Bantu peoples of South Africa
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South African Bantu-speaking peoples represent the majority ethno-racial group of South Africans. 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.
History
Archaeological evidence suggests that
Based on prehistorical archaeological evidence of pastoralism and farming in southern Africa, settlements forming part of countless ancient settlements remains related to Bantu language speaking peoples of Africa, specifically those from sites located in the southernmost region inside the borders of what is now Mozambique take importance to this article for being the closest, oldest archaeological evidence by distance to the South African border thus far related to South African Bantu–speaking peoples and dated 354–68 BCE. Ancient settlements remains found thus far similarly based on pastoralism and farming within South Africa were dated 249–370 CE.[6]
When the early
"Empty Land" myth
The history of the Bantu-speaking peoples from South Africa has in the past been misunderstood due to the deliberate spreading of false narratives such as The Empty Land Myth.[10] First published by W.A. Holden in the 1860s, this doctrine claims that South Africa had mostly been an unsettled region and that Bantu-speaking peoples had begun to migrate southwards from present day Zimbabwe at the same time as the Europeans had begun to move northwards from the Cape settlement, despite there being no historical or archaeological evidence to support this theory.
This theory originated in Southern Africa during the period of
The
Particularly
Brief South African colonial-era history through Polities
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Xhosa Wars
The longest running military action from the period of
(1779–1803): After European invasion of the present day
(1811–1819): Zuurveld became a buffer zone between the Cape Colony and Xhosa territory, empty of the Boers, the British to the west and the Xhosa to the east. In 1811 the fourth war began when the Xhosa took back the rest of their territory of Zuurveld, conflicts with the settlers followed. Forces under Colonel
(1834–1879): The Xhosa remained expelled from their territory dubbed "Ceded Territories", that was then settled by Europeans and other African peoples. They were also subjected to territorial expansions from other Africans that were themselves under pressure from the expanding Zulu Kingdom. Nevertheless, the frontier region was seeing increasing amounts of multi-racial issues because Africans and Europeans living and trading throughout the frontier region. The indecision by the Cape Government's policy towards the return of the Xhosa territories did not dissipate Xhosa frustration toward the inability to provide for themselves, hence the Xhosa resorted to frontier cattle-raiding. In response on 11 December 1834, a Cape government commando party killed a chief of high rank, incensing the Xhosa army of 10,000 led by
The seventh war became a war between the imperial British troops collaborating with the mixed-race "Burgher forces", which were mainly Khoi,
Large numbers of Xhosa were displaced across the Keiskamma by Governor Harry Smith, and these refugees supplemented the original inhabitants there, causing overpopulation and hardship. Those Xhosa who remained in the colony were moved to towns and encouraged to adopt European lifestyles. In June 1850 there followed an unusually cold winter, together with an extreme drought. It was at this time that Smith ordered the displacement of large numbers of Xhosa squatters from the Kat River region. The war became known as "Mlanjeni's War", the eighth war, after the prophet Mlanjeni who arose among the homeless Xhosa and preached mobilization, large numbers of Xhosa began leaving the colony's towns and mobilizing in the tribal areas. In February 1852, the British Government decided that Sir Harry Smith's inept rule had been responsible for much of the violence, and ordered him replaced by George Cathcart, who took charge in March. In February 1853 Xhosa chiefs surrendered, the 8th frontier war was the most bitter and brutal in the series of Xhosa wars. It lasted over two years and ended in subjugation of the Ciskei Xhosa.
The cattle-killing movement that began in 1856 to 1858, led Xhosa people to destroy their own means of subsistence in the belief that it would bring about salvation from colonialism through supernatural spirits. First declared by a prophetess Nongqawuse no one believed in the prophecy and it was considered absurdity, but more and more people started believing Nongqawuse. The cult grew and built up momentum, sweeping across the eastern Cape. The return of the ancestors was predicted to occur on 18 February 1857, when the day came, the Xhosa nation waited en masse for the momentous events to occur, only to be bitterly disappointed. Famine set in and disease was also spread from the cattle killings, this forced the remainder of the Xhosa nation to seek relief from colonialists.
In 1877 the ninth of the Cape frontier war happened, known as the "Fengu-Gcaleka War", and also the "Ngcayechibi's War" — the name stemming from a headman whose feast was where the initial fight occurred that traces from the conflicts of this war.
