![]() Top left, Xhosa; Top right, Ndebele; Bottom left, Zulu; Bottom right, Swati | |
Total population | |
---|---|
31,618,000[ citation needed ] | |
Languages | |
Nguni languages IsiXhosa, IsiZulu, Siswati, Ndebele | |
Religion | |
Christianity and (uThixo or Qamata) Unkulunkulu | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Sotho-Tswana peoples, Tsonga people, Khoisan, San people and Ngoni people |
The Nguni people are a linguistic cultural group that migrated to South Africa, made up of Bantu ethnic groups from central Africa, with offshoots in neighboring countries in Southern Africa. Swazi (or Swati) people live in both South Africa and Eswatini, while Ndebele people live in both South Africa and Zimbabwe.
A group of the Nguni living in present-day Malawi and Zambia also migrated from central Africa during the Bantu expansion, they known as AbaNgoni or Ngoni.
The Xhosa, who were the first Bantu group to arrive during the Bantu expansion settled in the south and eastern part of south Africa and established federations (AbaThembu, AmaMpondo, AmaXhosa, and AmaMpondomise) in the region during the 14th century AD. The Xhosa trace their tribe name back to the Khoi , the earlier inhabitants of “South Africa” whom they encountered. The Khoi named the Nguni "Xhosa", meaning “fierce” (in battle) possibly due to their superior fighting ability. The traditional homeland of the Xhosa people stretches from the Gamtoos River up to Umzimkhulu near Natal.
The Xhosas were originally known as the Aba-Nguni until renamed by the Khoi. The Xhosa often called the "Red Blanket People," are speakers of Bantu languages living in south-east South Africa and in the last two centuries throughout the southern and central-southern parts of the country.
Both the Ndebele of Zimbabwe and the Ngoni migrated northward out of South Africa in the early 19th century, during a politically tumultuous era that included the Mfecane and Great Trek.
In South Africa, the historic Nguni kingdoms of the Ndebele, Swazi, Xhosa, and Zulu are in the present-day provinces of the Southern and Eastern Cape, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Mpumalanga. The most notable of these kingdoms are the Zulu Kingdom, which was ruled by Shaka, a warrior king whose conquest took place in the early nineteenth century, and the Xhosa Kingdom, existed for 11 generations before the start of the Frontier Wars in 1779.
Overall, the Nguni cultural group is made up of the eMbo, Lala, Ntungwa, Hlubi, Xhosa, Mthethwa Paramountcy, Ngidi, Ndwandwe, Zulu, Ngoni, Swati and Ndebele ethnic groups.
In Zimbabwe, the Ndebele people live primarily in the province of Matabeleland. [1]
Most of what is believed about ancient Nguni history comes from oral history and legends. Traditionally, their partial ancestors are said to have migrated to Africa's Great Lakes region from the north. [2] According to linguistic evidence and historians (including John H. Robertson, Rebecca Bradley, T. Russell, Fabio Silva, and James Steele), some of the ancestors of the Nguni people migrated from west of the geographic centre of Africa [3] towards modern-day South Africa 7000 years ago (5000 BC). [4] [5] [6] [7] Nguni ancestors had migrated within South Africa to KwaZulu-Natal by the 1st century AD and were also present in the Transvaal region at the same time. [8] [9] [10] [11] These partially nomadic ancestors of the modern Nguni people brought with them sheep, cattle, goats, and horticultural crops, many of which had never been used in South Africa at that time. [12] [9]
Other provinces in present-day South Africa, such as the Cape, saw the emergence of Nguni speakers around the same time. [13] Some groups split off and settled along the way, while others kept going. Thus, the following settlement pattern formed: the southern Ndebele in the north, the Swazi in the northeast, the Xhosa in the south, and the Zulu towards the east. Because these peoples had a common origin, their languages and cultures show marked similarities. Partial ancestors of the Nguni eventually met and merged with San hunters, which accounts for the use of click consonants in the languages of the Nguni. [14]
Many tribes and clans in KwaZulu-Natal are said to have been forcibly united under Shaka Zulu. Shaka Zulu's political organization was efficient in integrating conquered tribes, partly through the age regiments, where men from different villages bonded with each other.[ citation needed ]
