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Wozekhaya

Xivongo · Xitsonga

Rikhotso

Also spelled Rikotjo, Rikotcho, Vanyamatsi, Rivisi / Ubisi / Sibisi.

  • PeopleVatsonga
  • Totem milk (masi / rivisi / ubisi) — Malungana: the clan takes cow's milk as its totem and is addressed as Rivisi or
  • Grouping Dzonga (Djonga) group (Junod); VaMbayi cluster with Khosa, Rivisi and Mbhanyele (Wikipedia, uncited)
  • Surnames recorded Rikhotso, Rivisi, Nkon'wana, Mavatlo / Mavatlu, Mbhatleko, Mitseve, Marholeni
  • Places recorded Southern Mozambique, Ritavi, Mafarana, Keulen, Giyani, Nwamankena, Chiawela, Xikhumba, Nsavulana, Vuhehli, Mahatlana, Hlanganani

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 Xitsonga 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.J. Malungana, Vuphato: Praise Poetry in Xitsonga (D.Litt. et Phil. thesis, Rand Afrikaans University, 1994)

In copyright. A doctoral study whose swiphato were recorded from named performers in the author's own fieldwork. In copyright. The performers are the authority on the recitations; the thesis is the author's rendering of them.

The rendering that was read: Shidjabadjaba John Malungana, Vuphato: Praise Poetry in Xitsonga (D.Litt. et Phil. thesis), 1994 — https://ujcontent.uj.ac.za/esploro/outputs/doctoral/Vuphato---praise-poetry-in/9913242107691 (; CMS_CLANOPEDIA (milk name and sub-clans only)

A praise belongs to the families who recite it, not to whoever wrote it down. A Xitsonga-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

Junod lists the Rikotjo among the Dzonga clans and records a Rikotcho man near Pietersburg whose praise name was Nwangwenya, son of the crocodile, and who was said to dance the crocodile, an expression borrowed from the Pedi. Wikipedia says the Rikhotso left Mozambique for the Transvaal in 1835 with the Nkuna, Valoyi and Mavundza rather than follow Soshangane. Malungana recorded the clan praise performed by Freddy Rikhotso at his son's graduation party at Mafarana in December 1992 before eight Rikhotso sub-clans, with the salute formula then given by Busaphi Rikhotso; his introduction named the sub-clans Ngwenya (his own, descendants of Muturukanyi), Mavatlo, Nkon'wana, Mbhatleko and Mitseve, and said that when the sub-clans gather they speak Xinyamatsi, recalling Mozambique. The Clanopedia submission independently gives the milk name and the sub-clans Nkon'wana, Mavatlu and Marholeni. M. 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
  • User submission (Eugene Rikhotso) on the Castle Milk Stout Clanopedia, Clanopedia: Rikhotso, read 2026-09-05, Anheuser-Busch InBev / SAB — https://www.castlemilkstout.co.za/clan-praise/rikhotso
  • User submission (Eugene Rikhotso) on the Castle Milk Stout Clanopedia, Clanopedia: Rikhotso, read 2026-09-05, Anheuser-Busch InBev / SAB — https://www.castlemilkstout.co.za/clan-praise/rikhotso (milk name and sub-clans only)
  • Henri-Alexandre Junod, The Life of a South African Tribe, Vol. I: The Social Life, Imprimerie Attinger Freres, Neuchatel — https://archive.org/details/lifeofsouthafric01junouoft
  • Shidjabadjaba John Malungana, Vuphato: Praise Poetry in Xitsonga (D.Litt. et Phil. thesis), 1994 — https://ujcontent.uj.ac.za/esploro/outputs/doctoral/Vuphato---praise-poetry-in/9913242107691
  • Wikipedia contributors, Tsonga people, read 2026-09-05, Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsonga_people
  • Shidjabadjaba John Malungana, Vuphato: Praise Poetry in Xitsonga (D.Litt. et Phil. thesis), 1994 — https://ujcontent.uj.ac.za/esploro/outputs/doctoral/Vuphato---praise-poetry-in/9913242107691 (; CMS_CLANOPEDIA (milk name and sub-clans only)

Recorded Alongside

  • Bila Also recorded among the Vatsonga.
  • Cawuke 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.

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If Your Family Holds More Of This

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