Historical records indicate their early involvement in trade networks centered around Mapungubwe (literally "place of Jackals"), where they engaged with various groups including the Khoisan peoples and Arab traders.
They were particularly known for trading in textiles, called "Mpalu", "Njeti" and "Vukotlo" - distinctive red, white, and blue cloths - as well as golden beads.
In the 1820s, during a period of severe drought, northern Nguni armies particularly the (Zulu, Swazi, Ndwandwe, Khumalo, Xhosa and Ndebele) people who speak related Bantu languages and inhabit southeastern Africa from Cape Province to southern Mozambique, began to migrate to Mozambique from what is now South Africa.
Eventually Soshangane established his capital in the highlands of the middle Sabie River in what is present day South Africa.
In forming the Gaza empire, Soshangane and his Nguni impis [armies] overran and incorporated the Tsonga, Shongonono, Ngomane, Portuguese, Hlengwe, Nyai, Rhonga, Shona, Xhosa, Zulu, Senga, Chopi as well as the Ndau tribes in a new nation with the people collectively called Shangani.
In their place, valley warlords established fortified strongholds at the confluence of the major rivers, where they raised private armies and raided for slaves in the interior.
The most powerful of these warlords was Manuel António de Sousa, also known as Gouveia, a settler from Portuguese India, who by the middle of the 19th century controlled most of the southern Zambezi Valley and a huge swath of land to its south.
Today the Ndau-Shangaan are largely identified by these surnames: Sakwinje, Semwayo, Simango, Sibiya, Dhliwayo, Dube, Makuyana, Mlambo, Mthethwa, Mhlanga, Nxumalo Hlatshwayo, Sithole, Kwidini, Sidhile, Dhlakama, Bhila and Zharikiya.
Renamo, the Mozambican National Resistance Movement, draws support from the Shangaan in the Sofala province of Mozambique (to where its leader Dhlakama belong, as well as the Catholic archbishop of Beira), in part due to their poor socio-economic conditions and their so far too weak inclusion in foreign financial investments and socio-economic developmental programs of the governing party.
Once Robert Mugabe came to power, Sithole formed his own party, ZANU-Ndonga that continues to garner widespread support among the Ndau-Shangani community.
Because of Sithole's contentious relationship with Mugabe, The Ndau people are also known to be very good herbalists, and they are openly described by Mozambicans to be the most feared black magicians.
There are many clans from the Ndau-Shangani ethnic groups such as Mlambo, acknowledged as the father of Ndau peoples, Simango, Khumbula, Mhlanga, Ndlakama, Mashaba and Moyana (Gumbi, Phahla).
Although they identify themselves by different names and surnames, such as Moyana (meaning "sheep"), they ultimately consider themselves to be Dziva due to being Musikavanthu's descendants.
Robert Mugabe sought to downplay the significance of this unique chieftaincy by promoting fallacies and falsehoods that portrayed his ancestry as descending from the Munhumutapas.