Many versions in the historiography of southern Africa state that during the South African upheaval known as Mfecane, the Nguni people spread across a large part of southern Africa, absorbing, conquering, or displacing many other peoples. However, the notion of the mfecane or difaqane has been disputed by some scholars, notably Julian Cobbing. [15] The Mfecane was initiated by Zwide and his Ndwandwes. They attacked the Hlubi and stole their cattle, leaving them destitute. The remnants of the Hlubi, under their chief Matiwane fled into what is now the Free State and attacked the Batlokwa in the Harrismith Vrede area. This displaced the Batlokwa under Mmanthatisi, and she and her people spread conflict further into the central interior. Moshoeshoe and his Bakwena sought the protection of Shaka and sent him tribute in return. When Matiwane settled at Mabolela, near present-day Clocolan, Moshoeshoe complained to Shaka that this prevented him from sending his tribute, whereupon an impi was sent to drive Matiwane from this area. Matiwane fled south and raided one of the Xhosa kingdoms, which got his whole tribe annihilated by Paramount Hintsa, at the Battle Of Mbholompo. Mmanthatisi and her Batlokwa settled near what is now Ficksburg and were followed by her son, Sekonyela, as chief of the Batlokwa. It was he who had stolen Zulu cattle that Piet Retief in his dealings with Dingane, Shaka's successor, retrieved. After the defeat of Zwide and his Ndwandwes by Shaka, two of his commanders, Soshangane and Zwengendaba, fled with their followers northward, engaging in conflict as they went. Soshangane eventually founded the Shangane nation in Mozambique and Zwengendaba moved all the way to what is now Tanzania. Mzilikazi in his flight from Shaka, depopulated the eastern highveld and northern Free State, killing the men and capturing the women to form his Matabele nation. Initially, he settled near what is now Pretoria, then moved to Mosega, near present-day Zeerust, but after his defeat by the Voortrekkers he moved to present-day Zimbabwe where he founded his capital, Bulawayo. [16]
Within the Nguni nations, the clan, based on male ancestry, formed the highest social unit.[ citation needed ] Each clan was led by a chieftain.[ citation needed ] Influential men tried to achieve independence by creating their own clan.[ citation needed ] The power of a chieftain often depended on how well he could hold his clan together.[ citation needed ] From about 1800, the rise of the Zulu clan of the Nguni, and the consequent Mfecane that accompanied the expansion of the Zulus under Shaka helped to drive a process of alliance and consolidation among many of the smaller clans.[ citation needed ]
For example, the kingdom of Eswatini was formed in the early nineteenth century by different Nguni groups allying with the Dlamini clan against the threat of external attack.[ citation needed ] Today, the kingdom encompasses many different clans that speak a Nguni language called Swati and are loyal to the king of Eswatini, who is also the head of the Dlamini clan. [ citation needed ]
"Dlamini" is a very common clan name among all documented Nguni languages (including Swati and Phuthi),[ citation needed ] associated with AbaMbo cultural identity.[ clarification needed ]
Ngunis may be Christians (Catholics or Protestants), practitioners of African traditional religions or members of forms of Christianity modified with traditional African values.They also follow a mix of these two religions, usually not separately.
The following peoples are considered Nguni:
People | Language | Population | Distribution |
---|---|---|---|
Swazi | Swazi | 2,258,000 | Eswatini and South Africa around the Swazi border. Their homeland was KaNgwane. |
Phuthi | Phuthi | 49,000 | Near the Lesotho-South Africa border in the Transkei region. |
Lala Nguni | Lala | a few hundred | The coastal parts of Kwazulu Natal. |
Northern (Transvaal) Ndebele | Sumayela Ndebele | Primarily in Mokopane, but also in Hammanskraal and around Polokwane | |
Hlubi | Hlubi | Near the Lesotho-South Africa border in the Transkei region.KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape , Lesotho and North West provinces, with an original settlement on the Buffalo River | |
Zulu | Zulu | 10,964,000 | Originally Zululand, but now in most of Natal and as a minority in Eastern Transvaal and Gauteng. Their homeland was the northern part of Natal. |
Xhosa | Xhosa | 8,478,000 | The original Nguni people.Their traditional homeland stretched from the Gamtoos River in Eastern Cape to Mzimkhulu River in Natal and were referred to by other Bantus as the 'AbeNguni'. |
Southern Ndebele | Southern Ndebele | 659,000 | Central Transvaal |
[n 1] | |||
Northern Ndebele (Matabele) | Northern Ndebele | 1,599,000 | Matabeleland Zimbabwe |
Ngoni | They do not have a language of their own but speak Tumbuka, Chewa, or Nyanja. | 2,044,000 | Malawi Zambia |
Total | Nguni languages | 28,801,000 |
Ngoni people by ethnicity are found in Malawi (under Paramount Chief Mbelwa and Maseko Paramouncy), Zambia (under Paramount Chief Mpezeni), Mozambique and Tanzania (under Chief Zulu Gama). In Malawi and Zambia, they speak a mixture of the languages of the people they conquered, such as Chewa, Nsenga and Tumbuka.[ citation needed ]
Shaka kaSenzangakhona, also known as Shaka Zulu and Sigidi kaSenzangakhona, was the king of the Zulu Kingdom from 1816 to 1828. One of the most influential monarchs of the Zulu, he ordered wide-reaching reforms that reorganized the military into a formidable force.
