Zwangendaba led his people, then called the "Jele", on a wandering migration of more than 1,600 kilometres (1,000 mi) lasting more than twenty years.
Their journey took them through the areas of what is now northern South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi to the western part of Tanzania, where Zwangendaba set up a base at Mapupo.
The Ngoni, originally a small royal clan that left Kwa-Zulu Natal, extended their dominion even further through present-day Tanzania, Malawi, and Zambia when they fragmented into three separate groups following his death.
[2] Using many of Shaka's warfare methods of rule such as rigid discipline in military and social organisation, he knitted his nation and the people conquered along the way into a cohesive unit.
[2] Advancing north, ravaging the countries they crossed, they eventually arrived in the south west of what is now Tanzania.