Miya in the sources
Miya is named among the clans of the Fengu (amaMfengu) in Wikipedia’s article, with no history. Soga records that the amaMiya are sometimes said to be a section of the amaZizi, and gives his own test for deciding such claims, which, applied to the Miya, suggested to him that the two were of different stock.
What the sources say
The Zizi question. Soga writes that “it is sometimes asserted that the Ama-Miya are a section of the Ama-Zizi (see Table Ama-Zizi, by Ayliff and Whiteside)”. His test is intermarriage: asked whether they intermarry with the Miya, a Zizi who answers “No” shows the two are closely related by blood, whereas “Yes, we intermarry” shows no blood tie; “as the Ama-Zizi do intermarry” with the Miya, he concludes, they were “originally of different stock” (p. 80).
The listing. Wikipedia’s article on the Fengu people lists Miya among the clans and says that Myer is the English or common-law form of Miya, with no citation for that sentence, and gives no leader or praise.
Cautions
Soga’s two sentences are all we found on the Miya; they say nothing of their own history. The Wikipedia list rests on a general site and genealogy pages, and carries several tags. We have not seen the Ayliff and Whiteside tables Soga cites. Soga was a Xhosa-born mission doctor and historian who wrote in 1930 from tribal informants and the older colonial histories; his tables are partly garbled in the machine-read text, and he often says that a clan’s place in the genealogy is uncertain.
Izithakazelo and totem
We found no Miya praise poem or totem. If you belong to the Miya and recite your praises, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- J. H. Soga, The South-Eastern Bantu (Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1930); read in the Internet Archive text, with machine-read tables (page numbers below are as the running heads gave them)
- Wikipedia: Fengu people (the clan list is cited to britishempire.co.uk; name-translation claims rest on genealogy websites; the article carries several tags)
Do you belong to the Miya? Tell us your izithakazelo and what elders say about the family’s history, and we will add it, credited to you. Share what you know or WhatsApp 065 138 8213.