Hone Wiremu Heke Pokai (c. 1807/88–1850) by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, pubd 1847 (after George French Angas) [left, with Eruera Maihi Patuone] Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa (PUBL-0014-44)
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Angela Ballara
Heke Pokai, Hone Wiremu (c. 1807/8–1850), Maori war leader, was born at Pakaraka, inland from the Bay of Islands in the North Island of New Zealand. His birth probably took place shortly after the great battle between his people and Ngati Whatua, often known as ...
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Hongi Hika (1772–1828) by unknown artist, c. 1820 [centre, with Waikato (left) and the missionary Thomas Kendall (right)] Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa (G-618)
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Angela Ballara
Hongi Hika (1772–1828), Maori tribal leader and war chief, was, by his own account, born in the year of the death of the French explorer Marion du Fresne, 1772, near Kaikohe in central Northland in the North Island of New Zealand. He was the second of several children of ...
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Ian Phimister
Makoni, Mutota (c. 1835–1896), anti-colonial warrior, is believed to have been born in the Maungwe region, later overlapping with the Makoni district, some 50 miles north-west of Mutare in Mashonaland. Centred on a succession of stone-built villages, whose complex fortifications impressed the British hunter ...
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Mapondera, Kadungure (1840s–1904), warrior chief in Africa, was born at Nyota, a mountain stronghold of the Negomo dynasty, in what is now northern Mashonaland, Zimbabwe. Mapondera's mother, Mwera, was a mhondwa, a slave wife, but there is no agreement as to who his father was. Some accounts favour ...
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Christopher Saunders
Moorosi [Morosi] (c. 1795–1879), ruler of the Ngwe (Putili) and warrior, was born, oral evidence suggests, at Mohale's Hoek in the south of what became Lesotho. His father, Mokuoane, Ngwe (Putili) ruler, became a vassal of the Sotho leader Moshoeshoe in the late 1820s. When ...
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Ne Win (1911–2002) by unknown photographer, 1958 Getty Images
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R. H. Taylor
Ne Win (1911–2002), military ruler of Burma, was born Shu Maung on 14 May 1911 in Paungdale, central Burma, the son of Po Kha, a revenue surveyor, and his wife, Mi Le. His father's home was said to be a frequent stop for touring nationalist politicians despite his employment by the British colonial government. Having attended ...
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Richard Broome
Pemulwoy (c. 1760–1802), Aboriginal warrior, was a member of the Bediagal band of the Dharug people, whose lands occupied the head of Botany Bay, 6 miles south of the Port Jackson convict settlement.
Within months of the first fleet's arrival in January 1788 wary Dharug–British relations degenerated into avoidance and violence. A thousand newcomers, equal to their own number, rent the Dharug's world. Competition for resources eased only momentarily in April 1789, when smallpox killed half the Dharug. On 10 December 1790 ...
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J. B. Peires
Sandile (c. 1820–1878), chief of the Ngqika Xhosa, son of Chief Ngqika and his great wife, Sutu, was born in independent Xhosa near the later Fort Beaufort in South Africa. He was installed as chief in 1842 and led the Ngqika Xhosa until his death in battle in 1878. In accordance with Xhosa custom he had several wives and many children. His great wife was ...
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Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki (c. 1832–1893), Maori fighter and religious leader, was born about 1832 at Te Pa-o-Kahu, Turanganui-a-Kiwa (Poverty Bay), New Zealand, the second of four surviving children of Hone Te Rangipatahi and Turakau (Heni), of the Rongowhakaata tribe. His line of descent was collateral to the senior ...
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Te Rauparaha (d. 1849) by John Alexander Gilfillan, c. 1842 Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa
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Angela Ballara
Te Rauparaha (d. 1849), Maori chief and war leader, was said to have been born shortly before Captain James Cook visited New Zealand, perhaps in 1768, at Te Taharoa, south of Kawhia, on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand...
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Potatau Te Wherowhero (c. 1775–1860) by George French Angas, pubd 1847 Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa
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Te Wherowhero, Potatau (c. 1775–1860), Maori king and war leader, was born in the late eighteenth century, possibly between 1770 and 1780, and probably in central Waikato in the North Island of New Zealand. He was the eldest son of the Waikato war leader and (...
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Neville Green
Yagan (c. 1800–1833), Aboriginal warrior, was born in south-western Australia, the eldest of four sons of Midgegooroo (or Midjegooroong). The name of his mother is not known. Yagan's tribal land was Beeliar, one of five clan territories that later formed most of the greater metropolitan area of ...
