Khoza in the sources
Khoza appears in two of our sources as a Tsonga name: Junod’s Khosa, one of the older “tribes” or clans of the Thonga, and a Khoza sub-headman in the Ndebele of Langa country whom the ethnographer records as Tsonga from Bilene in Mozambique. Our planning list adds that the name is also used among the Swati and Zulu; we have no source for that.
What the sources say
Junod’s Khosa. Junod names the Khosa, with the Tembe and the Nkuna, among the small national units “called after some old chief whose descendants are still reigning” (vol. I, p. 14). He places the Khosa, in the Khosen country, in the Djonga group together with the Rikotjo, Shiburi and Mathiye clans, and writes that the Nkuna, Khosa and Hlabi all claim a western or south-western origin (pp. 20 to 23). His chief list reads Khosa, Ripanga, Mabone, Molelemane, Ripindje, Magudjulane, Nshalati, Pukwana, Magudju, Shongele (about p. 21). In Lourenço Marques, he adds, the Khosa tribe is called Bakalanga (p. 19).
The praise. The Khosa praise Junod prints compares them to a keen-edged sword that “cuts” disputes brought to the capital, and he explains that the Khosa chiefs were reputed for wisdom in deciding judicial and political matters (p. 335).
A Khoza in Langa country. In A. O. Jackson’s The Ndebele of Langa, Khoza is the second of three sub-headmen of the Baloi headmanship. He is reported to have come originally from Bileni (Bilene) in Mozambique, to have stayed for a time at Segodini (Makapansgat), and to have arrived before 1918; all three sub-headmen are Tsonga. Sixty-three households were subject to him, in the area of Matlou’s ward near the junction of the Motlhosane and the Mogalakwena (pp. 124, 143).
Wikipedia. Wikipedia’s Tsonga people article lists Khosa among the Vambayi clans, with Rikhotso, Rivisi and Mbhanyele, and says some Tsonga clans were named for the chief believed to be the original ancestor.
Cautions
Junod writes Khosa and the other sources Khoza, and we do not know whether families who carry the surname today belong to the Khosa of the Lower Limpopo. Junod and Jackson describe Tsonga groups; we found no source on a Khoza clan among the Swati or Zulu. The Khoza of Langa country is one household head in a government anthropologist’s survey and not a clan history. Junod was a Swiss missionary writing from informants around 1900.
Izithakazelo and totem
We have printed only the gist of the Khosa praise Junod recorded. If you belong to a Khoza or Khosa family and recite your praises, 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. I, The Social Life (Neuchâtel: Attinger, 1912); Internet Archive scan, read in its machine-read text
- A. O. Jackson, The Ndebele of Langa, Ethnological Publications No. 54 (Pretoria: Department of Co-operation and Development); typed transcription by Joyce Lee Kunz Peck, 2024, read by machine OCR
- Wikipedia: Tsonga people (its clan and notable-people lists have no inline citations)
Do you belong to the Khoza? 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.