Mathenjwa in the sources
Bonner describes the Mathenjwa as one of the “Tsonga or semi-Tsongaised Sotho chiefdoms” of the Lebombo in the 1820s, settled in the mountains in the south of what became the Swazi kingdom.
What the sources say
Where they lived. On the eastern side of the country, Bonner writes, “lay a number of Tsonga or semi-Tsongaised Sotho chiefdoms. The Mahlalela and Maziya occupied a section of the Lebombo together with the Sifundza and Masilela, leaving the Thabede and Ndzimandze in command of the Lebombo flats below, and the Mathenjwa and Mngometfulo installed in the mountains further south” (p. 30, with Map 2).
Tsonga connection. His index groups the Mathenjwa with the Tsonga peoples (Mahlalela, Masilela, Maziya, Mngometfulo, Ndzimandze, Sifundza, Thabede). He gives no origin story or leader for them.
Cautions
Bonner says nothing more about the Mathenjwa. “Semi-Tsongaised” is his scholarly shorthand for a mixed language and cultural background, not a statement about how the family sees itself today. We searched the full text of Bryant (1929), Soga (1930) and Bonner (1983) under the spellings given here and under likely variants; absence from these books says nothing about whether the family is old or important, only that these three sources are silent.
Izithakazelo and totem
We found no Mathenjwa praise poem or totem in the sources read. If you belong to this clan, we would like to hear your family’s own account, credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- Philip Bonner, Kings, Commoners and Concessionaires: the evolution and dissolution of the nineteenth-century Swazi state (Cambridge University Press, 1983); read by OCR from a scanned copy, printed page numbers given
Do you belong to the Mathenjwa? 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.