Khosa in the sources
Junod puts the Khosa first among the Djonga clans, whose country he calls Khosen (the Cossine country of the Portuguese), north of Delagoa Bay. Wikipedia’s Tsonga people article lists the Khosa under the VaMbayi and says some Khosa identified with the Djonga and Mbayi sub-group.
What the sources say
Junod uses the Khosa as an example of what he calls a clan: a small unit named after an old chief whose descendants still rule, like the Tembe and the Nkuna (about p. 14). He records that in Lourenco Marques the Khosa were called “Bakalanga”, people of the North, a name the natives applied by direction and not by origin (about p. 19), and that the Khosa, Nkuna and Hlabi all claimed a western or south-western origin, which he connects to the Lebombo hills (about p. 23).
He gives the Khosa praise-name (shibongo) as “those of the keen-edged sword that cuts the disputes brought to the capital”, and says the Khosa chiefs were reputed for wisdom in judging legal and political matters (about p. 335). He also tells how the Khosen army under a chief called Mbanyele was broken by the Zulu invasion that came with Soshangane, along with those of Rikotsho and Shiburi (about p. 424). See our Rikhotso page.
Cautions
We found no Khosa-authored history in the sources we could read, and the Zulu and Swati surname Khosa may be unrelated. Junod wrote in 1912 in his own spelling and from a missionary’s viewpoint, so the match between his clan names and today’s surnames is by sound and is our inference. We found no confirmed totem. Page numbers for Junod are approximate, read from machine-scanned text.
Izithakazelo and totem
We are printing no Khosa totem because none has been confirmed. If you belong to the Khosa and recite your praises (miLao), we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- Henri A. Junod, The Life of a South African Tribe, vol. 1, The Social Life (Neuchatel, 1912), read in the Internet Archive scan; a missionary ethnography of the Thonga (Tsonga), using his own spellings
- Wikipedia: Tsonga people (its post-1890 community list has no inline citation)
Do you belong to the Khosa? Tell us your praises and what elders say about the history, and we will add it, credited to you. Share what you know or WhatsApp 065 138 8213.