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Wozekhaya

Xivongo · Xitsonga

Cawuke

Also spelled Tshauke, Chauke, Chauca, Xioki-xa-humba / Shioki-sha-humba, Hlengwe.

  • PeopleVatsonga
  • Grouping Hlengwe group, Hlengwe proper (Junod); VaHlengwe cluster with Sono, Hlungwani and Mavasa (Wikipedia, uncited)
  • Surnames recorded Chauke / Cawuke, Xitlhangu, Mbenzane, Mavube, Magwinyane
  • Places recorded East, Baloyi, Maluleke, Save, Mozambique, Hlengwe, Inhambane, Gaza, Limpopo, Zimbabwe, Mathebula, Malamulele

The Swiphato swa swivongo

Shikobela sha Matsheme, Tshauke wa Matsheme

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

About This Record

What Was Written Down

Junod names Tshauke as the first king of the Hlengwe and their main clans as Tshauke, Mbenzane, Mavube and Magwinyane. He records the Hlengwe legend that Tshauke married a daughter of the Sono, who knew fire while the Hlengwe ate raw porridge; Tshauke's son stole a glowing cinder in a shell, the Hlengwe grew strong on cooked food and won the ensuing war, and the son was named Shioki-sha-humba, bringer of fire in a shell. Mathebula and Mokgoatsana (2020) give the ruling line from Jaques 1938 and Portuguese sources: Xinyori, likely the revered Cawuke whose name they derive from Xioki-xa-humba, at the end of the seventeenth century; his son Bangwana early in the eighteenth; Bangwana's sons Madzivi and Mantsena, the latter reigning under the Cawuke name; a Chauca recorded as an important chief in 1729 and 1734; the Hlengwe among the Sono at Xikundwini by about 1751; Mantsena's death about 17. Recorded from the sources named on this entry; the wording here is Sibaya's own.

Families Tell This Differently

Families who carry this name tell parts of it differently. Each way it has been told is below.

Where This Comes From

Written down by
  • Henri-Alexandre Junod, The Life of a South African Tribe, Vol. I: The Social Life, Imprimerie Attinger Freres, Neuchatel — https://archive.org/details/lifeofsouthafric01junouoft
  • Mandla D. Mathebula and Sekgothe Mokgoatsana, The 'polyonymous identity' of the Hlengwe people of Zimbabwe and their struggle for a 'collective proper name', 2020, HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies 76(4), a6192 — https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/6192/16812
  • VIV Lifestyle Magazine (Shitshembiso Mabasa Pty Ltd), Xana a wu swi tiva? [Swivongo Edition] (and reader comments, 2019-2020), 2017, vivmag.co.za — https://www.vivmag.co.za/xana-a-wu-swi-tiva-swivongo-edition/
  • Wikipedia contributors, Tsonga people, read 2026-09-05, Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsonga_people

Recorded Alongside

  • Bila Also recorded among the Vatsonga.
  • Hlabi Also recorded among the Vatsonga.
  • Hlanganu Also recorded among the Vatsonga.
  • Hlungwani Also recorded among the Vatsonga.
  • Honwana Also recorded among the Vatsonga.
  • Khosa Also recorded among the Vatsonga.

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