Creation of the Zulu Kingdom
Before the early 19th century the indigenous population composition in KwaZulu-Natal region was primarily by many different, largely Nguni-speaking clans and influenced by the two powers of the
After the death of the Mthethwa king Dingiswayo around 1818, at the hands of Zwide, the king of the Ndwandwe, Shaka assumed leadership of the entire Mthethwa alliance. The alliance under his leadership survived Zwide's first assault at the Battle of Gqokli Hill. Within two years he had defeated Zwide at the Battle of Mhlatuze River and broken up the Ndwandwe alliance, some of whom in turn began a murderous campaign against other Nguni communities, resulting in a mass migration of communities fleeing those who are regarded now as Zulu people too. Historians have postulated this as the cause of the Mfecane, a period of mass migration and war in the Southern African interior in the 19th, however this hypothesis is no longer accepted by most historians, and the idea itself of Mfecane/Difaqane has been thoroughly disputed by many scholars, notably by Julian Cobbing.[16][17]
Pedi Kingdom
The Pedi polity under King Thulare (c. 1780–1820) was made up of land that stretched from present-day Rustenburg to the lowveld in the west and as far south as the Vaal River. Pedi power was undermined during the Mfecane, by the Ndwandwe. A period of dislocation followed, after which the polity was re-stabilized under Thulare's son Sekwati.[18]
Sekwati was also engaged in struggles over land and labour with the invading colonialists. These disputes over land started in 1845 after the arrival of
On 16 February 1877, the two parties, mediated by
Mampuru II has been described as one of South Africa's first liberation icons. Potgieter Street in Pretoria and the prison where he was killed was renamed in his honour, in February 2018 a statue of Mampuru was proposed to be erected in Church Square, Pretoria where it will stand opposite one of Paul Kruger who was President of the British's South African Republic (ZAR) at the time of Mampuru's execution. The Pedi paramountcy's power was also cemented by the fact that chiefs of subordinate villages, or kgoro, take their principal wives from the ruling house. This system of cousin marriage resulted in the perpetuation of marriage links between the ruling house and the subordinate groups, and involved the payment of inflated bohadi or bride wealth, mostly in the form of cattle, to the Maroteng house.
Inception of apartheid
The Apartheid government retained and continued on from 1948 with even more officiation and policing on racial oppression of Bantu-speaking peoples of South Africa for 48 years. Decades before the inception of Apartheid there was a Rand Rebellion uprising in 1922 which eventually became an open rebellion against the state, it was against mining companies whose efforts at the time, due to economic situations, were nullifying irrational oppression of natives in the work place. The pogroms and slogans used in the uprising against blacks by whites articulated that irrationally oppressing Bantu-speaking peoples of South Africa was much more a social movement in European communities in the 20th century South Africa, before ever becoming government in 1948 which happened through a discriminatory vote by only white, minority people in South Africa, that formed a racist, well resourced and a police state of an illegitimate government for nearly 50 years. In the 1930s, this irrational oppression/discrimination was already well supported by propaganda, e.g. the Carnegie Commission of Investigation on the Poor White Question in South Africa, it served as the blueprint of Apartheid.
Democratic dispensation
A non-racial system franchise known as Cape Qualified Franchise was adhered to from year 1853 in the Cape Colony and the early years of the Cape Province which was later gradually restricted, and eventually abolished, under various National Party and United Party governments. It qualified practice of a local system of multi-racial suffrage. The early Cape constitution which later became known as the Cape Liberal tradition.
When the Cape's political system was severely weakened, the movement survived as an increasingly liberal, local opposition against the Apartheid government of the National Party. In the fight against Apartheid, African majority took the lead in the struggle, as effective allies the remaining Cape liberals against the growing National Party, engaged to a degree in collaboration and exchange of ideas with the growing African liberation movements, especially in the early years of the struggle. This is seen through the non-racial values that were successfully propagated by the political ancestors of the African National Congress, and that came to reside at the centre of South Africa's post-Apartheid Constitution.
The year 1994 saw the
As a consequence of Apartheid policies, black Africans are regarded as a race group in South Africa. These groups (blacks, whites, Coloureds and Indians) still tend to have a strong racial identities, and to classify themselves, and others, as members of these race groups[24][25] and the classification continues to persist in government policy, to an extent, as a result of attempts at redress such as Black Economic Empowerment and Employment Equity.[25][26]
Ethnic partitioning
African – ethnic or racial reference in South Africa is a synonym to Black South Africans. It is also used to refer to expatriate Black people from other African countries who are in South Africa.
South Africa's Bantu language speaking communities are roughly classified into four main groups:
- Nguni people (alphabetical):
- Shangana–Tsonga people
- Sotho–Tswanapeople:
- Southern sotho
- Basotho
- Northern Sotho
- BaPedi people
- Batswana
- Southern sotho
- Venda people:
Culture
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Black people in South Africa were group-related and their conception of borders based on sufficient land and natural features such as rivers or mountains, which were not by any means fixed.
