Compiled by Stonehouse Maphosa

The much awaited dictionary of Zimbabwean Kalanga is reaching its final stages. The author, Ambassador Mabed Ngulani, held a workshop in Hillside, a Bulawayo suburb, on October 11 to gather input.

More than 500 words were reviewed, translated and defined by the panel of ten.

The meeting was an exciting moment of sharing of some of the baKalanga culture, as the audience enjoyed  ancient Kalanga words like mirijana, gumbutjende, and nsiyangwa.  Active participants were Mr Raphael Bhutshe and Miss Thamani Hikwa.

Kalanga Language and Cultural Development Assn. Secretary Tshidzanani T. Malaba pushed a motion regarding using the alphabet ‘x’ in place of consonants such as ‘h’ in the Kalanga orthography. However, this issue was suggested to be discussed in another meeting yet to be announced.

The workshop ended with a consensus by the panel that the dictionary was eligible for publication

by Ndzimu-unami Emmanuel Moyo (repr. from ZimEye)

One day not many years ago whilst passing by the Plumtree District Hospital, I overheard two men arguing about the people bearing the surname ‘Moyo’. The other gentlemen, apparently a Moyo himself, was fiercely arguing that he is a Ndebele, whilst the other one, who apparently believed himself to be the ‘real Ndebele’, argued that the other gentlemen is a Shona, declaring, “vele bonke oMoyo ngamaShona.”

The line taken by this gentleman is common, especially if one is a follower of debates of this nature on Facebook, Online Newspapers and Chatrooms. I have joked sometimes and said that if the Moyo people are really Shona, then ‘Matebeleland’ has to be changed to ‘Mashonaland’ since people bearing the royal surname Moyo constitute perhaps at least 50% of Matebeleland (randomly gather any 10 people in Matebeleland chances are 5 are Moyos).

“The Kalanga are a hybrid of the Ndebele and Karanga”

The above was used just as an illustration of the confusion that exists in Matebeleland in particular and Zimbabwe in general as to the identity of the people known as the Kalanga, or Bakalanga, BaNambya and Vhavenda. This confusion is compounded by the official Zimbabwean history narrative which actively seeks to promote the idea that the Kalanga are a hybrid of the Karanga and Ndebele who only came into being in the 18th century as a result of Ndebele-Karanga intermarriages. It further claims that the “L” in TjiKalanga was dropped from the “R” in ChiKaranga as a result of Ndebele influence.

Of course this narrative falls on itself in three ways. First, it ignores the fact that when Mzilikazi and his Ndebele arrived in what is now ‘Matebeleland’, the Kalanga were already in occupation of that
region. Secondly, it does not explain how the Kalanga are found in Botswana and the Limpopo Province (Brakpan River Saltpan) where the Ndebele never settled, and they have been in those regions for many centuries before the 18th. Thirdly, the narrative ignores the fact that TjiKalanga properly spoken contains no Ndebele words at all. It surely could not only have borrowed the “L” only from IsiNdebele and nothing else.

Why we should answer the question: Who are the Kalanga?

This question becomes more urgent to ask now that the Constitution of Zimbabwe recognizes the Kalanga as a distinct people group separate from the Ndebele and Shona. It also becomes important to ask and answer because, with the new Constitution recognizing the Kalanga as a distinct group, there will be a need to teach their history in addition to the language.

One of the tragedies of the Kalanga is that their history has been parceled out between the Shona and Ndebele. The precolonial history
has been ‘given’ to the Shona (for example, it is falsely claimed that the Shona built Maphungubgwe, Great Zimbabwe, Khami, etc; that the
Shona were the Monomotapa, Togwa and Lozwi Kingdom peoples, etc). Post-colonialism, all Kalanga nationalist leaders – Dr Joshua Nkomo,
JZ Moyo, TG Silundika, John Landa Nkomo, Alfred Nikita Mangena, etc are presented as Ndebele.

The sum of it is that the Kalanga are practically left with no history of their own at all, which obviously negatively affects the self-esteem and pride of a Kalanga child who is made to grow up believing that his or her own people have never achieved anything worthwhile in this world.

So, who are the Kalanga?

It will no doubt take many articles, or a whole book (as in my book, The Rebirth of Bukalanga), to answer this question. But we can briefly
answer this question in this short article to at least give the reader an idea of who the Kalanga are as a People.

The Kalanga originate in the North East Africa region, specifically the Sudan-Egypt-Ethiopia region. Like many Bantu groups, they trekked from the North down South, finally settling in the region now called Southern Africa. The difference with other groups is that the Kalanga settled Africa south of the Zambezi over two millennia ago. By 100 AD, they had already settled in the lands now called Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa and Botswana, with most groups arriving between 500 and 1700 years later (the Sotho-Tswana about 500AD, the Nguni about 1600 and the ‘Shona’ about 1700).

By the earliest centuries of the Christian era (500AD) the Kalanga had established what archeologists have called the Leopard’s Kopje Culture. It was an Iron Age sequence culture which was the first in Sub-Saharan Africa to practice mixed farming; mine, smelt and trade in gold, copper and iron. By 1000 AD, the Kalanga had become a sophisticated people, establishing the first city-state in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Maphungubgwe City, on the confluence of the Limpopo and Shashe Rivers.

Here they traded in gold, and indeed so great was this industry at Maphungubgwe that archeologists have found several artifacts made from that precious mineral there. Of course, the most famous is the Golden Rhino, which now forms the Order of Maphungubgwe, South Africa’s highest national honor.

From Maphungubgwe the Kalanga expanded their state, moving to and constructing Great Zimbabwe, and later Khami. In all these areas they carried on their industries and trade. They traded with the Arabians, the Chinese, the Ethiopians, the Portuguese and Phoenicians. It has been suggested by one writer – Gayre of Gayre – that much of the gold
that found its way into the Solomonic Temple and Palace mentioned in the Bible originated among the Kalanga in what later became Zimbabwe.

The Zimbabwe Civilization – epitomized by Maphungubgwe, Great Zimbabwe, and Khami – three of the four man-made UNESCO World Heritage sites in Southern Africa, can be classified as the greatest civilization ever established Africa south of the Sahara. Indeed, barring its lack of a writing culture, it can be classed in the same level with the other great civilizations of the world, from the
Akkadian to the Sumerian to the Egyptian to the Axumite to the Graeco-Roman Civilizations.

The Monomotapa, Togwa and Lozwi Kingdoms

On the political side, the Kalanga established the greatest kingdoms ever established Africa south of the Sahara, both in terms of power, wealth and expanse. They established the Monomotapa Kingdom which swept from the Zambezi to the Makhado Mountains (Luis Trichardt) north to south, and from the Tendankulu (now Pungwe River) in the middle of Mozambique to the Makadikadi Salt Pans on the boundary of the Kalahari Desert, east west.

The Monomotapa Kingdom, which existed for about 500 years (1000-1500) as the greatest polity in Southern Africa, later disintegrated as a result of external attacks and internal decay. It would be succeeded by the Togwa Kingdom which was headquartered at Khami, 22km west of Bulawayo. The Togwa Kingdom, which had been established by Madabhale Shoko/Ncube, later Tjibundule, existed for about 200 years, after which its ruling dynasty, the Tjibundule Dynasty, was overthrown by Mambo Dombolakona-Tjing’wango Dlembewu Moyo, otherwise known as
Tjangamire.

(Tjangamire, a title which originated with the Monomotapa Dynasty when the Arabs still traded in the land, is a combination of two words, the name ‘Tjanga’, and the title Amir/Emir, meaning ‘The Justice.’ The title emir is still in usage in Arab lands, which is why some of them are called Emirates. Tjangamire is not a Shona word as commonly
believed. It is a Kalanga-Arabic word.)

The Lozwi Kingdom of course was to be overthrown after a nearly 30-year onslaught by a succession of five impis – four Nguni and three non-Nguni, these being: the Swati of Mtshetshenyana and Nyamazana, the Ngoni of Zwangendaba, the Gaza-Nguni of Soshangane, the Makololo of Sebituane, the Tswana of Kgari and the Portuguese. This Kingdom finally fell about 1830 with the arrival of the Ndebele of Mzilikazi.

The earliest remembered Kalanga kings are Hee Hamuyendazwa Nkalange Hhowu (Ndlovu) and Malambodzibgwa Nkalange Hhowu (it is from these kings that we take our name – Ba-Nkalange, that is, those of Nkalange (some Ndlovu-surnamed Bakalanga still swear by BaNkalange today. We are told that Nkalanga/Nkalange means “People of the North”).

