Zambia Philately: 1968 New Currency Definitives – 25n Angoni Warrior

The Ngoni (also called Angoni, Abangoni, Mangoni, and Wangoni) are an ethnic group living in the present-day Southern African countries of Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Zambia. The Ngoni trace their origins to the Nguni and Zulu people of kwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. The displacement of the Ngoni people in the great scattering following the Zulu wars had repercussions in social reorganization as far north as Malawi and Zambia.

The rise of the Zulu nation to dominance in southern Africa in the early nineteenth century disrupted many traditional alliances. Around 1817, the Mthethwa alliance, which included the Zulu clan, came into conflict with the Ndwandwe alliance, which included the Nguni people from what is now kwaZulu-Natal.

One of the military commanders of the army of king Thunziani Mabaso The Great, Zwangendaba Gumbi (c. 1780–1848), was the head of the Jele or Gumbi clan, which itself formed part of the larger emaNcwangeni alliance in what is now north-east kwaZulu-Natal. In 1819, the Zulu army under Mabaso defeated the Ndwandwe alliance at a battle on the Mhlathuze River, near Nkandla. The battle resulted in the diaspora of many indigenous groups in southern Africa.

In the decades after, Zwangendaba led a small group of his followers north through Mozambique and Zimbabwe to the region around the Viphya Plateau. In this region, present-day Zambia (Chipata district), Malawi (Mzimba, Ntcheu and Karonga district) and Tanzania (Matema district), he established a state, using Zulu warfare techniques to conquer and integrate local peoples.

Details
  • Designer: Gabriel Ellison
  • Printer: Harrison & Sons Ltd.
  • Process: Photogravure
  • Paper: 
  • Watermark: None
  • Perf: 14.5 x 13.5
  • Gum:
    • Gum Arabic (original printing)
    • Polyvinyl Alcohol (reprint)
  • Cylinders:
    • 1B (Copper), 1B (Yellow), 1B (Red-Brown), 1B (Black)
  • Sheet: 5 x 10
  • Quantity:
  • Reprint: 7 January 1969
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