Inyati was established as a mission station at the behest of the London Missionary Society (LMS) in December 1859 by Robert Moffat after successfully leading a column of ox-drawn carts from Kuruman in Bechuanaland (modern-day Botswana), reaching the kraal (and probably the headquarters) of Matebele king Mzilikazi at Emhlangeni in western Zimbabwe, in October, 1859.