And of course some of the greatest Kalanga kings to ever live were the likes of Mambo Nhu-unotapa (Monomotapa) Mokomba Hhowu, Mambo Dombolakona-Tjing’wango Dlembewu Moyo, Mambo Madabhale Tjibundule Shoko/Ncube.

The Kalanga Identified by their Tribes and Surnames

Today the Kalanga are divided into 12 major tribes comprising the so-called Bakalanga “proper” (properly BaLozwi), BaLobedu, BaNambya, Vhavenda, BaTalawunda, BaLilima, BaPfumbi, BaLemba, BaLembethu, BaTswapong, BaTwamambo, BaTembe (Mthembu), Babirwa and BaShangwe. They are scattered across Southern Africa from KwaZulu-Natal all the way to
Tanzania, speaking almost all the languages to be in all the countries in between.

Being Kalanga therefore does not mean TjiKalanga-speaking, but it is an ethno-racial identity. Once born a Kalanga always a Kalanga, as long as one carries ancestral Kalanga blood. In other words, as long as one has one or both parents who is or was Kalanga, they are Kalanga too. But how do they get to know if they are ancestrally Kalanga? The answer is to be found in their surname.

The Kalanga, wherever they are in the world, are identifiable primarily by their animal and body parts name surnames like Moyo (variants Pelo, Mbilu, Nhliziyo, Mthunzi, Nkiwane), Ndlovu (Ndou, Tlou, Zhowu, Hhowu), Sibanda (Shumba, Tjibanda, Tau, Motaung, Sebata), Ngwenya (Mokoena, Ngwena, Kwena), Dube (Mbizi, Tembo, Mthembu), Mpala (Mhara/Mhala), Tjuma/Tshuma/Chuma (Ng’ombe, Mung’ombe, Sola), Gumbo, Ndebele (Tjibelu, Phupute), Nyathi (Nare, Mokone), Ncube (Shoko, Mokgabong, Tshwene, Motshweneng, Phiri, Msimang, Nsimango), Mpofu
(Phofu, Shaba-Thuka), Khupe (Shulo, Hulo, Mvundla), Sebele, Kulube (Ngulube, Musele), Nungu (Maphosa), Nkala, etc.

A close look at the numbers of people bearing these surnames shows that the Kalanga Nation is perhaps one of the largest in Southern Africa, perhaps surpassed only by the Zulu.

Born a Kalanga, always a Kalanga. Ndaboka imi n’Kalanga weBulilima-Mangwe ndilikuTitji.

t is easy to note the linguistic similarities between Kalanga and Karanga languages.  Ordinarily, where the Karanga use  the letter “r” in a word, the Kalanga use “l”. This linguistic relationship, some historians argue, suggests that the Karanga and Kalanga peoples are related, and at some point in history were one group of people that spoke the same language and possibly lived in the same area. While their languages sound similar, spatially however, the people live at least 200km apart – the Kalanga inhabit parts of Kezi and Plumtree while the Karanga are dominant in Masvingo, and the southern to central parts of Midlands.

It is not exactly known at what point they went so much apart, but some argue that it must be in the early 1830s when a then militarily powerful Ndebele people chose to settle on the Zimbabwe plateau, sending the weaker now Karanga and Kalanga fleeing to the east and west respectively.  After they were splintered, their common language assumed slight differences over time. There is debate, however, why there has been the specific lexical shift of “r” and “l”.

Prominent historian, Mr Pathisa Nyathi argues that indeed there is a historical relationship between the two peoples dating back centuries ago. Then, he said, the land stretching from the Kalahari Desert in Botswana to Mozambique, was occupied by a people with a common ancestry and language – Kalanga.

“In Zambia, there are the Lozi (Rozvi in Shona); we have the Nambya in western Zimbabwe, and the Kalanga who had a number of dialects like the Vahumbe, Batalaunda, and VaJahunda in the Gwanda area.  The Karanga and various other groups that are now known as the Shona are part of that group.”

It was a vast group of people; he said, whose lifestyle was characterised by the building of stone structures, first at Mapungubwe near the confluence of the Shashe and Limpopo rivers to the south in present day South Africa. These people were migrating from South Africa northward, through Botswana, he said. The Mapungubwe Kingdom, Mr Nyathi said, built the first organised state in southern Africa around AD 1000 before they moved northward again to and over time built the Great Zimbabwe Monument, a more impressive metropolis than Mapungubwe.

Between AD1200 and 1500, the Kalanga-speaking people reigned at Great Zimbabwe in Masvingo until it collapsed, resulting in another trek to the west to establish Khami, another stone-walled city.  There the Torwa State reigned. Mr Nyathi argues that the word “torwa” indicates a possible reason why the people moved westward.  Environmental degradation could be one of them, but a more compelling factor could have been a succession struggle that degenerated into a bloody civil war.

“The Kalanga and Karanga both say ‘togwa’ meaning we are fighting or simply fighting,” he said.
“The Kalanga and Karanga descended from the same stock. They are one people.  The initial language was Kalanga but because the Kalanga haven’t written their history, we have lost a lot of information.”

Professor Thomas Huffman, chairman of the Wits School of Archeology, Geography and Environmental Studies argues that Kalanga was the language of the Mapungubwe Kingdom. The Karanga dialect, he said, could have emerged from Kalanga as a result of influence from Zezuru.

He said the Karanga and Kalanga are dialect clusters within the larger Shona language family.  He said Kalanga at one time covered a much larger area before Ndebele incursions in the 1930s scattered the people around.

“You might be interested to know,” said Prof Huffman from South Africa, “that a Kalanga dynasty was probably the leaders at Mapungubwe on the Limpopo River in the 13th century, and a Karanga dynasty probably led the people at Great Zimbabwe.

The Kalanga dynasty at Khami (near Bulawayo) appears to have out-competed Great Zimbabwe at about AD 1450 and the leaders at Great Zimbabwe appear to have gone north to become the famous Mwene Mutapa dynasty.”

Prof Huffman’s argument that Karanga emerged from Kalanga is a question of considerable contestation, as some historians say Kalanga is, in fact a derivative of Karanga.  Kalanga emerged as a result of corruption of Karanga by the invading Ndebele people, in whose language the letter “l” is common.

Karanga and Kalanga words that sound basically the same include body parts -“mpimbila” in Kalanga, (mupambare in Karanga and other Shona dialects, shin in English), “chibvi” (bvi in Karanga, knee in English), “ntumbu” (dumbu in Karanga and other Shona dialects).  In addition to similarities language, there are many common totems between the people such as Hungwe, Moyo, Chuma, Zhou and so on.  Both peoples also worshipped the same deity, Mwari/ Mwali.

Mr Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu, a retired journalist once worked in the 1960s as a researcher in social anthropology among the Kalanga. He argues that Karanga and Kalanga peoples are historically one group.  He said Kalanga was spoken along Macloutsi River in Botswana to Gwilo (now Gweru). To the east of Gwilo, Karanga was the language.

The name Zimbabwe, he said, is a corruption of the Karanga/Kalanga term “dzimbabwe” (houses of stone).  When white settlers were settling in the territory that is now Zimbabwe, they were assisted by Zulu, Sotho or Xhosa whose languages, Mr Ndlovu said, do not have a strong letter “d”.

He said when he visits his uncle in Zaka, Masvingo, he speaks in Kalanga and he speaks in original Karanga with a heavy Rozvi accent.
“The situation was disrupted in the 1820s as a result of Swazi raiders who did not come to defeat the people of that area and take over their territory but to capture foodstuffs, especially livestock,” he said.

In one such Swazi raid around 1831 and 1832, a large group of BaKalanga fled the Matopo area under Ntinima (Mutinhima in Karanga, a MuRozvi and son of King Nechasike whose original name was Chilisamhulu in Kalanga or Chirisamhuru in Karanga) and settled in the Buhera area. These people frequently came back to Matopo at Njelele for religious purposes. It was easy for them to move because there were no boundaries at that time.

“When the Ndebele came,” said Mr Ndlovu, “the Karanga were being raided by the Ndebele army that was controlled by Kalanga boys. So the Karanga were saying, ‘oh they are already Ndebele’ referring to the Kalanga soldiers. You must understand that the Ndebele army was predominantly BaKalanga raiding their cousins in Karangaland.”

Reprinted from The Chronicle.

