Netshiendeulu in the sources
Netshiendeulu is the title and family name of the hereditary custodians of the royal graves on Tshiendeulu, the mountain also called Lwandali, above the Nzhelele valley in Limpopo. Wikipedia’s Venda Kingdom article calls them the family that tends Dambanyika’s grave. The Luonde community site says the name means the owner, ruler or custodian of Tshiendeulu.
What the sources say
The tradition. According to Luonde, which draws on oral tradition and gives no author or references, the first Dzata stood on Mount Lwandali and was abandoned after the death of Dimbanyika. The story told is that Dimbanyika was a hunter who vanished, that his dogs led a search party to the place, and that he told the searchers to stop and said the place would be his grave. He then ordered the capital moved and forbade anyone to live on Lwandali or eat its fruit. He directed the son of Rambwapenga (also written Mbwapenga) and his descendants to stay on the mountain and tend the grave, and these descendants became known as Netshiendeulu. Lwandali became known as Tshiendeulu, said to mean the royal graveyard.
The relationship with the Venda kings. Luonde says Khosi Netshiendeulu pays tribute to the Mphephu-Ramabulana king at Dzanani, and that the descendants of Dimbanyika and those of Netshiendeulu may not face each other: during tribute visits they speak with a wall between them and the king gives instructions without seeing the Khosi’s face. The reason given is a belief that Dimbanyika and the son of Rambwapenga could not look at each other during the events at the cave, and that the Netshiendeulu hold powers Dimbanyika gave them. Luonde’s page on the sacred drum Ngomalungundu tells the same founding story and says nobody knows where the drum is now. We are not printing details of sacred sites or objects.
The name and the record. The Luonde site lists Netshiendeulu among Vhangona family names, noting that the prefix “Ne” marks the ruler or owner of a place. The Commission’s record of the Vhangona claimant’s list of past leaders contains a name its text scan renders “Netshiendeutu”, which is probably the same name. Wikipedia adds that radiocarbon dates from Tshiendeulu give occupation in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which it attributes to earlier Shona settlers, and that the first Dzata ruin lies on Tshiendeulu Mountain above the valley. See our Vhangona, Nephawe and Masingo pages.
Cautions
This page rests on one community site, one Wikipedia article and one line of the Commission’s record. We have not spoken to or read an account from the Netshiendeulu themselves, and the details of the protocol come from outside the family. A UNPO list of Vhangona royal leaders and a research paper on the “lost city of Tshiendeulu” are leads we could not open. Vhangona and Singo history is told differently by each side, and we take none. We found no confirmed totem or praise text.
Izithakazelo and totem
We are printing no Netshiendeulu praises or totem because none has been confirmed. If you belong to this house and recite its praises, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- Luonde: Historical Sites (community site; no author given; oral tradition)
- Luonde: Ngomalungundu (community site; no author given; oral tradition, no formal references)
- Wikipedia: Venda Kingdom
- Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims: Determination on the Vhavenda kingship claim (the Vhangona account, pp. 608 to 609, and findings, pp. 642 to 644)
- Luonde: Brief History (community site; no author or bibliography given)
See also Vhangona, Dimbanyika and Masingo.
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