Tshonga history

History of Tshonga people

These people were so named mainly because of their geographical location and dialects. Though they spoke different dialects, the language and cultural practices were largely the same. Hence they constituted a single cultural and linguistic community. It is for this reason that when one reads Vutlharhi bya Vatsonga (a collection of Tsonga proverbs) by Junod, it is difficult to separate proverbs along the different dialects!!!!

For over centuries Tsonga have assimilated other cultural groups who came to live with them in the South East Africa region. The following clans are a case in point:

(a) Shona

(i)Tembe-Karanga (Kalanga)- were in Delagoa Bay region by 1554

(ii) Baloyi(Valoyi) –Rozvi (Lozwi) – they were already in the N’walungu region during the time of the Dutch occupation of the Delagoa Bay (1721-31). Some Hlengwe oral traditions claimed that the Hlengwe were actually the ones who converted the Valoyi from Rozvi (Lozwi) into Tsonga in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. This probably happened after the death of the powerful king of Rozvi, Changameri Dombo in 1696.

(b) Shiburi (Xivuri) were Sotho. They entered Mozambique as conquerors from the Mpumalanga lowveld in the 1700s as separate groups, but they organised themselves into a Shiburi (Xivuri) chiefdom.

(c) Manganyi were Nguni who lived in Kwa-Magoda in Kwa-Zulu Natal

(d) Mabunda and Maswanganyi were part of the Mazibuko (Nguni) clan in KwaZulu Natal.

(e) Gaza-Ngoni-Shangaan: several Nguni clans who left with Soshangane to Mozambique from 1821 abandoned their Nguni language and became Tsonga speaking

(f) Chopi- several Chopi people have joined the Maluleke clan.

(g) Ndau- several Ndau clans like Mashaba (Maxava or Machava), Sithole, Moyana, Miyambu, Simango are now part of the Tsonga.

(h) Nkuna- came from Ngome in KZN.

It must be understood that although the Tsonga assimilated foreign cultural elements, it does not follow that the people are merely a hybrid of the assimilated groups mentioned above. In fact, the Tsonga have for centuries been identified as a cultural and linguistic group sufficiently different from other neighbouring cultural groups like the Tonga of Inhambane, The Zulu (Nguni or Ngoni) and the Karanga and the Sotho in South East Africa.