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Before saying anything else we must explain that the
Transvaal Amandebele are nothing whatever to do with the Amandebele
who are found in, Southern Rhodesia.
Tte Transvaal Ndebele aTO a
Bantu tribes o f Zulu stock who live scattered about in the North
and Bast o f the_Transvaal_Provinee of
South a f r l c a .
Though both
Amandebele tribes have their origin in t e Zulu-Xhosa group o f
people and though both onee dwelt in Natal,
the Transvaal Ndebel^
moved into the. Transvaal long before the Amandebele under M zilik a zi.
Their language is also very different from o t h r r form s o f Zulu
speech.
fe d lik a g i left N atal at the beginning o f the 19th century,
fleeing from the. Zulu despot Tshaka.
fflien M zilikaai and h is
Amandebele followers arrive i n the Transvaal* they found the land
inhabited by various Sotho t rib e s,
Among,these Sotho tribes were
living the Transvaal Ndebele about whom we are now speaking.
The^
people had emigrated from Nata l_a t least _a hundred years before', and
Probably earlier.
They are directly _descended trom the old Ngoni
tribe i o N a t a l w h o existed before the Zulu tribe rose to power.
In
N atal they were probably a separate Ngoni race living under t *
Chieftainship of Musi.
While lra zululand thejp lived at "Lundini"
hear the * (Jathlamba mountains.
Musi had five sons - Manala,
Batombenl, M o n o , Ndaumdwo and M'Hwaduba.
quarrelled over the chieftainship « d
These sons a l l
the tribe split up into
sections, each under one of the five sons.
five
Of these, four migrated
into the Transvaal and eventuallyJbecame one tribe - now known
as the TransvaalL Amandebele.
The f i f t h section o f t e tribe
(under Dlomo) remained ini Zululand and was eventually driven
out by Tshaka._ The_tribe moved southwards and were known^as
the ILangalibalele people*
AmaHlubi.
They are now_referred to as the
Later mr s h a ll be giving a separate- talk about these
Amahlubi.
When the four tribes arrived in the Transvaal they
probably found the country inhabited by the mixed tribes of
Soth© o rigin.
Eventually these_tribes_were reinforced by
the people whom we now know as the Northern Sotho or the Bapedi.
living as they did among.many Sotho tribes the Ndebele coul£
not avoid being influenced by both the Sotho culture and th*
Sotho language*
In fact some o f them have become Sotho in
everything but in name*
Others among t era however are very
conservative and have clung to their traditions.
This goes
particularly. for_the AmaNala who. have not intermarried so- much
with Sotho peoples and who have always.- kept themselves to
themselves*
The greater part of the Manola tribe s t il l live in
the neigbourhood_of Wallmannsthal, 20 miles to the North ^cst
o f Pretoria,^ They c a ll themselves AmaNala and their language
isiNala*
The ruling family, that o f t h e .c h ie f s ,_ is called Mabhena*
Theoe people are probably the direct lin e a l descendants o f the
original. Manala who emigrated from Zululand*
The Mabhena family are
the family with vtfiom. we are chiefly dealing with in this talk,
because 1* They are the purest stock and 2 . Because more is known
•about this branch of the family than^about any other branch.
The great majority of this_fam ily are s t ill living in conditions
in' which they lived many years ago*
Many o f the women folk st ill
wear the old dress, with skim petticoats and bangles o f brass
and bead work*
worn.
On festival occasions this national dress is much
The men on. the_other hand incline more to the wearing of
European clothes.
.The traditions,
stories and legends of these
Ndebele peoples are particularly fin e , the Izibongoa, or praise
songs being more poetic than those of any_other tribes*
It is a
great pity that so- much o f their folk: lorg and traditiora_is now_
dying out because the tribe is a small one and in no other tribe
haVe the legends been handed down so> accurately*
Among the old ceremonies of_the Transvaal- Ndebele
is the "luma'* ceremony* which Is worth describing*
In the_month
o f February*, before the new moom has yet appeared, the chief^sends
messengers to let the men know that the chief says " i t
is the season."