isiNdebele, also known as Southern Ndebele is an African language belonging to the Mbo group of Bantu languages, spoken by the Ndebele people of South Africa.
The Mfecane, also known by the Sesotho names Difaqane or Lifaqane, is a historical period of heightened military conflict and migration associated with state formation and expansion in Southern Africa. The exact range of dates that comprise the Mfecane varies between sources. At its broadest, the period lasted from the late eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century, but scholars often focus on an intensive period from the 1810s to the 1840s. The concept first emerged in the 1830s and blamed the disruption on the actions of King Shaka, who was alleged to have waged near-genocidal wars that depopulated the land and sparked a chain reaction of violence as fleeing groups sought to conquer new lands. Since the latter half of the 20th century, this interpretation has fallen out of favor among scholars due to a lack of historical evidence.
The Nguni languages are a group of Bantu languages indigenous to southern Africa by the Nguni people. Nguni languages include Xhosa, Hlubi, Zulu, Ndebele, and Swati. The appellation "Nguni" derives from the Nguni cattle type. Ngoni is an older, or a shifted, variant.
The Ndwandwe–Zulu War of 1817–1819 was a war fought between the expanding Zulu Kingdom and the Ndwandwe tribe in South Africa.
The Ndwandwe are a Bantu Nguni-speaking people who populate sections of southern Africa. They are also known as the Nxumalo's
The Ndau are an ethnic group which inhabits the areas in south-eastern South Africa. The name "Ndau" means Land. Just like the Manyika people in northern Manicaland, their name Manyika also meaning "Owners of the Land", the name Ndau means Land. E.g "Ndau yedu" meaning "our land" When the Ngoni observed this, they called them the Ndau people, the name itself meaning the land, the place or the country in their language. Some suggestions are that the name is derived from the Nguni words "Amading'indawo" which means "those looking for a place" as this is what the Gaza Nguni called them and the name then evolved to Ndau. This is erroneous as the natives are described in detail to have already been occupying parts of Zimbabwe and Mozambique in 1500s by Joao dos Santos. The five largest Ndau groups are the Magova; the Mashanga; the Vatomboti, the Madanda and the Teve. Ancient Ndau People met with the Khoi/San during the first trade with the Arabs at Mapungumbwe and its attributed to the Kalanga people not Ndau. They traded with Arabs with “Mpalu” “Njeti” and “Vukotlo’’ these are the red, white and blue coloured cloths together with golden beads. Ndau people traded traditional herbs, spiritual powers, animal skins and bones.
The amaMfengu were a group of Xhosa clans whose ancestors were refugees that fled from the Mfecane in the early-mid 19th century to seek land and protection from the Xhosa. These refugees were assimilated into the Xhosa nation and were officially recognized by the then king, Hintsa.
The Khumalo are an African clan that originated in northern KwaZulu, South Africa. The Khumalos are part of a group of Zulus and Ngunis known as the Mntungwa. Others include the Blose and Mabaso and Zikode, located between the Ndwandwe and the Mthethwa. Their most famous issue was Mzilikazi and Mbulazi, an influential figure in the mfecane, and founder of the Northern Ndebele nation of Zimbabwe (mthwakazi)
Mnguni was the leader of the Nguni nation in who reached Southern Africa migrating from the North and also the father of King Xhosa. The Xhosa people, today considered a sub-nation of the Nguni nation, were historically referred to as AbeNguni. Mnguni's name derives from the word Nguni, the name for the major ethnicity in South Africa. It now includes the Zulus, Xhosas, Ndebeles and Swazis among others.