It involves casual engagement in discussions about others and it is usually spiced with some falsehoods or unsubstantiated claims. Gossiping is the blood relative of rumour mongering.

The Kalanga people seem to have perfected the art of gossiping by inventing a stealthy gossip character.

The Kalanga have a character known as Libilibi in the art of gossip. Libilibi defines the people’s imagination and defies the tenets of uneasy oneness. The character is not anyone in particular. Libilibi could be the other you in you as it is the other side of the same coin.

It is your call whether it is heads or tails. Libilibi was necessitated by the love of gossiping about individuals in their presence.

The subject of gossip is assigned the name Libilibi and may inadvertently take part in the banter. Ignorantly, innocently, unwittingly and unknowingly, Libilibi quips in with more slander that pours scorn upon the self.

Libilibi was born out of intelligent sarcasm owing to too much spare time in people’s hands. The witty nature of the Kalanga people is enviable. Women are the most captivating in the art of skilful gossip. Plumtree women are good gossipers and they have a Libilibi for everyone.

A typical gossip conversation would go as follows:
“Libilibi is wearing his Sunday best today,” says MaMoyo who is famous for gossiping.

“He is taking the cattle to the dip tank today!” says MaNyathi, wife to Comrade Stalin.

“In his best suit?” Manana asks.

“The cattle are in trouble today. The whip will crack on their backs,” MaMoyo the gossip initiator states caustically.

At that moment Comrade Stalin, clad in youth brigade gear, joins the conversation. He is angry that someone is thinking of taking cattle to the dip tank on Sunday when he has a party meeting to address. Comrade Stalin is readying himself to drive all the villagers to a party meeting.

“Women, it is Sunday today. There is no scheduled dipping on Sunday. Tell your well-dressed Libilibi to stop thinking about the ticks on his cattle. No-one is going to interrupt my meeting by going to the dip tank. I want everyone at the meeting.”

Comrade Stalin spits venom when he talks about the party meetings.

“This Libilibi we are talking about wants his cattle dipped today at all costs,” MaMoyo helps Comrade Stalin with the character of Libilibi.

“I don’t want disobedience in this ward. No-one should oppose my command. Your stupid Libilibi should not be hijacking my meeting for the sake of some ticks on the village cattle.”

Comrade Stalin begins to show signs of frustration. He wants people to do farming yet he will not have them engage in operations that limit the parasites on their beasts. Comrade Stalin did not realise that he was the Libilibi under witty scrutiny. He was about to drive everyone to a party meeting.

He was a Libilibi who thinks that cattle are not part of the land question like crop farming. This is the Libilibi who gives seed packs and fertiliser to the people of an arid region and demands a bumper maize crop.

As this Libilibi walked away in triumphant gaiety, one could not help realise that he had unknowingly contributed to his own assassination. Comrade Stalin was being derided in a discussion which he happily took part in.

“Libilibi was given a gift by her husband,” MaMoyo was at it again.

“A gift! Is it the one-way ticket to Johannesburg?” MaNtuli said as she tuned into the topic.

“No return?” MaMoyo adds carelessly.

“But Libilibi thought her husband was stingy,” MaNtuli now knows the subject.

“It is an expensive gift, a one-way ticket to Johannesburg. The gift caught her unawares,” says MaNkala who has been quiet all along.

“Why would she not return. Why should she accept a one-way ticket?” asks MaDube, a sickly woman. MaMoyo the senior gossiper of the village gives a blunt answer: “The husband cannot afford a return trip.”

“Why does she not refuse to go?” MaDube tries to reason on behalf of the Libilibi she did not know.

MaDube was the Libilibi. Her chivalrous and lecherous husband had infected her with the viruses of eternal peril. She was ungainly and sickly and her husband was also frail and emaciated. The gossiping women of the village concluded that the two had exchanged the gift of ill health; a one-way ticket to the dark side of life.

So, this is how Libilibi works. Do not laugh loud at the follies of Libilibi as you might be laughing at your own folly. Anyone can be a Libilibi. The school headmaster is a Libilibi who fondles books. The country’s president is a chief executive officer of a company in sequestration.

The chairman of the local wing of the Taliban is a Libilibi who claims to have died for the top soil. An operative who leads an election campaign is a Libilibi who sells limited choices. A die-hard party man who leads an orgy of violence is a Libilibi of the Jihad movement.

In the eyes of the Kalanga gossip mongers, we are all Libilibis.

 Masola Wadabudabu is a social commentator, reprinted from the Daily News.

THE KALANGA Language and Cultural Development Association (KLCDA) has published primary school textbooks in an effort to step up its campaign to have the language fully introduced in schools in line with the new Constitution.

KLCDA is a local independent organisation that seeks to promote Kalanga language and culture.

Officials told Southern Eye Lifestyle the books for Grade 1-7 were published under the organisation’s subsidiary Kwalani Publishing House and would be officially unveiled to schools at a launch to be held at Plumtree High School today.

The printing of these textbooks catering for schools in Mangwe, Bulilima and Matopo was bankrolled by the Education Transition Fund set up during the coalition government in 2009 under the then Education, Sport, Arts and Culture ministry.

Tshidzanani Malaba, KLCDA secretary, said his organisation envisaged publishing more books to cater for other districts such as Tsholotsho and Gwanda where the language is spoken.

“They have come at the right time when we are not only protected by the Education Act, but by the Bill of Rights in the new Constitution,” Malaba said.

“As an organisation we are willing to partner with the Education ministry so that we educate teachers on how to teach the language. We are happy because the introduction of these languages in the Constitution was overwhelmingly received by all marginalised communities,” he added.

Kalanga has in the past been taught in some of Matabeleland South primary schools.

Kalanga author and language activist Ndzimu-unami Emmanuel Moyo hailed the publication of the books.

“Now that we have a Constitution that recognises Kalanga, it is high time Kalanga authors invested in writing literature that facilitates the teaching of Kalanga in schools. As an author, I would like to write more books to promote Kalanga,” he said.

“I have already set the tone by writing extensively on Kalanga history and I am working on more books to be used in the Kalanga syllabus. I hope in the next five years Kalanga will have been fully introduced in the education system.”

Matabeleland South provincial education director Tumisang Thabela confirmed the unveiling of the textbooks.

“We are definitely going to unveil the textbooks this Friday so that they are distributed to schools,” she said.

By Divine Dube, reprinted from The Southern Sun.

by Ndzimu-unami Emmanuel Moyo (repr. from Bulawayo24)

Alan Dershowitz notes his feelings about his Jewish identity when he was a Yale law student: “When I went home for the Jewish holidays, I told my parents about the brilliant teachers at Yale: Goldstein, Pollack, Bickel, Skolnick, Schwartz. Then I told them about the most brilliant of my teachers: Calabresi. Without missing a beat, my mother asked, ‘Is he an Italian Jew?’Angrily I said, ‘Don’t be so parochial. He’s an Italian Catholic. Not all smart people have to have Jewish blood.’ Several months later, I learned that Guido Calabresi was in fact descended from Italian Jews.” [DERSHOWTIZ, p. 50, quoted in When Victims Rule: A Critique of Jewish Pre-eminence in America]

Another Jew, Joshua Halberstam writes that “Pointing to the high proportion of Jewish Nobel Laureates … is a custom practiced around Jewish tables everywhere”, while in the 1970s a Jew from Odessa told the American Jewish Congress that “it was kind of a hobby [among Jews] to collect the names of famous Jews who hide their identity [in the Soviet Union].” [ROTHCHILD, 1985, p. 38, in When Victims Rule.]

The opinions expressed above capture what this article seeks to accomplish. It shows that like Jewry all over the world, the Kalanga stand out as a distinct and exceptional people group among the Bantu, exceptional for their disproportionate achievements compared to other people groups in Sub-Saharan Africa.

These achievements are to be seen not only in history which saw the Kalanga establish the greatest civilization ever established Africa south of the Sahara – the Zimbabwe Civilization – epitomized by three of the four man-made Unesco World Heritage sites in Southern Africa (Maphungubgwe, Great Zimbabwe and Khami); become the first people in Sub-Saharan Africa to create an Iron Age Culture as early as 100AD, mining, smelting and trading in iron, copper and gold; becoming the first farmers to domesticate animals and practice mixed farming; having the most advanced idea of the Supreme Being – the Mwali Religion – a variant of Yahwe’ism (see Summers 1971, Daneel 1970 and Gayre 1972), etc., the achievements are to be seen even in the 20th and 21st centuries.