Before the c h ief has_done_this, no fresh fruit of summer is eatpn*
such as pumpkin, vegetable marrow, maize,
sugar cane or anything else*
Prom, that day onwards the Ndebele "h lo n ip a *1*
That is they abstain
from
r example instead of saying "amabele"
— using certain) words •- fo —
(the word for k a ffir corn) they say "u ty a n i" which is the word for
grass*
Then* until the new raooa appears they begin counting the
1
nights, one, two, three four and so on*
Then perhaps on the .ninth
*
night they w ill go to hear the flute being played at the c h ie f*s_
kraali*
The children spend the night irs^the open in_order to h^ar
the "ipandula'1 (flu t e )*
At midday the next day* after th§ flute has_
stopped playing, the c h ief performs the luma ceremony* _The boys drive
a bull into the cattle kraal*
When it has arrived there, the chief t
gives h is _s o n ,_t JJe future c h ie f, a piece_ of sugar-cane, which he takes
a n d s tr ik e s the bull with*
The bull t en goes out to pasture again.
The c h ie f, having done th is, gives his sons ajsumpkin,_and they
f ir s t bite a piece which they spit_out,
do_this in order of^their age*
the pumpkin and b ite i t .
*
into small_bits*
and the rest they gat*
They
The chief t h e n c a l l s the men to take
The pumpkin is cooked,
and then sliced_up
*
All_partake o f the pumpkin*_ Y/hen_this...has come to_
an encSfc they goo to the court of the ch ief,
where the c h ief w ill dance*
He comes out of his big hut, enters the^circle where they a ll sit,
puts on h is ceremonial kaross, while the men hold his spears and
sandals for him*
He sits among_the assembled men who sing a^song
which goes ”Vumo - they hate the ch ief* Vumo*'1 The O h ie f then
gets up and engages irti a sham fig h t.
When he has fin ish ed, he fir e s
a sun - bang - and they all r u s h cut into the veld , in the_
direction that t h e .c h ie f has pointed his gun.
Everyone rushed
out except the c h ie f himself and the very old men.
return.to t h e .C h ie f'a place and dance.
Then they
A fter that beer is
produced and e a t e n ._ There is.dan cin g and the night i s spent
there.
H e y d a y there is more dancing and sin gin .
On the
third day the assembly opens its sessions and c ases are heard.
I f the c h ie f wants to marry a g i r l on that.day he sends a man
out * 0 points her out and says » T M s .i s the wife o f the chief. »
The girl.s w ill weep and all the people w ill lament, hut she cannot
go anywhere else and cannot be married by any o.ther man but the
chief,
_ Thcre are many fine Ndebele legends and folk tales, which
cannot be related here.
or praise songs.
The most famous o f a ll a re the
'"Izibongo"
, v ery Ndebele farrtly ta_ s _ i t s own Izibonfio, which
have been banded down fbr centuries.
T h e re is always son* imbongi
to the f a ^ l y who knows the songs and who can recite them when tte
occasion demands*
The recitation
...
ne recitation o f the izibongo i s an invocation
of_the^ance_stral sp irits only.
Ndehele
t h is way toe Izibongo o f the_
a re.slig h tly .different i*o m those o f the A » « l . who
feclte-jjraises of_present as well as o f former c h iefs.
Tshaka far
e*rn>l« was in the habit o f hearing Izibongos which P ^ h i m s e l f
-
Recitation of the ! z l W
y t e Tranavaal *d„bele i . ' s e l l
undertaken unless all those.present have taken a sip of b£„ r 0„ a
squirted it out for the ancestral spirits (am adlozi).
The tfdeb^le
say..that the.amadlozi would strangle the.imboagi i f he fa ile d ta
aive them their due.
o
When reciting the izibongo the imbongi
an uhhutshulo in their right hand.and brandish it about.
The
ubhlltshulo is a stack, of about four feet long, with a tuft o f
ostrich feather at.the top and it is used on all ceren»nial
occasions.
.There are many other interesting customs and
legends of the Transvaal Hdebels - many o f them taken, from the
old days in zululand.
But the important th ing , to remember about.
- tribe is that it IB nothing to do with the Rhodesian Hdebele.
Collection Number: AD1715
SOUTH AFRICAN INSTITUTE OF RACE RELATIONS (SAIRR), 1892-1974
PUBLISHER:
Collection Funder:- Atlantic Philanthropies Foundation
Publisher:- Historical Papers Research Archive
Location:- Johannesburg
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