Bhembe in the sources
Bonner, in his study of the Swazi state, states plainly that he has no information on the Bhembe chiefdom, and the Bryant and Soga texts we read give no narrative entry under that spelling.
What the sources say
The author’s admission. “I possess no information on the Bhembe or Gwebu chiefdoms” (Bonner, notes to pp. 80–85, printed p. 253).
Cautions
Our own planning list shows Bhembe as shared between the Swati and the Zulu; we have not been able to confirm that from a source. The name is also carried in other language groups, and a shared name does not make a shared lineage. 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
We found no Bhembe praise poem or totem for the Swati or Zulu branch. If you belong to this clan, we would like to record your family’s own account, credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- Philip Bonner, Kings, Commoners and Concessionaires: the evolution and dissolution of the nineteenth-century Swazi state (Cambridge University Press, 1983); read by OCR from a scanned copy, printed page numbers given
- 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 Bhembe? 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.