Mathebula in the sources
Wikipedia’s Tsonga people article names the Baloyi, Mathebula and Nyai among the tribes often identified as the Gwamba, “properly the descendants of Gwambe”, who it says also formed the Kalanga and Rozwi tribes. Its post-1890 community list names a clan spelled Mathevula under the VaRozvi, which may be a variant spelling of the same name.
What the sources say
The article also cites Mandla Mathebula’s 800 Years of Tsonga History: 1200-2000 (2002), which we have not read. For the Baloyi, Junod records the tradition that they came, with the Nwanati, from the Nyai (Kalanga) country along an old road to the coast near the Limpopo mouth, and that the Baloyi then turned back north; see our Baloyi page and Makwakwa.
Junod does not use the name Mathebula. He notes that the Venda and Bvesha called the Thonga of the Spelonken, north of the Soutpansberg, Magwamba, and that these were mostly Hlengwe, Maluleke and Djonga refugees (about p. 18); he does not link that name to a person called Gwambe.
Cautions
Whether the Mathebula and Mathevula are one clan, and how the Gwamba label relates to them, is not settled by anything we read. We found no Mathebula chief, praise text or totem. 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. Page numbers for Junod are approximate, read from machine-scanned text.
Izithakazelo and totem
We are printing no Mathebula totem because none has been confirmed. If you belong to the Mathebula and recite your praises (miLao), we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- Wikipedia: Tsonga people (its post-1890 community list has no inline citation)
- 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
Do you belong to the Mathebula? 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.