We find the Kalanga, despite their smaller numbers compared to other groups, becoming the first to organize Africans and take leadership in Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa to fight and overthrow white racist rule. We can count here the likes of Dr Joshua Nkomo who founded the ANC which would become the NDP and later ZAPU; Dr John Langalibalele Dube who became the first president of the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa, and Dr Knight Maripe who earned his Doctorate in Industrial Relations in Belgium in the 1950s and went on to found the first nationalist party in Botswana, the Bechuanaland People’s Party in the 1960s. Indeed, the greatest challenge to the colonialists in the 19th and 20th centuries in Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa where the Kalanga and the AbaThembu, a Kalanga people.

These same achievements are to be found in industry where today the two largest telecommunications companies in Africa – MTN and Vodacom – are led by Kalanga CEOs – Sifiso Raymond Dabengwa Ndlovu and Peter Moyo; some of the finest Deans and University leaders from Dr Mthuli Ncube at Wits Business School to Tawana Khupe at the Wits Faculty of Media to Dr Luke Bhala at Lupane State, Professor Lindela Ndlovu at NUST, and nearly all the top faculty at the University of Botswana. The list is endless.

Now, one of these stories that has not been told concerns perhaps the greatest leader that Africa (and perhaps the whole world) has ever produced, viz, Tata Nelson Rholihlahla Mandela. Whilst known to many as a Xhosa, or just as a Thembu, research reveals that his clan, the AbaThembu, are originally a people of Kalanga stock, and only became Xhosa by assimilation.

“Crazy, stupid, foolish, hahaha, all people to you are Kalanga, even Barack Obama is Kalanga then if that’s the case, actually, even Jesus was Kalanga, if not God himself!” These are the initial responses that I anticipate at this stage, but dear reader, if you are one who is not afraid of facing evidence and dealing with it, please read on. Thank you.

Who are the AbaThembu, and Where Did they Come From?

To be honest, since I started researching and writing Kalanga history, I suspected that there must be there some kind of relationship between the Kalanga Tembe/Mthembu and the now Xhosa AbaThembu. But I was a bit afraid to even come close to making such a statement for fear of damaging my credibility as a writer. But that all changed during the funeral of the great Nelson Mandela. It was changed by the statement that was made by the Thembu King, Ikumkani Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo, that the AbaThembu are not originally Xhosa, but they are an assimilated people. To my amazement, when I turned to Tata Mandela’s own autobiography, The Long Walk to Freedom, I found that he had already made that statement, and I quote:

The Thembu tribe reaches back for twenty generations to King Zwide. According to tradition, the Thembu people lived in the foothills of the Drakensberg Mountains and migrated toward the coast in the sixteenth century, where they were incorporated into the Xhosa nation … The Nguni can be divided into a northern group – the Zulu and the Swazi people – and a southern group, which is made up of amaBaca, amaBomyana, amaGcaleka, amaMfengu, amaMpodomis, amaMpondo, abeSotho, and abeThembu, and together they comprise the Xhosa nation (Mandela 1994: 1).

By Mandela’s own account and that of Ikumkani Dalindyebo, the Thembu were incorporated or assimilated into the Xhosa nation, otherwise, they were a distinct people from the Xhosa, and indeed from the Nguni. But who were they, and where did they come from?

I looked around various sources to answer this question, and a number of internet sources that I found pointed to two locations of Thembu origin – Central Africa and modern KwaZulu-Natal. The claim of origins in Central Africa might not tell us much since all the land from north of the Limpopo to the Central African Republic is by some considered Central Africa. It is the KwaZulu-Natal origin that becomes of serious interest, and of course, as we shall see later, the Thembu in KwaZulu-Natal claim origins in what was once the Kingdom of Bukalanga, now Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique and North Limpopo Province.

In his 1933 seminal work on Thembu history, Who are the Abathembu, and where do they come from?, E. G. Sihele states that the AbaThembu were one of the first  black nations to settle in what is now KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape. He states that their genealogy, which is also the official genealogy of Nelson Mandela (available online as a pdf document titled “Mandela Family Tree”) can be traced to Zwide, great-great-great-grandfather of Chief Thembu, from whom the AbaThembu take their name. (The Reverend J. H. Soga’s Thembu genealogy also starts with Thembu.)

Sihele then writes: “It is clear therefore that we (AbaThembu) broke off from the rest of the Black people with Zwide who left the people in Central Africa, where they still are even today. Zwide’s progeny split and divided as it moved southwards along the seaboard, with their herds of cattle, in search of livelihood AbaThembu broke off from Zwide’s descendants when they moved ahead.”

Whilst no one, as Sihele argues, has been able to delve into and bring out more information on the person of Zwide, this particular individual remains of particular interest to any historian interested in Thembu history. So far as we can establish, the term or name “Zwide” carries no meaning whatsoever in any of the Nguni languages, instead it carries meaning in TjiKalanga. (It is rare for Bantu names to be just names without carrying some particular meaning in that language. Also note: the Zwide mentioned here is nothing to do with the 19th century Zwide KaLanga of the Ndwandwe.)

Could it be then that the “Central Africa” referred to is the former Kingdom of Bukalanga, where the name “Zwide” carries meaning, meaning “Love Yourself”? Perhaps yes, perhaps not.

Of AbaThembu and Tembe/Mthembu Settlements in KwaZulu-Natal

I indicated at the beginning of this article that I have always wondered if it was mere coincidence that there are ‘Xhosa’ people called AbaThembu (singular – umThembu) and the Mthembu people, both settled and/or once settled in what is now KwaZulu-Natal, and the two be just unrelated peoples. I began to believe that there is a relationship between the two once I got information that the AbaThembu, before moving to their present homeland in the northeastern Eastern Cape Province around the Mthatha, were originally settled in the old Natal State.

At look at an old map of the Union of South Africa (for example, a 1905 map is available online under the title “Kapstaaten_1905) shows that the Old Natal spread from just north of Kokstadt in the modern Eastern Cape into KwaZulu-Natal. In this Natal, to the surprise of many, were first settled people of Kalanga stock, the AmaLala, barring the Khoisan (please see Alfred T. Bryant, Synopsis of Zulu Grammar and a Concise History of the Zulu People from the Most Ancient Times, 1905; Clement M. Doke, The Bantu Speaking Tribes of South Africa, 1937, and Theodore Bent, The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland, 1892) .

These people were pushed further south away from the shadow of the Drakensburg Mountains first by the wars of the AbaMbo as they arrived in the region around 1600, and later by the raids of Tshaka in the 19th century. But where had they come from? It is here that we find a convergence of the AbaThembu bakaDalindyebo in the Eastern Cape and the Kalanga AbaThembu bakaMabhudu Tembe/Mthembu in KZN.

As already indicated, the AbaThembu take their name from the patriarch Thembu, whereas on the other hand, the Mthembu Clan in KwaZulu-Natal – who we definitely know to have Kalanga origins – also takes its name from a patriarch of the same name – Thembu, otherwise known as Tembe (see Roelie J. Kloppers, page 27, The History and Representation of the Mabudu-Tembe, a Master of Arts Dissertation presented to the University of Stellenbosch Faculty of Humanities in 2003; and Henry A. Junod, 1927, The Life of a South African Tribe, Volumes I and II.)

This writer is of the opinion that this cannot be mere coincidence, that two people groups can carry the same name, claim ancestral origins from a patriarch of the same name, be settled or have settled in the same geographical region, and yet be unrelated. I am convinced the Eastern Cape AbaThembu and the KwaZulu-Natal Mthembu Clan are one and the same peoples, although more research would be needed in this area.

The Origins of the Patriarch Thembu/Tembe and his People 

The claim that the AbaThembu, and hence the great Nelson Mandela (an AbaThembu Prince) are originally of Kalanga stock is based on the evidence of the Kalanga origins of the Thembu patriarch, Tembe/Thembu. Kloppers indicates in page 84 of his dissertation that Mthembu or Thembu is the ‘Nguni’ized’ version of Tembe. In a document available on the University of Pretoria website we are told that “The Tembe are named after Chief Mthembu, who arrived from Zimbabwe [Bukalanga] around 1554 and settled in the region around Maputo Bay” (www.upetd.up.ac.za/../02chapter2). “Historically they settled in the region that spans from Maputo Bay in Mozambique in the north of the Mkuze River in the south, and the Pongola River in the west in the middle of the 16th century (Kloppers 2001 – The History and Representation of the History of the Mabudu-Tembe).

