Soshangana was the leader of the Nguni group who fled away from Shaka Zulu the king of the Zulu nation in the 1820s. Soshangana / Manukuza and his group decided not to become incorporated into the Zulu Kingdom after the Ndwandwe king Zwide, whose subject suffered a defeat. In 1819 Zwide was the ruler of the royal house of Ndwandwe, while Soshangana was Ndwandwe military commander and the leader of the Gaza branch. The Gaza branch was constituted of members of the Likhohlwa part of the original royal house living in the Ndwandwe area at a place called eTshaneni, the Ghost Mountains on the Mkuze plain. It is also here where Gaza and other important leaders of Gaza branch were buried.