Absolutely correct. "NO ONE IS A KWEREKWERE IN AFRICA." Advocate Dali Mpofu is hitting the essential truth: We must wake up and stop celebrating colonial borders.
This isn't just rhetoric, it's a historical fact rooted in major continental movements. Figures like Mzilikazi kaMashobane and Soshangane were key leaders whose journeys violently reshaped Southern Africa, fundamentally illustrating our shared ancestry and interconnectedness.
A Short History of African Unity in Movement.
During the 19th-century upheaval known as the Mfecane (or Difaqane) in Southern Africa, driven largely by the rise of the Zulu Kingdom under Shaka, massive groups of people migrated from what is now South Africa, effectively redrawing the map well before colonial powers did.
Mzilikazi KaMashobane: Originally a lieutenant of Shaka, Mzilikazi broke away with his Ndebele (AmaNdebele/Matabele) followers (the Khumalo clan and others) around 1822. His military state trekked northwards through the present-day Free State, Gauteng, and Limpopo provinces of South Africa. Facing threats from the Boers, he finally crossed the Limpopo River and established the powerful Ndebele Kingdom (Mthwakazi) in what is now Matabeleland, Zimbabwe (near present-day Bulawayo).
Soshangane: Another powerful general under Zwide of the Ndwandwe, Soshangane fled after the Ndwandwe's defeat by Shaka. He led his forces north and established the extensive Gaza Empire in the region of modern-day Mozambique (extending over parts of southern Mozambique, southeastern Zimbabwe, and parts of South Africa). His people, the Shangaan (or Tsonga-Shangaan), became a dominant force there.
These, and other movements like that of the Ngoni groups, were massive population shifts that established new kingdoms and ethnic groups across modern-day South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Tanzania. The borders we argue over today were drawn arbitrarily, decades later, by European powers, slicing through existing communities and cultural ties. Our roots are fundamentally interwoven, the idea of an "African foreigner" is a colonial construct.