Inyathi

Inyathi is a village in the Bubi District of Matabeleland North, Zimbabwe, about 100 kilometres from Bulawayo, that grew from missionary settlement in the late nineteenth century. The London Missionary Society mission, established in 1859 by Robert Moffat and William Sykes with the agreement of King Mzilikazi, is described as the oldest mission and first permanent white settlement in Zimbabwe, and the first to offer education to local people. The mission sits on about 2,729 hectares. The name is the Xhosa word for buffalo, after the nearby Buffalo River, and the area has gold mines that have drawn both corporate and illegal mining.