Shirinda in the sources
Junod names a clan he spells Shirindja in the country north of Lourenco Marques, one of two clans, with the Manyisa, that “form the transition” between the Ronga and the Djonga groups. He says the younger generation there speak a purer Ronga and the older people more of the Djonga.
What the sources say
Junod lists the Shirindja among the neighbouring chiefdoms that would be invited to the installation of a chief at Mpfumo, and records that he called on a chief of Shirinda named Mahatlane (about pp. 345 to 346). He gives the Shirindja praise-name as “Mudzunga ntima wa le dzungen”, with the translation “black South of the South?”, the question mark being his own (about p. 335).
The name appears on Wikipedia’s Tsonga people page only for the dance musician M. D. Shirinda, a pioneer of traditional Tsonga dance music. That page does not link him to the clan Junod describes.
Cautions
We are matching a 1912 clan name to a modern surname by sound, and no source we read confirms it. 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 confirmed totem. Page numbers for Junod are approximate, read from machine-scanned text.
Izithakazelo and totem
We are printing no Shirinda totem because none has been confirmed. If you belong to the Shirinda 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 Shirinda? 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.