Tshakhuma in the sources
Tshakhuma is a community in Venda ruled by the Madzivhandila royal house. In the written sources it appears as the home of the Vhadau of Tshakhuma, as a Berlin mission station from 1874, as a target of the 1865 and 1869 attacks on the Venda, and, in 1988, as the school community whose youth began a protest against ritual killings.
What the sources say
People. The title of the standard Venda-language history of the area, S. M. Dzivhani and E. Mudau’s Mahosi a Venda na Vhadau vha Tshakhuma, and the title of E. Mudau’s 1939 manuscript at the University of Pretoria, both place the Vhadau at Tshakhuma. Nemudzivhadi cites the book repeatedly for Makhado’s reign. He calls the Vhadau of Tshakhuma subjects of Makhado (p. 45). The ruling family is the Madzivhandila; see also Vhadau. Mulaudzi’s 2020 thesis notes that the ethnographer Lestrade drew on the Madzivhandila house at Tshakhuma and the Mphaphuli house at Mbilwi for his information on Venda customs, laws and marriage (ch. 1, p. 4).
Neighbours. In Nemudzivhadi’s account the territory of Mukhesi of Tsianda bordered Tshakhuma at Tshavhavha, Tshivhazwaulu and the Luvuvhu River (p. 176), and Albasini’s tribute area took in Tshakhuma together with Vhuronga, Vhulovhedzi, Mashau, Vari, Luonde, Vhuphani and Vhutavhatsindi (p. 63).
War. Tshakhuma was attacked on 8 May 1865 by Albasini’s men and a Boer commando (p. 79), and by a Swazi force in October 1869 (Battle of Mangwele (1869)). Mzila’s Gaza refugees settled at Tshitavhadulu, near Tshakhuma, with the sanction of Raluthaga Madzivhandila (p. 76).
The mission. Mulaudzi’s 2020 thesis lists Rev. E. Schwellnus’s station at Tshakhuma of 1874 among the Berlin Missionary Society stations in Venda (ch. 4, p. 91). Nemudzivhadi says Raluthaga Madzivhandila asked Beuster for a missionary in May 1874, that Schwellnus founded the station and learned Tshivenda, extended his work to Tsianda and Lwamondo, and baptised the first converts in 1877, and that agriculture was introduced with irrigated gardens, wheat fields and orchards of orange, avocado, peach, banana and coffee, with bluegum and bamboo for timber (pp. 131 to 134). Schwellnus left for Germany in 1894 and was succeeded by Rev. R. Wessmann (p. 135); Mulaudzi’s chapter 1 note says Wessmann worked on the mission stations Georgenholtz and Tshakhuma. Nemudzivhadi’s notes cite an address given at the dedication of the Schwellnus Memorial Church at Tshakhuma in 1954. R. N. Mathivha’s 1985 M.Ed. dissertation on Berlin mission education at Tshakhuma, 1872 to 1954, which Nemudzivhadi cites, is the fuller source; the 1872 in its title differs from the 1874 given for the station’s founding, and we have not seen the dissertation.
Mphephu’s boyhood. Mulaudzi’s chapter 6 says Venda tradition required the heir and his mother to be sent away from the royal homestead as a disguise, and that P. R. Mphephu spent most of his youth at Tshakhuma and later with his makhadzi in Vhulaudzi. Quoting Nevondo, he adds that Mphephu went to school as far as standard six, at Siloam Primary and later Tshakhuma Primary, both mission schools; Mulaudzi notes that the extent of Mphephu’s education has been questioned (see Mphephu).
1988. In August 1988 the Sowetan reporter Mathata Tsedu was detained with pupils from Tshakhuma who, Mulaudzi writes, were part of a Tshakhuma youth protest against ritual killings in Venda; the protests spread to Thohoyandou, the University of Venda representative council joined, and the students demanded the dismissal of the Minister of Justice and the prosecution of those involved in ritual killings. President Ravele dismissed that minister (ch. 7, pp. 174 to 175; see Ravele). The thesis presents these as demands and events in the press, not findings of guilt, and we repeat no allegation against any person.
Mzila and Albasini at Tshakhuma
Nemudzivhadi places the refugee camp of Mzila, son of Manukosi, at Tshitavhadulu, near Tshakhuma, and says Albasini was charged with watching it; see Mzila and João Albasini.
Overview articles
See Christian missions in Venda and the Spelonken, 1863 to 1895 for the Berlin mission here in context.
The Berlin station and its missionaries are set in context in The Berlin Mission in Venda, 1872 to 1908.
Cautions
Tshakhuma is written about mostly in Venda books and unpublished papers that we have not seen; this page rests on two theses read at second hand. The 1950s book is cited with different publication years (1953 and 1958) in Nemudzivhadi’s notes, so we say only “1950s”. We do not give the boundaries of the Madzivhandila’s present area and do not name living office-holders. Nemudzivhadi is a Venda historian whose subject is Makhado’s reign; he built on oral interviews done between the mid-1960s and the mid-1980s and on colonial archive papers, and he often says where his informants and the written sources disagree, as do we.
Sources and further reading
- Mphaya Henry Nemudzivhadi, “The attempts by Makhado to revive the Venda kingdom, 1864-1895”, PhD thesis, Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education (1998); open access at the North-West University repository (a scanned copy; we read it by OCR, so page numbers below are the thesis’s printed numbers)
- Lufuno J. P. Mulaudzi, “Historicising the politics of vhuhosivhuhulu: the Venda polity and state formation in South Africa, c.1800s-2020”, DPhil thesis, University of Pretoria (2020), chapter 7, pp. 174 to 175 (the 1988 Tshakhuma protests)
- Lufuno J. P. Mulaudzi, “Historicising the politics of vhuhosivhuhulu: the Venda polity and state formation in South Africa, c.1800s-2020”, DPhil thesis, University of Pretoria (2020), chapter 6, opening section on P. R. Mphephu’s childhood
- Lufuno J. P. Mulaudzi, “Historicising the politics of vhuhosivhuhulu: the Venda polity and state formation in South Africa, c.1800s-2020”, DPhil thesis, University of Pretoria (2020), chapter 1 (historiography), p. 4
- E. Mudau, “History of the Vhadau of Tshakhuma” (manuscript in Venda, dated 22 August 1939, 63 pages, with a 21-page typescript), University of Pretoria repository (listed only; see the caution on our Vhadau page)
- Wikipedia: Venda people (tagged as needing more citations; its clan list has no inline citations)
See also Madzivhandila, Tshakhuma, Makhado, Sinthumule and Vhadau.
Do you belong to the Madzivhandila or live at Tshakhuma? Tell us what elders say about the history, and we will add it, credited to you. Share what you know or WhatsApp 065 138 8213.