Common among the two powerful divisions, the Nguni and the Sotho–Tswana, are patrilineal societies, in which the leaders formed the socio-political units. Similarly, food acquisition was by pastoralism, agriculture, and hunting. The most important differences are the strongly deviating languages, although both are Southern Bantu languages, and the different settlement types and relationships. In the Nguni settlements villages were usually widely scattered, whereas the Sotho–Tswana often settled in towns.[29]
Language and communication
The majority of Bantu languages spoken in South Africa are classified as belonging to one of two groups. The
Ditema syllabary
A
Southern Ndebele paintings
Southern Ndebele prior and during the 18th century primarily used their expressive symbols for communication, it is believed that these paintings are a synthesis of historical Nguni design traditions and Northern Sotho ditema or litema tradition(s). They also began to stand for their continuity and cultural resistance to their circumstances during the colonization in the 19th century. These wall paintings done by the women was their secret code to their people, disguised to anyone but the Southern Ndebele. The vibrant symbols and expressions portray communications of personal prayers, self-identification, values, emotions, and marriage, sometimes the male initiation but the ritual was not expressed. Religions have never been a part of the Southern Ndebele's house paintings. The women of the Southern Ndebele are often the tradition carriers and the main developer of the wall art of their home. The tradition and style of house painting is passed down in the families from generation to generation by the mothers. A well-painted home shows the female of the household is a good wife and mother. She is responsible for the painting of the outside gates, front walls, side walls, and usually the interior of her home. One thing that has changed since the beginning of the paintings and the present-day wall art is their styles. In the late 1960s, the new style was evident, what was once a finger-painted creation was now created using bundled twigs with feathers as brushes. The walls are still originally whitewashed, but the outlines and colours have significantly changed.
The patterns and symbols can be seen today with a rich black outline and a vivid colour inside. There are five main colours represented: red and dark red, yellow to gold, a sky blue, green, and sometimes pink, white is always used as the background because it makes the bright patterns stand out more. The geometric patterns and shape are first drawn with the black outline and later filled in with colour. The patterns are grouped together throughout the walls in terms of their basic design structure. Creating the right tools to allow accuracy and freedom becomes a difficult task. The tools can't restrict the painter from creating her art. They have to have tools for the large geometric shapes of flat colour and small brushes for the very small areas, outlines, and sacks. The advancement of tools has allowed faster and more complex designs throughout the Southern Ndebele's homes. Every generation passes it down and little changes become apparent.
Traditional sports and martial arts
The most popular sporting code in South Africa and among Black South Africans is Association football with the most notable event having been hosted being the 2010 FIFA World Cup, but before such advent there are historical sports that were popular to the indigenous.
Nguni stick-fighting
It is a
Musangwe
A traditional, bare-knuckle, combat sport of Venda people. It resembles bare-knuckle boxing.[31][32]
Chiefdom
It is well documented in the Apartheid legislation, that the white minority, government regime – recreated and used the "traditional" Chiefdom-ships system to be the National Party's power reach, and even increased the Chiefdom-ships' powers over the Bantu-speaking peoples of South Africa for the Apartheid government's interests. This was after colonial regimes and subsequent South African governments before formal Apartheid, had initiated the taking of most of South African land from the indigenous peoples. Most of South African land began being made an exclusive possession of only white minority Europeans in South Africa legislatively by 1913.
Until very recently, South African Bantu-speaking communities were often divided into different clans, not around national federations, but independent groups from some hundreds to thousands of individuals. The smallest unit of the political organizational structure was the household, or kraal, consisting of a man, woman or women, and their children, as well as other relatives living in the same household. The man was the head of the household and often had many wives, and was the family's primary representative. The household and close relations generally played an important role. Households which lived in the same valley or on the same hill in a village were also an organizational unit, managed by a sub-chief.
The chief was surrounded with a number of trusted friends or advisors, usually relatives like uncles and brothers, rather than influential headmen or personal friends. The degree of the democracy depended on the strength of the
Time-reliant traditions
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Xhosa calendar
Xhosa people historically and traditionally based their agricultural time on reliable star systems. When these traditions are aligned with the
Sotho calendar
Sesotho months (in Sotho: Likhoeli) indicate special natural and agricultural events of Southern Africa. Traditionally and historically, being cattle breeders who lived in the semi-arid regions of Southern Africa, a deep understanding of agriculture and the natural world was essential for their survival. Sesotho speaking people generally recognise only two seasons called Dihla. However, names do exist aligned to all four of the traditional Western seasons. The Sotho year begins approximately in August or September, a time when their crops were planted.
