Tshikundamalema in the sources
Tshikundamalema is a Venda community, item (m) on the 1991 proclamation’s roll. In the sources we read it appears only as one of the communities that the Tshivhase house says it once ruled.
What the sources say
Lufuno Mulaudzi’s 2020 thesis records that at the Ralushai Commission the Tshivhase house named independent mahosi such as Rambuda, Nethengwe, Tshikundamalema and Mphaphuli as those it thought would in future be its mahosi if its kingship claim succeeded (ch. 9, p. 206), and that in 2015 a Tshivhase leader named Mutele, Manenzhe, Tshikundamalema, Rambuda and Nethengwe among the communities Tshivhase used to rule. Mulaudzi writes that the historical and oral sources he used do not agree and that all those vhothovhele were independent historically (ch. 10, about pp. 273 to 275). See Nethengwe, Manenzhe, Mutele and Rambuda.
Cautions
We found nothing on the community’s own history, origin or leaders. Mulaudzi is a historian writing in 2020 from commission reports, newspapers and interviews he carried out himself, and he states his own opinions in the text; the extracted text of the thesis has stray spaces and some unreadable characters, so page numbers are approximate. Venda kingship history is told differently by each house and by each historian, and where the sources differ we say so and take no side.
Sources and further reading
- 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 9, p. 206
- 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 10, about pp. 273 to 275
See also Masingo, Ramabulana and Tshivhase.
Do you know this house, community or institution? 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.