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Sibaya

Mutupo · Tshivenda

Vhanyai

Also spelled Munyai, BaNyai, Nyai, Vha Maswie.

  • PeopleVhavenda
  • Mutupo Munyai — the mutupo name itself; no animal gloss recorded
  • Grouping Karanga-Rozvi arrivals before the Singo
  • Surnames recorded Munyai, Makahane, Nelombe, Tshilowa, Maingange
  • Places recorded Eastern Venda, Niani, Ha-Mutele, Thulamela, Luvhalani, Tshamukalanga, Tshakhuma

Your Family's Praise Belongs Here

This clan has a praise. It is not on this page yet, and that is our doing, not anything about your family or the praise itself. If the people at home still say it, you can put the true one here.

Why It Is Not Here Yet

Everything else on this page is unaffected. The clan name, the Tshivenda terms, the totem, the grouping, the surnames and the places recorded are facts, and facts carry no copyright no matter which book they were read in. What is absent is one author's particular wording, which is the part copyright does protect.

S.M. Dzivhani & E. Mudau, Mahosi a Venḓa na Vhadau vha Tshakhuma (Government Printer, Pretoria, 1958)

Rights position unresolved. The same unsettled question as Van Warmelo 1935, and for the same reason: a Government Printer publication, so whether s 5 State copyright (50 years from publication, expired end 2008) or s 3 life-plus-50 governs decides it, and no rights statement exists either way.

The rendering that was read: Vhadau vha Tshakhuma (Tshivenda-language typescript on the Vhadau of Tshakhuma and the early peoples of Venda; author… — https://repository.up.ac.za/server/api/core/bitstreams/e2593648-436f-4316-87cf-b72e71970958/content (OCR reading)

A praise belongs to the families who recite it, not to whoever wrote it down. A Tshivenda-speaking family that still holds this one holds the better version of it, and can put that version on this page.

Written down by families and by the people who recorded them.

About This Record

What Was Written Down

Stayt records the BaNyai as one of the Karanga-allied groups with whom the early Venda were in close contact. Luonde has the Vhanyai and Vhalembethu occupying all of eastern Venda and names Makahane, Nelombe and Tshilowa as prominent chiefs; Wikipedia's Venda Kingdom article places the Nyai in the north-east (Niani). The typescript describes the Vha Maswie, the earlier people of Luvhalani mountain, as Munyai by mutupo under a khosi Maingange, still swearing by his name, and says the mountain was theirs and is called Tshamukalanga, mountain of the Kalanga. Recorded from the sources named on this entry; the wording here is Sibaya's own.

Where This Comes From

Written down by
  • Luonde.co.za - Brief History; Ngomalungundu (community heritage site), accessed 2026-09-05, luonde.co.za — https://luonde.co.za/brief-history/ and https://luonde.co.za/brief-history/ngomalungundu
  • Munyadziwa Magoma and co-authors, Retrieving Intangibility, Stemming Biodiversity Loss: The Case of Sacred Places in Venda, Northern South Africa, 2021 — https://www.mdpi.com/2571-9408/4/4/249
  • Vhadau vha Tshakhuma (Tshivenda-language typescript on the Vhadau of Tshakhuma and the early peoples of Venda; author… — https://repository.up.ac.za/server/api/core/bitstreams/e2593648-436f-4316-87cf-b72e71970958/content
  • Vhadau vha Tshakhuma (Tshivenda-language typescript on the Vhadau of Tshakhuma and the early peoples of Venda; author… — https://repository.up.ac.za/server/api/core/bitstreams/e2593648-436f-4316-87cf-b72e71970958/content (OCR reading)
  • Nthambeleni Charles Ṋetshisaulu (University of Venda), The Role Played by Nicknames and Totems in the Development of Tshivenḓa Surnames, 2025 — https://noyam.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/EHASS20256715.pdf
  • Hugh A. Stayt, The Bavenda, 1931 — https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/59437
  • Wikipedia contributors, Venda people (Wikipedia article), accessed 2026-09-05, Wikimedia Foundation — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venda_people

Recorded Alongside

  • Dzivhani Also recorded among the Vhavenda.
  • Kwinḓa Also recorded among the Vhavenda.
  • Lambani Also recorded among the Vhavenda.
  • Luvhimbi Also recorded among the Vhavenda.
  • Makuya Also recorded among the Vhavenda.
  • Manenzhe Also recorded among the Vhavenda.

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