Yes, they came from what is now Zimbabwe, the former Kingdom of Bukalanga, but that is not enough to say that they are a people of Kalanga stock. More evidence is needed to that end. This we find in the 1927 work of the Swedish missionary the Reverend Henry A. Junod. Of the Tembe/Thembu he wrote:

Almost every clan [in the African south east coast] pretends to have come from afar, and strange to say, they came from all points of the compass. Two of their clans, without doubt, came from the north, the Ba-ka-Baloyi and the Tembe. The Ba-ka-Baloyi, they say, came down the valley of the Limpopo in very remote times … According to some of the Native historians, the Ba-Loyi came from the Ba-Nyai country along with the Ba-Nwanati (a Hlengwe group), who also belonged to the Nyai or Kalanga race [the BaLoyi are the same as BaLozwi and BaNyai, being a Kalanga group].

As regards the Tembe clan, it is said to have come down as far as Delagoa Bay from the Kalanga country by the Nkomati River on a floating island of payrus, and to have crossed the Tembe river and settled to the south of the Bay … The Tembe people, when they greet each other, sometimes use the salutation Nkalanga, i.e. man of the north or of the Kalanga country, and there is little doubt that, notwithstanding the legendary traits of this tradition, the fact itself of the northern origin of these clans is true (Junod 1927, 21-23).

In the introduction to the first volume, Junod tells us that his informants were all over the age of eighty years at the turn of the 20th century, which means that they would have been born about the turn of the 19th century, somewhat closer to the events that they were recounting in their discussions with the missionary.

Junod’s report on the Kalanga origins of the Tembe is also attested to by W.S. Felgate who, in The Tembe Thonga of Natal and Mozambique: An Ecological Approach, reports that the Tembe claim to have migrated from Kalanga country (1982: 11).

In an abridged version of a document published in submission to the Nhlapho Commission opposing the claim by Eric Nxumalo that he should be installed as King of the Tsonga (and Shangaan people) in 2007, Mandla Mathebula, Robert Nkuna, Hlengani Mabasa, and Mukhacani Maluleke wrote that over the centuries, the Tsonga have assimilated other cultural groups who came to live with them in South East Africa, and among those were:

Tembe-Kalanga, who were in the Delagoa Bay region by 1554. The Baloyi-Rozvi (Lozwi), 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 [i.e., Mambo Dombolakona-Tjing'wango Dlembewu Moyo] in 1696 (Mathebula, et al 2007, Online).

The Portuguese traveler and chronicler, Perestrelo, who had made a survey of all the land and peoples from the Transkei to the Delagoa Bay (located just to the north of the St. Lucia Bay and the Mkhuze River which is just to the south of Maputo and the Lebombo Mountains), wrote in 1576 that he had encountered the Tembe in 1554, apparently long settled on the south east coast, or modern KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape and Swaziland (see Dr. Sidney Welch, 1948, South Africa Under John III, 1521-1557.)

Conclusion

There is no doubt that this article will open a hornet’s nest, perhaps result in a lot of debate on the part of those with scholarly minds, and also arouse tremendous laughter and condemnation from those of limited intellect who would not take the time to judge the evidence on its own merits or lack thereof.

But I believe that I have attempted to show that indeed, if the patriarch Thembu from whom AbaThembu take their name is the same patriarch of the Kalanga Tembe/Thembu, then the AbaThembu are originally a people of Kalanga stock, and as explained by Ikumkani Dalindyebo and Nelson Mandela himself, became Xhosa by assimilation. Zwide would probably have been an older patriarch whose remains lie somewhere north of the Limpopo, for as Sihele put it, “in search of livelihood AbaThembu broke off from Zwide’s descendants when they moved ahead.” Apparently, no one knows where that “breaking off” would have happened.

Now, if indeed the AbaThembu of Nelson Mandela (presently led by Ikumkani Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo) and the Tembe/Mthembu (presently led by Inkosi Mabhudu Tembe/Mthembu in KZN) are one and the same people, we can safely conclude that Nelson Mandela and the AbaThembu are people of Kalanga stock. And like those Jews around their tables counting the number of Jewish Nobel Laureates and the Jews in Russia making a hobby of counting Jewish high achievers, we of Kalanga stock may find ourselves having an extra political hero – Nelson Mandela – in addition to the likes of Dr Joshua Nkomo, Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo, Dr Knight Maripe, Festus Mogae, Daniel Kwele, George T. Silundika, Moses Mzila-Ndlovu, etc.

Ndaboka imi n’Kalanga we Bulilima-Mangwe. Ishwani. Goledzwa. Catch me on ndzimuunami@gmail.com

Matabeleland South provincial education director, Tumisang Thabela has urged teachers to promote indigenous languages saying they were oblidged to do so by the Bill of Rights.

Provincial education director Tumisang Thabela presents Kalanga textbooks to School Development Committees as community leaders look on.

Thabela was speaking at the Kalanga primary textbooks launch held at Plumtree High on Friday where about 109 primary schools from Bulilima and Mangwe received Grade 1-7 Kalanga textbooks. Another 113 schools in Matobo and Tsholotsho respectively also received the textbooks consignment at a separate event.

“To school heads, these books will mean nothing to you if you don’t follow the Bill of Rights,” Thabela said.

“You don’t need to be Kalanga to push for the promotion of this language, but all you need is to respect the Kalanga community. It is also up to the Kalanga community to take their language up to examination level.”

Chief Kandana from Bulilima weighed in saying the community was happy that Kalanga would now be taught at schools.

Chief Kandana Magutshwa (holding a bag) surrounded by the pioneers of the Kalanga textbook project which began in 2008. Back row: Dr Mclean J. Bhala, Clement Majahana, Anderson ‘Senegedze”’ Moyo, Tshidzanani T. Malaba; front row: Tshonono Tshuma; Pax Nkomo (out of picture).

Kalanga Language and Cultural Development Association vice-president Maclean Bhala hailed the government for recognising Kalanga as an official language in the Constitution.

Thabela said the unveiling of the books was an indication that the community was regaining its culture, arguing language and culture were inseparable.

“Language is one of the critical elements of culture,” she said. “This is why in the process of changing names (to English) we lost our culture. If you destroy a people’s language you destroy a people.”

She took a swipe at the then Curriculum Development Unit for blatantly excluding several indigenous languages from the school curricula, saying it degraded the culture of most ethnic groups in Matabeleland.

Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Indigenous Languages Promotion Association (ZILPA) commended government for recognising previously marginalised languages.

“We would like to thank our government for listening to the voice of marginalised communities in the fight for their linguistic rights.

“As language groups we perceive this as the beginning towards democracy and a fight against social exclusion hence we shall push for the advancement of our languages through their teaching,” ZILPA chairperson Maretha Dube said.

She warned teachers not to sabotage the advancement of previously marginalised languages in schools.

Some of the textbook writers and KLCDA leadership posing for a photo after the launch.

Article by Divine Dube, reprinted from The Southern Eye. Bottom two photos by T. Malaba.

by Pindai Dube, reprinted from Daily News

BULAWAYO – A community development organisation last week launched the first Kalanga language textbooks which will be used in the country’s primary and secondary schools.

The textbooks which were launched on Friday in Plumtree, will be distributed in Matabeleland South where the language is now being taught.

Tshidzanani Malaba the secretary for Kalanga Language and Cultural Development Association (KLCDA) said this was done in line with the new constitution which now recognises Kalanga as one of the country’s official languages.

“Under this programme we wrote textbooks from Grade 1 to 7 with volunteer Kalanga teachers and committed members of the KLCDA. It was not an easy task as it required a lot of commitment, resources and time. We then approached Education Transition Fund who agreed to print our books before publication,” Malaba told Daily News.

Kalanga language is now being taught in schools in Bulilima, Mangwe and Matopo districts in Matabeleland South province where majority of Bakalanga people are found as well as Tsholotsho district in Matabeleland North province.

Malaba added that up until the launch, Kalanga language was being taught in schools in these four districts of the country without textbooks.

Speaking during the launch which was held at Plumtree High School and attended by Bakalanga elders, traditional chiefs, teachers and schools headmasters — Matabeleland South Provincial Education director Thumisang Thabela said school heads in that area do not need to be Kalanga in order to promote the language.

Thabela said all they needed to do was respect the BaKalanga community.

