What this page is, and is not
The Luthuli name is borne by many Zulu families. The one published family history we could verify is that of the Luthuli of Groutville, a mission station in Natal, because of Chief Albert John Mvumbi Luthuli. We have not found a source on the origin of the Luthuli clan as a whole, on its praises or on its totem, so this page is about one family and should not be read as the clan’s history.
Groutville
South African History Online’s biography says Albert Luthuli was born in 1898 near Bulawayo, in a Seventh Day Adventist mission, in what is now Zimbabwe. His father died when he was an infant. At about ten years old his mother sent him to Groutville, which the page calls “the family’s traditional home” and his ancestral village. He lived there for a time with his uncle, Martin Luthuli, whom the page calls the elected chief of the Christian Zulus inhabiting the Umvoti Mission Reserve around Groutville. The page gives no dates for Martin’s chieftaincy and does not name Albert’s father or grandfather.
Chief Albert Luthuli
The page says that in 1935, after resisting pressure from the village elders, Albert Luthuli accepted the chieftaincy of the Groutville reserve. He was dismissed from it in November 1952, after refusing to resign from the African National Congress, having held the post for 17 years. He became the first African winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. The page’s summary gives the year as 1960, while its references date his acceptance speech in Oslo to 10 December 1961, so the two sit together only if 1960 is the prize year and 1961 the ceremony, which the page does not say. He died on 21 July 1967 at Groutville.
Izithakazelo and totem
We have not found a published Luthuli praise text or a confirmed totem, so we are not printing either. If you belong to a Luthuli family and recite your praises, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- South African History Online: Chief Albert John Mvumbi Luthuli (no author named)
This page rests on a single biography. Dorothy Woodson’s article on Luthuli and the ANC is published as a scanned PDF with no text layer, and we could not read it.
Do you carry the Luthuli name? Tell us your praises, your totem 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.