Mkhize is one of the most widely carried Zulu clan names, found throughout KwaZulu-Natal and across South Africa. The clan is remembered above all through Zihlandlo kaGcwabe, a chief who was a close ally of King Shaka.
Meaning and origin
Several accounts try to explain the name. One oral tradition holds that the founding ancestors arrived during light rain – ukukhiza in Zulu – and were named for it; some family accounts trace this further back to origins in the region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as part of the broader southward Bantu migration (see our migration timeline). Another tradition says the name, or at least its use for this specific group, was given by Shaka himself.
A more cautious, academic view – from University of Cape Town historical research – questions whether there was ever a single, clearly bounded group that became “Mkhize”; it is considered more likely that the clan formed, under that name, from several smaller communities inside what is now KwaZulu-Natal, and that the name itself may only date to Shaka’s era in the 1820s. We present both the family tradition and the academic caution, since they answer different questions – where the people came from, and when the name Mkhize came to describe them.
Zihlandlo and the age of Shaka
Zihlandlo kaGcwabe was chief of the Mkhize in the early nineteenth century and one of Shaka’s most trusted allies, remembered for his loyalty during the formative wars of the Zulu kingdom. His father (or, in some accounts, a more distant ancestor) was Gcwabe, and the line is carried further back to Khabazela and Gubhela – though the exact order of these ancestors differs between family records.
Izithakazelo
Versions of the Mkhize praises in circulation differ in both wording and the order of ancestors. Two commonly recorded sequences are:
Mkhize! Khabazela! Gcwabe! Zihlandlo! Gubhela!
and, in another family’s recording:
Mkhize! Khabazela! Mavovo! Gcwabe! Gubhela! Mumbo! Ngunezi! Mbulazi!
Both name Gcwabe and Gubhela, and most versions include Khabazela and Zihlandlo, but neither the exact wording nor the full ancestor list is settled. We would like to record a version confirmed by Mkhize family elders rather than choosing between the two.
Some clan-name websites list an entirely different set of praises for “Mkhize” (naming Mashiza, Gumede, Ntombela, Biyela and Wosiyane) – this does not match the sources above and we believe it to be an error; we have not used it here.
Related clans
The Mkhize are sometimes grouped with other clans under the old Mbo label, alongside the Hlubi and others – though, as the Hlubi page on this site notes, the idea of a single “Mbo” migration is itself now questioned by historians rather than treated as settled fact.
Notable people named Mkhize
- Zihlandlo kaGcwabe – chief and ally of Shaka.
- Zweli Mkhize – physician and politician, former Minister of Health and of Cooperative Governance.
- Many prominent South Africans in music, sport, academia and public life carry the name – it is one of the most common isibongo in the country.
Sources and further reading
- University of Cape Town, Five Hundred Year Archive / historical research notes on the Mkhize and the “Mbo” question.
- The Ulwazi Programme, “Sthembile Mkhize Family History” and related community oral-history entries.
- The Witness (Pietermaritzburg), archive feature “Keeping family history alive” (2009).
- The James Stuart Archive of Recorded Oral Evidence – for testimony touching on Zihlandlo and the early nineteenth century.
Help us settle the praises. If your family can confirm the order of Mkhize’s izithakazelo – Khabazela, Gcwabe, Zihlandlo, Gubhela and the rest – send us a WhatsApp on 065 138 8213 or use our contact page. We credit contributors who wish to be named.