KLCDA vice president, Mclean Bhala who is also Lupane State University vice Chancellor said: “These books do not belong to KLCDA they belong to the Education ministry. What belongs to KLCDA are intellectual property rights hence no one can change the content of the text books without our consent.”

The launch of Kalanga textbooks comes after the recent introduction of Tonga language teachings in Binga district schools.

The UZ Department of African Languages also recently said it had partnered with the University of Zambia to teach Tonga since there are no local lecturers for the language.

By Divine Dube

A baKalanga sensitisation mini conference was held in Bulawayo on the 1^st February 2014. It was attended by sixteen people, mainly youth of Kalanga origin. The major aim of the conference was to alert baKalanga youth on their history, cultural heritage and their linguistic and cultural rights which are now enshrined in the new constitution. This was also meant help them explore all possible avenues that will help restore the lost glory of their language and culture.

Ndzimu-Unami Emmanuel Moyo, who is the first writer of an exclusive book about baKalanga people, The Rebirth of buKalanga, published in 2012, gave a vivid description of who baKalanga are. He gave a detailed scholarly report on the migration of BaKalanga from Mapungubwe ruins in South Africa where baKalanga are first believed to have settled until they settled in present day Zimbabwe.

He challenged the mainstream historical documents used in the Zimbabwean schools’ curricula saying they distorted history. He asserted that the great Monomotapa state was a Kalanga state which is misconstrued as a Shona state whereas the Shona came to Zimbabwe after BaKalanga.

Delegates asked Moyo to unpack who baKalanga are in terms of surnames and baKalanga sub-groups which he responded by referring them to his book The Rebirth of buKalanga due to lack of time.

It was agreed by the entire delegates that there is need to sensitise the general populace about who baKalanga are after noting that many baKalanga in Zimbabwe do not know that they are baKalanga.

Thomas Sithole, who works with Plumtree Development Trust as a human rights activist and development practitioner concisely, unpacked the Bill of Rights enshrined in the new constitution. He urged baKalanga to capitalise on the constitution and other International conventions such as the United Nation Charter on Languages to advocate for the recognition of baKalanga.

Tshidzanani Malaba, who is KLCDA secretary, described the role of the Kalanga Association in promoting Kalanga Language through inclusion in the education curriculum and the organisation’s efforts to write and publish books. He described the challenges which the organisation has encountered since its formation. All baKalanga were encouraged to volunteer their time and resources towards the promotion and preservation of buKalanga and tjiKalanga.

BaKalanga were encouraged to write plays and articles in Kalanga. The delegates also agreed to engage rural district councils to use tjiKalanga in their day to day administration so that the language is promoted at grassroots levels.

Elders who are members of the association were exhorted to encourage their children to join the association so that they help promote tjiKalanga. Buhegwedu Dube, who gave closing remarks, encouraged youths to push for the wholesome recognition of Kalanga and hailed young people who constituted the majority of the delegates at the conference. He encouraged use of tjiKalanga in private and public discourse arguing that if the language is not used we might slowly lose it to extinction.

FATHER Innocent Makawule Ndlovu, a priest with the Roman Catholic Church has written a book that addresses succinct issues concerning death and burial rites among the Kalanga and their Ndebele counterparts in the southern region of the country.

African traditional culture is one of the much debated subjects which sociologists have found interesting to explore. Although African traditional religion still exists, it has in the past been slowly changing as a result of the widespread impact of Christianity.

Critics have in the past condemned the handling of death and burial rites among African folks today as compared to yester years. They question what they call “lack of respect of death and the dead” largely seen as influenced by Western cultures.

But Ndlovu in his book Culture and Christianity: Death and burial among The Kalanga and Ndebele Today strives to highlight the importance of African traditional practices in the wake of fast growing Christianity.

He juxtaposes Christianity and African traditional religion and shows how the two can complement each other in an effort to merge traditional culture and Christianity.

Some Christian movements suggest that there is no mutual relationship between Christianity and African traditional culture, but Ndlovu brings out a concise clarification on how and why particular traditional practises ought to be conducted in respect of the dead.

He vividly notes the respect, love, honour and fear accorded the dead by the Kalanga and Ndebele communities and gives explicit instances of the adoration and respect of the dead shown by these constituencies.

His book published this year by Ilizwi Publications, Plumtree, arguably goes a long way in recollecting the flickering Kalanga-Ndebele culture and will come in handy in providing both cultural and pastoral answers towards an understanding of Christianity and African culture.

“One of the most important areas of the Ndebele and Kalanga cultures in which the significant presence of traditional beliefs can be seen through death and burial rites,” Archbishop Alex Thomas wrote when reviewing the book. For this reason I greatly thank Fr Innocent Ndlovu for his book that spearheads reflection on culturally and pastorally relevant topics and issues.”

Ndlovu is currently a priest at St Anne’s Mission in Mangwe’s Brunapeg area.

by Divine Dube, reprinted from the Southern Eye

By Bridgette Bugalo, repr. from The Zimbabwe Mail

The Kalanga Language and Cultural Development Association (KLCDA) has implored government to foster cultural diversity by establishing a  policy that will enable participation of all ethnic  groups in national events.

In an interview with The Zimbabwe Mail  KLCDA information and publicity officer, Divine Bango Dube, said cultural diversity enriches identities and can be used to proffer alternatives to address broader issues that bedevil the country in the socio-political and economic spectrum.

“We have no doubt that the new constitution ushers equality and mutual respect among all ethnic groups and it eliminates assimilation of other cultures,” he said.

“We therefore implore all cultural players to foster cultural diversity by developing broad-based approaches towards encouraging the participation of all distinct cultural groups in national and regional cultural activities.  We also implore the ministry of Culture to engage all stakeholders in the development of a cultural policy that enables all ethnic constituencies to fully participate in the establishment of the country’s rich cultural heritage.”

Dube said this year’s Culture Week was celebrated at a time when the new Constitution of Zimbabwe recognises 16 official languages, 13 of which were previously marginalised.

“The recognition of previously marginalised languages through the constitution came as a sigh of relief to marginalised ethnic constituencies such as BaKalanga,” he said.

Dube said in line with this year’s Culture Week Theme Celebrating Cultural Diversity, KLCDA’s hope was that ethnic communities in Zimbabwe are united by a common denominator to strengthen cultural co-operation among each other with the view of establishing a rich and diverse cultural heritage which translates to national prosperity.

Culture week began on  May 17 and ended last week.

Dube said although the 1931 Colonial Act  on languages de-personalised BaKalanga’s  values and sought to destroy and permanently replace their language and culture, omission of their history did not stop the BaKalanga from having a distinct and recognisable identity.

“BaKalanga are a distinct ethnic constituency in Zimbabwe and have a culture worth noting and celebrating with due respect. It is time those with cultural hallucinations and myopia on the identity of BaKalanga seek wise counsel from the custodians of the language as we celebrate the unbundling of BaKalanga from “Ndebele” without apology,” he said.

By Pini Bothoko, reprinted from MmegiOnline

FRANCISTOWN: As she performs energy-sapping Kalanga moves at the age of 77, the only thing that differentiates Basetse Mamo from dancers young enough to be her grandchildren is her grey hair.

A living legend from the small village of Jackalas No 2 in the north east, the septuagenarian is an extraordinary entertainer whose rattle-wrapped legs assume a life of their own.  For hours, she jumps, stomps her feet and contorts her body this way and that to the delight of onlookers.

Mamo was in the thick of things last weekend as she led the Jackalas No 2 traditional dance troupe, Bongolo Dza Ntongwa.

They performed their Hosana dances at the Zhizha Food and Music Festival held at Kuminda Farm on the outskirts of Marobela village.

The mother of six, three women and three men, told Arts & Culture that her all-enduring love for iKalanga culture and traditional dance is the reason she is not throwing in the towel.   As an accomplished dancer she is in the twilight of her life, three years shy of the ripe old age of 80, but vows that she is still fit enough to go ‘cha-cha-cha-cha’ in the ‘tanga’ (arena).

“I am a born dancer. I have been dancing since I was a child of about 10-years-old.  This is where my passion lies. I am a Kalanga woman and want to teach young generations our culture.  I can only do this through dance,” she says.

Mamo says her talent was revealed to her in a dream where she was shown the dance moves and the songs to sing.

“When I woke up I was able to sing the song I was shown in the dream and I also performed the dance moves without much ado,” she says.

For years Mamo has enthralled crowds all over Botswana with not only the dance moves, but also a stick shaped in the form of a gun that she holds and aims as if it is a real rifle.