Black South Africans also known as 'South African Bantu-speaking peoples represent the majority of people in South Africa and who have lived in what is now South Africa for thousands of years as an indigenous people alongside other indigenous groups like Khoisans. Occasionally grouped as Bantu, the term itself is derived from the English word "people", common to many of the Bantu languages. The Oxford Dictionary of South African English describes "Bantu", when used in a contemporary usage or racial context as "obsolescent and offensive", because of its strong association with the "white minority rule" with their Apartheid system. However, Bantu is used without pejorative connotations in other parts of Africa and is still used in South Africa as the group term for the language family.
The Mthethwa Paramountcy, sometimes referred to as the Mtetwa or Mthethwa Empire, was a Southern African state that arose in the 18th century south of Delagoa Bay and inland in eastern southern Africa. "Mthethwa" means "the one who rules".
The Gaza Empire (1824–1895) was an African empire established by general Soshangane and was located in southeastern Africa in the area of southern Mozambique and southeastern Zimbabwe. The Gaza Empire, at its height in the 1860s, covered all of Mozambique between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers, known as Gazaland.
The Zulu Kingdom, sometimes referred to as the Zulu Empire or the Kingdom of Zululand, was a monarchy in Southern Africa. During the 1810s, Shaka established a standing army that consolidated rival clans and built a large following which ruled a wide expanse of Southern Africa that extended along the coast of the Indian Ocean from the Tugela River in the south to the Pongola River in the north.
The Hlubi people or AmaHlubi are an AmaMbo ethnic group native to Southern Africa, with the majority of population found in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa.
The Southern Bantu languages are a large group of Bantu languages, largely validated in Janson (1991/92). They are nearly synonymous with Guthrie's Bantu zone S, apart from the exclusion of Shona and the inclusion of Makhuwa. They include all of the major Bantu languages of South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, and Mozambique, with outliers such as Lozi in Zambia and Namibia, and Ngoni in Zambia, Tanzania and Malawi.
Langalibalele (isiHlubi: meaning 'The blazing sun', also known as Mthethwa, Mdingi, was king of the amaHlubi, a Bantu tribe in what is the modern-day province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Matiwane ka Masumpa, son of Masumpa, was the king of an independent Nguni-speaking nation, the amaNgwane, a people named after Matiwane's ancestor Ngwane ka Kgwadi. The amaNgwane lived at the headwaters of the White Umfolozi, in what is now Vryheid in northern KwaZulu-Natal. The cunning of Matiwane would keep the amaNgwane one step ahead of the ravages of the rising Zulu kingdom, but their actions also set the Mfecane in motion. After his nation was ousted from their homeland by Zwide with Shaka, Matiwane and his armies clashed with neighboring nations as he attempted to nourish his people. Eventually he fled South into lands occupied by abaThembu, amaMpondo and the neighboring Xhosa nations, which ultimately teamed up with the British and got his nation dismantled and scattered as smaller splinters at the Battle of Mbholompo in what is today Mthatha in the Eastern Cape. In his exodus from Mthatha, Matiwane and the biggest of the amaNgwane splinters was sheltered by baSotho but eventually had to return to his country, Ntenjwa, which he had settled briefly upon fleeing from his old country on uMfolozi omhlophe. Being back at Ntenjwa put a very much weakened amaNgwane and the king, Matiwane, within easy reach of the Zulu nation he had fled from. Matiwane had to then go make peace with the Zulu king, now Dingane, successor to Shaka. This despotic ruler put Matiwane to death shortly after Matiwane sought peace with the amaZulu.
Lubimbi people are scattered all over Africa, mostly found in Southern Africa. Notable countries being South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Uganda.
The Mpondomise people, also called Ama-Mpondomise, are a Xhosa-speaking people. Their traditional homeland has been in the contemporary era Eastern Cape province of South Africa, during apartheid they were located both in the Ciskei and Transkei region. Like other separate Xhosa-speaking kingdoms such as Aba-Thembu and Ama-Mpondo, they speak Xhosa and are at times considered as part of the Xhosa people.