Makaringe in the sources
Wikipedia’s Tsonga people article lists the Makaringe under the VaRozvi, with the Valoyi, Mukansi and Mathevula. Junod mentions a Makaringe clan once, in a story about the installation of the Nkuna chief Muhlaba.
What the sources say
Junod tells how Muhlaba’s subjects collected fifteen oxen as the lobolo for a “wife of the country” for the chief, and how one ox broke its leg. Muhlaba chose a girl from the Makaringe clan; the elder Mankhelu, who had already taken a wife among those people, whom Junod calls his bakokwana (maternal kin), took the proposal to them, and they consented and killed an ox for him (about p. 354). It is a story about royal marriage custom, not a history of the Makaringe, and Junod says no more of them.
Cautions
The Makaringe are named once, as wife-givers. 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 Makaringe chief, history, praise text or totem. Page numbers for Junod are approximate, read from machine-scanned text.
Izithakazelo and totem
We are printing no Makaringe totem because none has been confirmed. If you belong to the Makaringe 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 Makaringe? 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.