwe

Ndwandwe

The Ndwandwe clan are a subgroup of the Nguni people who populate sections of Southern Africa.The Ndwandwe, with the Mthethwa, were a significant power in present-day Zululand at the turn of the nineteenth century...

 kingdom, in around 1820. It was here that Shaka first met Western traders from Port Natal. After Shaka's assassination, the royal kraal was moved to umGungundlovu

UmGungundlovu

uMgungundlovu was the royal capital of the Zulu king Dingane and one of several military complexes which he maintained...

 by his half-brother and successor Dingane

Dingane

Dingane kaSenzangakhona Zulu —commonly referred to as Dingane or Dingaan—was a Zulu chief who became king of the Zulu Kingdom in 1828...

.

It is not to be confused with the city in Zimbabwe, founded and named after it by Matabele king and Shaka's former lieutenant Mzilikazi

Mzilikazi

Mzilikazi , also sometimes called Mosilikatze, was a Southern African king who founded the Matabele kingdom , Matabeleland, in what became Rhodesia and is now Zimbabwe. He was born the son of Matshobana near Mkuze, Zululand and died at Ingama, Matabeleland...

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