Mamo says that she is talented in all kinds of iKalanga traditional dances like Nkomoto, Ndazula, Hoso, but mostly her love lies in Hosana dance, which is performed at rainmaking rituals.

From time immemorial, the Kalanga tribe has been known for rainmaking rituals, which involve using ancestors as intermediaries between them and a deity they call Mwali who supposedly lives in the hills on the outskirts of Masunga village.

The Hosana dancers make yearly pilgrimages to the hills where they dance and sing for Mwali and Mamo will be among them.

“We go there every year before the rainy season begins to plead for good rains so that we can have a good harvest as we survive on farming. When we perform the Hosana dance in the hills, pleading with Mwali for rain, we would be wearing our sacred clothing.  I cannot describe them to you because I do not want to disclose what we do at our sacred place of prayer for rains,” she says.

She says that there is also a place called Nzeze on the outskirts of Mapoka where they gather with others from Zimbabwe and for days they would sing and dance to the accompaniment of drums as they pray for rain.  On such occasions, cows and goats would be slaughtered and traditional beer brewed exclusively for the appeasement of the ancestors so that they bring good rains.

Mamo says that the Hosanas (as the dancers are called) are used to plead for rain as they sing while beating unique drums.

“Re simolola go ‘locha’ (pleading) re kopa pula (We start pleading for rains) around August until beginning of October wearing our special gear, while singing and dancing Hosana and beating drums.  But once the rains start, we sing without drums because if you beat drums the rain clouds will disperse,” Mamo sayss.

She says that she has assisted many groups and students in their traditional groups teaching them all kinds of the Kalanga traditional dance and they are successful in the entertainment industry.

“I assisted groups like Dikakapa traditional group teaching them Hosana and Nkomoto dance.  I have also assisted a majority of schools in the North East and Central Districts.

“I have won countless awards performing at the Presidential competitions with my traditional group. Even now I am still showing the ropes to upcoming dancers with proper Kalanga dance moves,” she says. She warns that children nowadays have a tendency of dancing Hosana bedecked in the black gowns, which are supposed to be worn by dancers during rituals. She says by doing so, the children are actually putting a curse on themselves, which may lead to them becoing mad.

“It is not everyone who should perform Hosana. It is exclusively for the Hosanas (the dancers).  As for Hoso, Ndazula and Nkomoto, there is nothing wrong with performing the dances,” she says.

She says that it is not only about dancing, as there has to be a proper way of clapping hands and beating of drums to produce a unique Kalanga rhythm.

Mamo dismisses the allegations that dancing Hosana can lead to being a Sangoma, explaining that it is a chosen talent. She says that even though she has been a dancer all her life, she has never had those attacks. Mamo has been to China, European countries whose names she cannot remember and Cote de Ivore.

“I was happy that people in those countries enjoyed our performances even though they did not understand our language,” she says, lending credence to a popular saying that music is a universal language.

by Shingirai Madondo, reprinted from theVoiceBW

Legendary Ika-jazz maestro Ndingo Johwa on Sunday night serenaded his fans at Supa Ngwao Museum in Francistown.

With the Independence celebratory mood gripping the country’s second largest city, the show was slated for the museum for fans to enjoy the holidays.

Johwa, a man who has been in the music industry for a substantial period of time, is one of the few musicians singing in the Kalanga language. And this has made him a darling to the Kalanga speaking fans.

A lot of the players in the music industry especially from the northern part of the country hardly sing in their own language.

The issue of language and acoustic sound of the Kalanga jazz music has propelled the ageing singer to high levels. Alongside his two dancing queens, Johwa’s shows have always been most attended gigs especially North of Debete.

The show at Supa Ngwao is likely to turnaround the museum into a entertainment centre of choice for artwork and music lovers.

From Supa Ngwao, Johwa will perform at Tutume, Masunga and Nkange.

Reporter Portia Ngwako of Botswana’s The Voice recently boarded the Block 8 Route 4 combi from game city when they found a traffic cop controlling the movement of traffic on the road.

The naughty passengers debated about the officer’s origin because he was dark skinned.

One of the passengers said he was Kalanga and others attacked her for being tribalistic.

Lady in blue Top: This traffic officer is delaying us. He is so dark skinned.

Lady in pink skirt: He is a Kalanga (in a derogatory tone).

Man in white shirt: what makes you think she is Kalanga?

Stop being tribalistic! You are offending us.

Lady in black scarf: People have turned us into a football pitch.

I am light in complexion but I am Kalanga.

Who do you think you are?

Lady in pink skirt: You people are known to be dark in complexion. I think yellow bones are very few that side.

Lady in blue Top: You people undermine us. What will you say if I say you are light in complexion and you are Mosarwa?

Lady in black scarf: Stop arguing with that empty vessel. She is not civilized.

Man in white shirt: We are in trouble, us and Batswapong. This stereotype thing really annoys me.

Lady in black scarf: Somebody on Facebook was saying “I am more stressed than a mophane worm seeing a Kalanga going into the bush with a sack”. It really pisses me off and people like making fun of it.

Passengers laugh

Lady in blue Top: She is giving us attitude and she does not know what the future hold for her.

May be she is going to be married by a Kalanga man.

Lady in black scarf: Do not talk of the future. She might be dating a Kalanga boy.

What makes her think she is better than others? Why is tribalism even a thing anymore?

Haven’t we moved past that?

Man in white shirt: This is totally wrong. After all, we are Batswana and we should be a united nation.

This is why people do not progress in life; it is because of this attitude.

Lady in blue Top: After all, there are no biological differences between people.

No tribe is superior or inferior to another. We are all the same.

Don’t think that one day you will wake up white and speak English through nose.

Lady in pink skirt: People it is enough. I am sorry; I did not mean to offend you.

Lady in blue Top: There are no reasons or excuses for tribalism.

This should be the first and last time you say that.

You should never repeat it. It is very dangerous. People can attack you physically and even hurt you.

This reporter drops off the combi at the next stop and the conversation comes to an end.

[Reprinted from The Voice]

Kalanga Language and Cultural Development Association

Notice of Annual General Meeting

DATE: Saturday, 28 March 2015  —  10:00 am

VENUE:  Plumtree High School Hall

In terms of Section 11.1 of the KLCDA Constitution, AGM shall be held on or before 31^st March in each year.

This is the first AGM since our elective General meeting of 20 February 2010 where interim Board Members and Executive Committee members were appointed

AGENDA ITEMS

1. Opening prayer

2. Welcome remarks and introductions

4. Kalanga Association profile and overview (reports)

- Chairman’s Report

5. Emerging issues (discursive)

(a) Teaching of TjiKalanga in schools, colleges & Universities

(b) Publishing & selling of books (+ Dictionary project)

(c) Writing of Kalanga books (Form 1-4, Novels, poetry etc.)

(e) Bible translation

(f) Cultural Festivals

(g) Online or Kalanga in IT

(h) Finance & Fundraising

6. Adoption of resolutions

7. Leadership

(a) Confirmation of Trustees

(b) Appointment of Patron

(c) Election of Board Members

(d) Election of Executive committee

(e) Appointment of Portfolio committees

(i) Education (ii) Culture (iii) Fundraising (iv) Publicity

(f) Grassroots committees

8. Next AGM

www.kalanga.org        Email: info@kalanga.org

Contacts: Divine +263 77 2610726 / Selu +263 77 370 0980

by Simanga Phakathi Moyo

Mouth watering delicacies that got the crowd asking for more, Kalanga traditional food from left

Mxhanxa, Hanga, Nyama yewhuku, Matobgwe, Tjimoni, Hadza lemapfunde

KLCDA Johannesburg chapter to hold inaugural Kalanga festival

Kalanga Language and cultural Development Association (KLCDA) an organisation that exists for the promotion and development of TjiKalanga as a language and culture of BaKalanga as people will on October 24, 2015 hold an inaugural Kalanga Festival in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The first ever festival organised by the Johannesburg chapter of KLCDA, aimed at among other things showcasing Kalanga culture and fundraising for the development of the language which for the first time in history was examined at grade seven level by the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (ZIMSEC) this very month.

TjiKalanga also gained official language status in Zimbabwe after the enactment of the new constitution in 2013.

All roads lead to the Hill brow Theatre in Johannesburg this Saturday (October 24) the venue for the Bukalanga Festival-South Africa, to run under the theme: “Tolumbidza lulimi nemilenje yedu nemizano yebunyambi.” (“Celebrating our language and culture through arts”).

