[citation needed] It was named after Lt. Col. E. Cashel, a former member of the British South Africa Police and the Rhodesian Volunteers, who retired to this area after World War I.

[citation needed] The Cashel valley is well known for radio and television commercials, which sought to extol the quality of its peas, beans and other agricultural products.

[citation needed] The farm on which the agency was situated was called Kranskop, after a high hill near the junction of Tandaai and Umvumvumvu Rivers.

[citation needed] The Ndau are an ethnic group which inhabits the areas in south-eastern Zimbabwe in the districts of Chipinge and Chimanimani in which they are natives.

Refugees from various clans oppressed by Dingane (Shaka's successor) were welded into one tribe by Gaza's son Soshangane, his followers becoming known as Shangaan or Mashangane.

Between 1833 and 1836 Soshangane made himself master of the country as far north as the Zambezi and captured the Portuguese posts at Delagoa Bay, Inhambane, Sofala and Sena, killing nearly all the inhabitants.

The Portuguese reoccupied their posts, but held them with great difficulty, while in the interior Soshangane continued his conquests, depopulating large regions.

Soshangane died about 1856, and his son Umzila, receiving some help from the Portuguese at Delagoa Bay in a struggle against a brother for the chieftain-ship, ceded to them the territory south of the Komati River.

North of that river as far as the Zambezi, and inland to the continental plateau, Umzila established himself in independence, a position he maintained till his death (c .1884).

Having obtained possession of a crown estate (prazo) in the Gorongosa District, he ruled there as a feudal lord while acknowledging himself a Portuguese subject.

Probably the first European to penetrate any distance inland from the Sofala coast since the Portuguese gold-seekers of the 16th century was St Vincent Whitshed Erskine, who explored the region between the Limpopo and Pungwe (1868-1875).

Portugal's hold on the coast had been more firmly established at the time of Umzila's death, and Gungunhana, his successor, was claimed as a vassal, while efforts were made to open up the interior.

[2]: 8  On 9 March, a treaty known as the Gazaland Concession was signed, and Gungunhana commercial and mineral rights to most of his kingdom to the British South African Company in exchange for cash payments, rifles, and ammunition.

[citation needed] The settlers faced a major setback due to the rinderpest disease, but eventually thrived and after some confusion about its name, became a successful farming community with a school, library and hotel.

[citation needed] The Rhodesian Bush war played a major part in the area after Mozambique gained its independence and the border became an easy access route, with several attacks resulting in many farmers leaving.

[citation needed] On 4 January 1893 the Moodie Trek arrived at the farm Waterfalls and settled in what would later be called Chipinga or South Melsetter.

The news that farms were available in Rhodesia at the nominal figure of only about £30 caught the imagination of those people who have always grown up with the soil and whose greatest desire was to possess a piece of ground themselves.

[4][page needed] After an arduous journey through the Transvaal, into Bechuanaland, through the Tuli block and across rivers and over mountains and the odd encounter with lions, they arrived in the Umvumvumvu valley on Christmas Eve 1895.

The first eighteen months had been one long struggle, with little food, no cash, difficulties of marketing any saleable surplus, and all capital locked up mainly in cattle, but at the beginning of 1896 prospects were good and the outlook was bright.

Against the background of hopes and difficulties two events started during the year which set back the smooth development: Rinderpest and the fears of a native rising.

The disease crossed the Zambezi into Rhodesia in February 1896; the spread was rapid with infection carried by game, and the whole country was swiftly affected.

Little was known about prevention or cure of the disease, and many Melsetter farmers lost so many cattle that they were forced to give in and move away, abandoning any progress they had been able to make on their farms.

Food was very short, and Government supplies of rice, bully beef, tea and other necessities were sent up by donkey wagon and were rationed out each week in the township.

One was that oxwagons should leave from Gazaland in order to return with food, and Sawerthal commented that such a modus operandi would devastate the district by rinderpest.

This took Martin by surprise: Steyn said that they had been advised to gather in one spot as danger was near and a rising feared, but when Longden reassured him he said that they would be happy to return to their homes.

Martin was worried about reports about the war: losses in the Matopo Hills, murders in Mazoe, rising in Fort Victoria; and he asked Longden whether it would not be advisable, if they were true, that all available forces should be concentrated.

"[1][page needed] On 23 December 1975, an Aérospatiale Alouette III helicopter of the South African Air Force carrying a two-man crew and four Rhodesian Army officers crashed near Cashel in Rhodesia after it collided with a hawser cable mid-flight.

[citation needed] By late 1978, the New York Times reported that advances made by the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army led to the exodus of about 40 white families, who had farmed the land.

[6] In May 2011, Pambazuka News reported that a militia associated with the governing ZANU–PF party burned down a number of houses belonging to local Movement for Democratic Change leaders in the Cashel Valley.

The storm caused catastrophic damage, and a humanitarian crisis in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi, leaving more than 1,300 people dead and many more missing.