Nethengwe in the sources
Nethengwe is the family name of the rulers of the Thengwe community, the Vhatavhatsindi of Thengwe, listed as item (g) on the 1991 proclamation’s roll. The Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims records a Nethengwe among the past Vhangona leaders in the Vhangona claimant’s presentation, and the Know My Roots blog names Nethengwe among the prominent chiefs of the Vhatavhatsindi.
What the sources say
At the Ralushai Commission, Lufuno Mulaudzi’s 2020 thesis says, Acting Chief M. G. Nethengwe represented the Vhatavhatsindi of Thengwe and told Mr Ligege of the Tshivhase that the Thengwe would not fall under a Tshivhase kingship because they were independent of the Tshivhase; the Tshivhase wanted the Nethengwe among their mahosi (ch. 9, p. 208). In an interview in 2015 a Tshivhase leader again listed Nethengwe among the communities Tshivhase used to rule; Mulaudzi disputes that, writing that the historical and oral sources he used show all those vhothovhele were historically independent (ch. 10, about pp. 273 to 275).
The Know My Roots blog says the Vhatavhatsindi settled at Lwandali and Thengwe and names Matidze, Nethengwe and Manenzhe as prominent chiefs; in the Commission’s record the Vhangona claimant counts “Ndou of Thengwe Manenzhe” among the present Vhangona leaders (see Ndou, Manenzhe and Vhangona). Whether Nethengwe, as a Vhatavhatsindi house, belongs with the Vhangona or the Masingo is not settled by anything we read.
Cautions
The name is written Thengwe, Nethengwe and Nethenguwe in different sources, and the Know My Roots blog gives no sources. 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 9, p. 208
- 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 10, about pp. 273 to 275
- Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims: Determination on the Vhavenda kingship claim
- Know My Roots: Venda Clan Names (community blog; no author or citations given, so unverified)
See also Masingo, Ramabulana and Tshivhase.
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