Isithakazelo · isiZulu
Ndwandwe
- PeopleamaZulu
- RegionNorthern KwaZulu-Natal
Recorded Praise Names
These are praise names, not a full recitation.
Ndwandwe! Zwide kaLanga! Mkhatshwa! Nkabanhle! Somaphunga! Masuku! Zwangendaba! Simelane! Wena wase Gudunkomo! The Name
An ancient Nguni royal clan name; etymology debated, linked in oral tradition to the ruling Nxumalo lineage.
The History Behind This Name
As written down by the people named at the end.
The Ndwandwe were among the most powerful Nguni polities of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, based near the Phongolo River in what is now northern KwaZulu-Natal and southern Eswatini/Mozambique border country, and closely related by descent to the Nxumalo, Ngwane, and Langa lineages.
Under King Zwide kaLanga, the Ndwandwe became the chief regional rival first to Dingiswayo's Mthethwa Paramountcy and then to Shaka's rising Zulu kingdom. Zwide's forces killed Dingiswayo around 1817, but Shaka united the remaining Mthethwa and allied clans and withstood Zwide's invasion at the Battle of Gqokli Hill in 1818. Shaka then decisively defeated the Ndwandwe at the Mhlatuze River in 1820, using guerrilla tactics against the larger Ndwandwe army.
The Ndwandwe defeat triggered a wider dispersal of peoples now known as the Mfecane/Difaqane. Zwide fled north with a remnant of his people; his sons and generals, including figures such as Soshangane, Zwangendaba, and Sotondose and Mawewe of the Nxumalo lineage, led separate groups that founded new states as far afield as Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Tanzania, spreading Nguni political and military institutions widely across South-Central Africa.
Recorded from: Zulu oral-history archives (see sources)
Written down by families and by the people who recorded them.
About This Record
Where This Comes From
- Written down by
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- IZITHAKAZELO ZAMAZULU directory, community-compiled (see sources)
- Community compilation: iafrika.org
- Community compilation: zuluring.blogspot.com
- Community compilation: izithakazelo.blog
- Community compilation: izithakazeloizibongo.blogspot.com
- Community compilation: izithakazelo.wordpress.com
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