Nesengani in the sources
Nesengani is one of the seven independent Venda vhuhosi that Lufuno Mulaudzi’s 2020 thesis lists for the 1920s (Mphephu, Tshivhase, Mphaphuli, Rambuda, Sinthumule, Nesengani and Kutama), and item (o) on the roll of the 1991 proclamation. A Nesengani headman, E. R. B. Nesengani, was an influential minister under Mphephu.
What the sources say
Nemudzivhadi’s 1977 dissertation drew on an interview with L. Nesengani in 1971 for the story of Ravele Ramabulana and the Batlokwa (see Ramavhoya). Gota E. R. B. Nesengani, the Minister of Education, defeated the VIP’s motion of no confidence in Mphephu’s cabinet in 1980 or 1981 with a counter-motion of full confidence, and nominated F. N. Ravele for the presidency in 1988; Mulaudzi calls him one of the few educated ministers and one of the most intelligent in Mphephu’s government, who defended the interests of the vhothovhele although himself only a gota. Both he and Ravele were members of the Zion Christian Church (ch. 7, pp. 153 and 172; see Ravele and Mudau).
Overview article
See The Ramabulana succession, 1864 to 1895 for the wider context.
Cautions
The thesis names the Nesengani only in passing, and we found no history of the chiefdom. Mulaudzi is a historian writing in 2020 from commission reports, newspapers and interviews he carried out himself, and he states his own opinions in the text; the extracted text of the thesis has stray spaces and some unreadable characters, so page numbers are approximate. Venda kingship history is told differently by each house and by each historian, and where the sources differ we say so and take no side.
Sources and further reading
- Lufuno J. P. Mulaudzi, “Historicising the politics of vhuhosivhuhulu: the Venda polity and state formation in South Africa, c.1800s-2020”, DPhil thesis, University of Pretoria (2020), chapter 7, pp. 152 to 173
- Lufuno J. P. Mulaudzi, “Historicising the politics of vhuhosivhuhulu: the Venda polity and state formation in South Africa, c.1800s-2020”, DPhil thesis, University of Pretoria (2020), chapter 5, p. 122
See also Masingo, Ramabulana and Tshivhase.
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