Radebe is a clan name closely tied to the amaHlubi royal line, though – like many widely-carried South African surnames today – it is held by families across several language groups. Its best-documented roots run through Hlubi royal history in the KwaZulu-Natal highlands and the eastern Free State. Our Hlubi overview page records this same royal line under the more common spelling Hadebe – the two appear to be the same clan name, recorded differently by different sources.
Origins
A 1908 record of Hlubi chiefs, compiled from oral testimony and held in the University of Pretoria’s van Warmelo Collection, lists Radebe as the sixth chief in the Hlubi royal line – after Mhuhu, Ndhlovu, Muhlanga, Musi and Mtumkulu, and before Ngcobo, Dhlomo and others who followed. Separately, sources describing the surname note that Radebe was also recorded as the name of an amaHlubi king, Hadebe, who succeeded King Ncobo, and that Hlubi kingship in general traces back to the semi-legendary Bhungane kaNsele, remembered in oral tradition for his skill in traditional healing.
The Hlubi themselves speak a dialect closely related to siSwati within the Tekela branch of the Nguni languages, and trace their own presence in Natal back as far as the 13th century by some accounts, before the upheavals of the Mfecane scattered Hlubi communities across the Eastern Cape, Free State and Lesotho.
We have not found a confirmed, independent account of how the Radebe lineage specifically relates to later Hlubi history after the 1908 list, so treat the detail above as a starting point for further family or academic research rather than a complete picture.
Izithakazelo zakwaRadebe
We have found one specific clan-praise detail: at the funeral of ANC and SACP veteran Meshack Radebe, former President Jacob Zuma referred to him by the clan name uBhungane – “umkhumbi wokumoyizela,” affectionately meaning someone who makes other people happy – linking the Radebe clan praise directly back to the semi-legendary Hlubi king Bhungane kaNsele. We have not been able to confirm the fuller izithakazelo sequence from a written source.
If your family recites the Radebe praises in full, we would like to record them accurately – please get in touch using the details below.
Totem and related clans
The Radebe are counted among the many clans and lineages associated with the amaHlubi, alongside names such as Dlamini, Tolo, Mthembu, Mbhele, Mntambo, Ntombela, Miya, Ndlovu, Masango, Maduna, Nkomo, Xaba, Khumalo and Yirha – a reminder that the Hlubi nation, like most Nguni polities, absorbed and was built from many originally distinct family lines.
Geography
Hlubi – and with them, Radebe – communities are historically associated with the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg foothills and the eastern Free State/Lesotho borderlands, where Hlubi groups resettled after the disruptions of the early 1800s.
What the government commission found
In its determination on the amaHlubi kingship claim, the Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims names the claimant as Muziwenkosi Johannes Radebe, Langalibalele II, and records the Hlubi royal story with a prince spelled Hadebe, a brother of the king Ncobo, who raised seed for him by the custom of ukungena. The commission found that the amaHlubi do not hold a kingship, so there is none to be restored, and that the claim was unsuccessful. See our Hadebe and Langalibalele pages. We have not found a source that states outright that Hadebe and Radebe are the same name.
Sources and further reading
- A.T.Z. Mbebe, History of the Hlubi (1938), University of Pretoria repository – record
- Wikipedia, “Hlubi people”
- News24, tribute to Meshack Radebe referencing the clan praise “uBhungane”
Can you help confirm or correct any of this, or share the fuller izithakazelo? Please get in touch via our contact page or WhatsApp 065 138 8213.