Traditional holidays
First Fruits
A ceremony of giving the first fruits in a harvest to God, or the gods who are believed to be responsible for the abundance of food in Southern Africa. Traditionally it marked a time of prosperity, in the good harvests experienced after the seasonal agricultural period. It also brought people together, unifying them at a time of merry making and quashing fears of famine. In South Africa the tradition is practiced by Zulu people of KwaZulu-Natal as Umkhosi Wokweshwama.
Umkhosi womHlanga
Umhlanga is an annual event that originates from
Historical food acquisition
Food acquisition was primarily limited to types of
Essentially they consumed meat (primarily from Nguni cattle, Nguni sheep (Zulu sheep, Pedi sheep, Swazi sheep), pigs/boars and wild game hunts), vegetables, fruits, cattle and sheep milk, water, and grain beer on occasion. They began to eat the staple product of maize mid-18th century (introduced from the Americas by Portuguese in the late 17th century via the East African coast), it became favoured for its productiveness which was more than the grains of South African native grasses.[34] There were a number of taboos regarding the consumption of meat. The well known, no meat of dogs, apes, crocodiles or snakes could be eaten. Likewise taboo was the meat of some birds, like owls, crows and vultures, as well as the flesh of certain totem animals. The mopane worms are traditionally popular amongst the Tswana, Venda, Southern Ndebele, Northern Sotho and Tsonga people, though they have been successfully commercialized.
South African Bantu language speaking peoples' modern diet is largely still similar to that of their ancestors, but significant difference being in the systems of production and consumption of their food. They do take interest to innovations in foods that come their way while still practicing their very own unique food cuisine popular amongst themselves and those curious alike.
Pre-colonial and traditional house types
Historically, communities lived in two different types of houses before this tradition was dominated by one, the
The Rondavel itself developed from the general, grass domed African-style hut nearly 3 000 years ago, its first variety, the veranda Rondavel, emerged about 1 000 years ago in southern Africa. Colonial housing styles inspired the rectangular shaping of the Rondavel from the 1870s, this is regarded as the beginning of the Rondavel's
-
Venda people's village of Mbilwe, Rondavels as its structures on a rising slope as photographed in 1923, a decade after the Natives Land Act, 1913[37]
-
A reconstruction in a heritage site of KwaZulu-Natal of the Zulu people's variation of a hut called iQhugwane, which dominated as an indigenous abode duringDingane kaSenzangakhona's reign.
-
Bahurutshe people's homestead of veranda Rondavels pre-1822 from the ancient city of Kaditshwene (c.1400s–c.1820s).
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Early 19th century, South Africa. Bantu-speaking peoples of South Africa's variation of a hut, built on stilts, to protect themselves from lions and other predatory animals.
-
Modern usage of the Rondavel, residency near the coastline of Eastern Cape, South Africa.
Ideologies
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Umvelinqangi
Umvelinqangi according to mainly Xhosa and Zulu people's culture is the Most High or Divine Consciousness, is the source of all that has been, that is and all that ever will be. It's the inner light of creation. Ukukhothama (similar to meditation) prior to Colonization/Westernization was a widespread practice in South Africa noticeably by those considered Zulu people now, it was seen as a way of attaining oneness (in Zulu: Ubunye), with the divine conscious.
King Shaka's philosophy
King
Black Consciousness Movement
An anti-Apartheid movement that emerged in South Africa in the mid-1960s. BCM attacked what they saw as traditional white values, especially the "condescending" values of white people of liberal opinion and emphasised the rejection of white monopoly on truth as a central tenet of their movement. The BCM's policy of perpetually challenging the dialectic of Apartheid South Africa as a means of transforming Black thought into rejecting prevailing opinion or mythology to attain a larger comprehension brought it into direct conflict with the full force of the security apparatus of the Apartheid regime.
Ubuntu philosophy
A concept that began to be popularised in the 1950s and became propagated by political thinkers specifically in Southern Africa during the 1960s. Ubuntu asserts that society, not a transcendent being, gives human beings their humanity. An "extroverted communities" aspect is the most visible part of this ideology. There is sincere warmth with which people treat both strangers and members of the community. This overt display of warmth is not merely aesthetic but enables formation of spontaneous communities. The resultant collaborative work within these spontaneous communities transcends the aesthetic and gives functional significance to the value of warmth. It is also implied that Ubuntu is in the ideal of that everyone has different skills and strengths; people are not isolated, and through mutual support they can help each other to complete themselves.
