Nguni is the name of a group of closely related southern African peoples and their languages. It covers the Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi, Ndebele (both the Southern Ndebele of South Africa and the Northern Ndebele/Matabele of Zimbabwe), and a number of smaller nations such as the Hlubi, Bhaca, Mpondo, Mpondomise and Thembu.
What “Nguni” means
The word is used in three overlapping ways:
- A language cluster. The Nguni languages – isiZulu, isiXhosa, siSwati and isiNdebele – are mutually intelligible to a large degree and form one branch of the south-eastern Bantu languages, distinct from the Sotho-Tswana branch.
- A cultural group. Nguni societies traditionally share a cattle-centred economy, patrilineal clans identified by an isibongo (clan name) and izithakazelo / iziduko (clan praises), age-regiment (amabutho) systems, and similar customs around marriage (lobola), initiation and ancestor veneration.
- An ancestral label. In many clan histories “Nguni” also names a remembered founding ancestor or homeland far to the north, from which the clans are said to have migrated.
Northern and Southern Nguni
Scholars usually divide the Nguni into two blocs:
- Northern Nguni – the peoples of present-day KwaZulu-Natal and Eswatini, from whom the Zulu and Swazi kingdoms formed in the early nineteenth century.
- Southern (Cape) Nguni – the Xhosa-speaking peoples of the Eastern Cape: the Xhosa proper, together with the Thembu, Mpondo, Mpondomise, Xesibe, Bomvana and others, plus later arrivals such as the Bhaca, Hlubi and Mfengu who moved south during the upheavals of the early 1800s.
How the Nguni came to be where they are
Nguni-speaking farming communities have lived in south-eastern Africa for well over a thousand years; archaeology shows mixed farming, cattle-keeping and ironworking along the coast and inland from at least the early centuries CE. Over time these communities spread south along the good grazing and rainfall belt between the Drakensberg and the sea, reaching the Eastern Cape several centuries ago.
The early nineteenth century brought rapid change – the rise of the Zulu kingdom under Shaka, the parallel formation of the Swazi state, and the wars and migrations known as the Mfecane / Difaqane. Groups such as the Hlubi, Ngwane, Bhaca and Khumalo were scattered far from their earlier homes; some founded new nations (Mzilikazi’s Ndebele in Zimbabwe, Soshangane’s Gaza state in Mozambique), while others were absorbed into the Zulu, Swazi or Basotho kingdoms.
The Nguni peoples covered on this site
- Zulu – the largest Nguni nation, in KwaZulu-Natal.
- Xhosa – the Cape Nguni, in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape.
- Swazi – of Eswatini and Mpumalanga.
- Southern Ndebele – of Mpumalanga and Gauteng, known for their painted houses and beadwork.
- Hlubi – of the Drakensberg foothills and northern Eastern Cape.
- Bhaca – of the Mount Frere (KwaBhaca) area.
The Khumalo, Buthelezi and other clan pages on this site are Nguni clans; each names the nation it belongs to.
Sources and further reading
- John Wright & Carolyn Hamilton, chapters on the Nguni and the Zulu kingdom in The Cambridge History of South Africa, vol. 1 (2010).
- J. D. Omer-Cooper, The Zulu Aftermath (1966) – the Mfecane and its diaspora.
- Jeff Peires, The House of Phalo (1981) – the Cape Nguni.
Help us improve this page. If your clan’s oral history tells a different story of where the Nguni came from, or you belong to a Nguni people not yet covered here, send us a WhatsApp on 065 138 8213 or use our contact page.