Mchunu in the sources
Mchunu is a name on our own planning list of Zulu clans. We searched three standard sources and did not find a clan history under it.
What the sources say
What we searched. The full text of Bryant (1929), Soga (1930) and Bonner (1983), under Mchunu and the variants Mcunu, Cunu, Cunwini.
The nearest we found. Soga says the amaCunu take their name from Mcunu, father of Luboko, father of Macingwane (the Cunu chief of the 1820s); he does not say that the surname Mchunu comes from that line.
Cautions
This page is still a listing rather than a clan history. We would rather say so than fill it with material we cannot source. 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
If you belong to the Mchunu and can tell us where the family came from, its praises and its totem, we will record it, credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- A. T. Bryant, Olden Times in Zululand and Natal (London: Longmans, 1929); read in the Internet Archive text, including its alphabetical table of clan names and address-names near the end (machine-read, with garbled columns)
- J. H. Soga, The South-Eastern Bantu (Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1930); Internet Archive text
Do you belong to the Mchunu? 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.