South African Bantu-speaking people
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Notation of notable people from Black South African hosts renowned, contributors, scholars and professionals from a range of diverse and broad fields, also those who are laureates of national and international recognition and certain individuals from South African monarchs.
See also
- Demographics of South Africa
- Khoi—San peoples
- Coloureds
- Asian South African
- White South African
Diaspora
- Northern Ndebele people
- Ngoni people
- Kololo people
- Makololo Chiefs (Malawi)
- (Their modern descendants have little connection with the Kololo people apart from their name.)
- Relating South African diaspora
References
- ^ "Meet the 800-year-old golden rhinoceros that challenged apartheid South Africa". theconversation.com. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
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- ^ Africanus, Leo (1526). The History and Description of Africa. Hakluyt Society. pp. 20, 53 & 65. Retrieved 27 July 2017.
- ^ Works by Richard Hakluyt at Project Gutenberg
- ^ Paterson, Lieut. William (1789). A Narrative of four Journeys into the Country of the Hottentotts and Caffria. In the Years One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-Seven, Eight, and Nine. London: J Johnson.
- PMID 29902271.
- ^ Peires, Jeffrey Brian (1976). A History of the Xhosa C. 1700–1835. Grahamstown: Rhodes University.
- ^ Martin Meredith, Diamonds Gold and War, (New York: Public Affairs, 2007):5
- ^ Knight, Ian (2004). Zulu War. Osprey. p. 11.
- ^ "The Empty Land Myth". sahistory.org.za.
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- ^ "Lydenberg Heads (ca.500 A.D.)". www.metmuseum.org.
- ^ Conquest of the Eastern Cape
- ^ "The Mfecane as Alibi: Thoughts on Dithakong and Mbolompo" (PDF). The Journal of African History, Volume 29, Issue 3, Cambridge University Press. 1988. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
- ISBN 978-1-139-87168-6.
- ^ "History of the Pedi". southafrica.co.za. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
- ^ Alan F. Hattersley, "The Annexation of the Transvaal, 1877." History 21.81 (1936): 41–47. online
- ^ "'Sekukuni [sic] & Family' | Online Collection | National Army Museum, London". collection.nam.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
- ^ "THE SEKUKUNI WARS PART II – South African Military History Society – Journal". samilitaryhistory.org. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
- ^ Kinsey, H. W. (June 1973). "The Sekukuni wars". Military History Journal. 2 (5). The South African Military History Society. Retrieved 28 September 2014.
- ^ Pretorius, Wim (23 March 2016). "Laying the gallows' ghosts to rest". News24. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
- ISBN 978-981-13-2897-8.
- ^ ISSN 0258-7696. Archived from the original(PDF) on 8 November 2006.
- ^ "Manyi: 'Over-supply' of coloureds in Western Cape". 24 February 2011.
- ^ "Southern Africa". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
- ^ "Korana in South Africa". joshuaproject.net. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
- ^ Guthrie M., Comparative Bantu. Farnboroiugh Vols. 1–4., Gregg International Publishers Ltd. 1967
- ^ Guthrie M., Comparative Bantu. Farnboroiugh Vols. 1–4., Gregg International Publishers Ltd. 1967
- ^ Wende, Hamilton (5 February 2011). "South African boxing that 'makes the heart strong'". BBC. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
- ^ Shalati Nkhwashu (21 February 2011). "It's jaw-breaking time as musangwe hits Soweto". Archived from the original on 15 October 2014.
- ^ Guthrie M., Comparative Bantu. Farnboroiugh Vols. 1–4., Gregg International Publishers Ltd. 1967
- ISBN 978-0-582-64673-5.
- ^ Guthrie M., Comparative Bantu. Farnboroiugh Vols. 1–4., Gregg International Publishers Ltd. 1967
- ^ Gerald Steyn (2006). The indigenous rondavel – a case for conservation. Architecture, Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa.
- ^ MICHAEL GODBY (2009). Alfred Martin Duggan-Cronin's Photographs for The Bantu Tribes of South Africa (1928–1954): The Construction of an Ambiguous Idyll 1. Department of Historical Studies, UCT. p. 57.
- ^ Guthrie M., Comparative Bantu. Farnboroiugh Vols. 1–4., Gregg International Publishers Ltd. 1967
Further reading
- Vail, Leroy, editor. The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa. London Berkeley: Currey University of California Press, 1989.
- B. Khoza (PHD), Makhosi, author. Uzalo Isizulu Grammar Textbook. Cambridge University Press, 2017.