Nokwe in the sources
Nokwe is a name on our own planning list of Xhosa clans. We searched three standard sources and did not find a clan history under it.
What the sources say
What we searched. The full text of Bryant (1929), Soga (1930) and Bonner (1983), under Nokwe and the variants Nokwena.
The nearest we found. Bryant names Nokwena, younger son of the Dlanyawo chief Magadaza, who went to Xoza country across the Mzimvubu; that is a personal name and we do not know that the Nokwe clan descends from him.
Cautions
This page is still a listing rather than a clan history. We would rather say so than fill it with material we cannot source. We searched the full text of Bryant (1929), Soga (1930) and Bonner (1983) under the spellings given here and under likely variants; absence from these books says nothing about whether the family is old or important, only that these three sources are silent.
Izithakazelo and totem
If you belong to the Nokwe and can tell us where the family came from, its praises and its totem, we will record it, credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- A. T. Bryant, Olden Times in Zululand and Natal (London: Longmans, 1929); read in the Internet Archive text, including its alphabetical table of clan names and address-names near the end (machine-read, with garbled columns)
- J. H. Soga, The South-Eastern Bantu (Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1930); Internet Archive text
Do you belong to the Nokwe? 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.