Former Zimbabwean Ambassador to Nigeria, Ambassador Mabed Ngulani, will be the guest of honour at the historic event whose preparations are already at an advanced stage.

The special occasion sponsored by Hwehhu Media, Clearview Driving School and T-shirt and Mug Printers will feature 13 artists including poets, traditional dancers, rhumba musicians and many others.

These include Allen Ndoda-Ndlovu, Mlambos Express Band, Progress Bango and Kumbudzi Sounds and Bukalanga Gwamuka Traditional Group.

The poets expected to thrill the audience comprise Liverson Mdongo WaHabe and Ntando Dumani popularly known as Hwehhu yeBuKalanga.

There will also be gospel musicians such as Ithemba Lensindiso, Mawhi ebasumikili and many others.

On sale will be traditional Kalanga foods such as ‘nhopi, hadza lezembwe, mahonja and many others.

Johannesburg is the ‘second home’ to thousands of BaKalanga from Bulilima, Mangwe, Matobo, Tsholotsho and other various areas.

A KLCDA delegation from Zimbabwe comprising the executive secretary, Ntando Dumani and finance and fundraising subcommittee chair Ambassador Mabed Ngulani, will be leaving for the neighbouring country not later than Friday this week for the big gathering of BaKalanga.

KLCDA would therefore like to take this opportunity to extend a special invitation to all BaKalanga resident in Johannesburg and other parts of South Africa and everyone who has interest in the development of our language to come and be part of the celebration.

Our Kalanga theme song “KuBuKalanga ndiko kanyi kwedu” will be sung even as we remember our true identity and proud history.

Just this month on October 3, we joined our counterparts in the neighbouring Botswana for the Annual Domboshaba Kalanga Cultural Festival which also seeks to promote TjiKalanga.

Meanwhile, KLCDA is working flat-out to publish Kalanga textbooks for secondary schools following the writing of grade seven exams this year. We are also working on a Kalanga dictionary and bible as we seek to document and preserve our God-given mother language.

For more information, kindly contact Gerald Ncube on +27 7367714974 or Liverson Mdongo WaHabe on +267 74932545 or +27 785636797.

PART I
Reclaiming A Stolen Identity

By Liverson Mdongo wa Habe

In this series of short articles, the author seeks to share the mystery of great treasures of heritage and exceptional achievement of a highly resilient people which have been hidden for close to two centuries. This first article tackles the highly contentious and potentially explosive subject of identity. The author does not seek to place blame but to contextualise the unfolding truth about the history and future of Bukalanga.

The histories of Zimbabwe, South Africa and Botswana have been narrated with a missing link that historians have not collectively even openly acknowledged. Some incorrect theories have been advanced with the deliberate objective of skirting around the logical need to merely detail history as it unfolded. It is abundantly clear that where the role of BaKalanga in the history of the region is concerned, the truth has been politically inconvenient all along.
Our rich language includes a poignant, yet wise, saying and proverb which goes thus; “Nyama whombeledzwa yakapatula hali’, which translates to ‘Forcing a chunk of meat into a tiny pot will cause it to crack and fall apart. This very apt in this no holds barred discussion.

The author fully acknowledges that this article may lead to difficult conversations. The outcome of such discussions should, nonetheless, become highly functional as a significant step in nation building. It is with this noble intention in mind, not apology, that the issues that have been hitherto considered too sensitive for the public doorman are presented here for discussion and open debate.

Today, there is no need for scientific research or protracted academic debate to prove that BaKalanga are a distinct people with an identity that is markedly different from other tribes in the region in which they are found. The history, language, culture, rituals and practices of BaKalanga may be remotely similar due to long term interaction but are different from those of so called larger tribes of Zimbabwe as well as the Tswana of Botswana. Yet, since the years of colonial domination the language has been conveniently grouped together as an illegitimate step child of one or more dormant groupings in these countries.
Like all other peoples of our time we were subjected to the vagaries and tragedies of the slave trade and later were later brutalised by colonialism.

To BaBakalanga, the primary pain of colonialism which denied us basic rights such as walking on pavements and riding buses into town was worsened by the secondary burden of imposed cultures which for all intents and purposes forced us to abandon our language in search of artificial legitimacy as laughable appendages of the Ndebele or Tswana.

The colonialists’ deliberate policy of dividing and ruling natives is well illustrated in the story of Kalanga people in Zimbabwe where the Rhodesian regime deliberately imposed Ndebele chiefs over Kalanga communities. These chiefs were then encouraged and supported to convert the local people to their own language and practices in order to establish unquestionable authority. This achieved the colonial objective of totally disempowering the Kalanga and alienating them from their imposed prefects who ruled with impunity and intolerance over amahole or lower class citizens. The colonialists had a long standing score to settle with baKalnaga for instigating resistance against their rule.

Under the strict rule of colonial chiefs, it became difficult to even name children in TjiKalanga, let alone speak our language without being demeaned as ‘madlangolila’. In Botswana it is taboo to this day to refer to BaKalanga as a distinct people. The government there continues to push a strong agenda of absorbing all tribes into a mainstreamed ‘national’ Identity. Arguably this begets bigotry on the part of the so called major groupings and leads to the very tribal undertones that the government purports to prevent. Is it not a basic principle of civilisation to allow people to be who they are?

It is tragic that the advent of independence in Zimbabwe was not accompanied by the required changes of allowing people in rural communities to be governed by their own indigenous chiefs. Chiefs that belonged and identified with them. This has led to growing resentment and a sentiment of silent resistance to a system that reinforced the suppression of one of the oldest languages and cultures in the country. While some areas have restored traditional leaders this has come at a huge emotional cost amid allegations of forces seen to be fermenting tribalism.
It is clear that the current generation of baKalanga refuses to have their story and heritage relegated to the dustbin of history. Current developments in the arts show an emerging class of citizens eager and proud to have the stories of their past told, celebrated and stored in the memories for our children and generations to come without fear or restraint. In our quest to retrieve their stolen identity BaKalanga are intent on uncovering truths that were hidden for so long. The nation correctly feels entitled to the factual and anecdotal stories about their kings and heroes.

Bakalanga occupied regions of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Mozambique since the early 1000s making them one of the early settlers South of the Zambezi. Place names and relics of cultural artefacts bear testimony to strong footprint in this region. It is therefore a misnomer that BaKalanga could be expected to fit into the narrative of Ndebele conquest and share the exploits of Mzilikazi or live in the shadow of Tswana or even the Shona. We have our own heroes and villains. Like any other, our story includes remarkable exploits, defeats and continual reformation of our political, economic and social structures. Our kings fought against the Portuguese settlers and drove them to present day Mozambique. Our kings protected the land form invasion by Bangwato and fell in battle against the Swazi of Nyamazana.

The phenomenal capacity of our successive kingdoms to integrate foreigners, sojourners and those who sought refuge among us is now well documented and stands out as an exceptional skill for national building. Travellers and seekers of refuge were always welcome, hence one of the most popular clan praises is ‘babvumabalanda’ which indicates how we accepted newcomers without seeking to subjugate them. Dare we say that this perhaps was to be the Achilles heel of the great people.

Our heritage includes a rich narrative of envious achievements symbolised by our reputation as astute traders and notable architects who built empires around Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe, Khami Ntalatale, Dombonobe, Domboshaba and Luswingo which are now heritage sites for the region. It remains incomprehensible that historians have not tapped into the insurmountable piles of archival evidence on the origins of these empires and chosen to punt their doubt that an African nation could have achieved such superior infrastructure before the arrival of the colonists.
The participation of Bakalanga in the first resistance against colonialism has not been adequately acknowledged in text books which contain startling academic amnesia. The names of heroes against colonialists such as Njenjema Lubimbi the great priest at Njelele and Makwati Ncube who was called to Mwali’s messenger of war were not mentioned as the instigators of the revolution. instead Makwati was christened Mukwati to the fit the Shona narrative of the First Chimurenga.

The rise of Bukalanga does not have to be the decline of any other people because it is not about them. This is the unfolding story of a nation that has been ignored for too long. This movement is not in protest. It is instead about self-empowerment and efforts to retrieve a stolen identity which has been mistakenly discarded into the dustbin of history that has been unable to contain it. These proud citizens may no longer be embarrassed by speaking their language and affirming others.

Part II will tackle the economic heritage of BuKalanga.

Liverson Mdongo wa Habe writes in his personal capacity.