Sinanatelo · siSwati
Nhlabatsi
Also spelled Nhlabathi.
- PeopleemaSwati
- Grouping Bemdzabuko
- Surnames recorded Nhlabatsi, Nhlabathi
- Places recorded Lucolo, Eswatini, Mamba
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 siSwati 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.
Swaziland Oral History Project — edited transcripts and editorial endnotes, Wits Historical Papers A2760 (interviews 1968–1987; typescripts printed 2016 and 2021)
In copyright. The tinanatelo here were read out of SWOHP's edited typescripts and the editorial team's endnotes. The recitations belong to the narrators and their families; the edited transcription and the apparatus around it are a recent editorial work and are in copyright. The eMandulo platform's own label is a platform term applied by a non-rightsholder and determines nothing.
The rendering that was read: Swaziland Oral History Project, Bonner series (B8): interview with Nyandza Nhlabatsi and Tomoyi Dlamini, kaZameya, 21… — https://emandulo.apc.uct.ac.za/collection/WITS/FLOPPYS/DISK3/(B8)NHLA.pdf (narrator Nyandza Nhlabatsi, p.17 of the transcript; endnote xlviii gives the siSwati)
A praise belongs to the families who recite it, not to whoever wrote it down. A siSwati-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
The Nhlabatsi narrators said their line broke off from the Dlamini when Sobhuza I married Lozinyanga, daughter of Manimani (son of Mantini, of the emaLangeni), after which Manimani's descendants took the new sibongo; Manimani was later killed for insulting the king. Nzameya, Manimani's son, was a war hero of Sobhuza I at Mshadza and was placed beside Prince Bhukwane. The Nhlabatsi forged spears and battle-axes and sent copper to the king, and their fathers were healers. Maganeni Dlamini gives an older Nhlabatsi as a son of an early king Nkhosi. The editors note that a king marrying kin and hiving off a new clan is a common origin theme in the region. 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
-
- Swaziland Oral History Project, Bonner series (B8): interview with Nyandza Nhlabatsi and Tomoyi Dlamini, kaZameya, 21… — https://emandulo.apc.uct.ac.za/collection/WITS/FLOPPYS/DISK3/(B8)NHLA.pdf
- Swaziland Oral History Project, Bonner series (B8): interview with Nyandza Nhlabatsi and Tomoyi Dlamini, kaZameya, 21… — https://emandulo.apc.uct.ac.za/collection/WITS/FLOPPYS/DISK3/(B8)NHLA.pdf (narrator Nyandza Nhlabatsi)
- Wikipedia contributors, Swazi people (English Wikipedia), read 2026-09-05, Wikimedia Foundation — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swazi_people (uncited list)
- Swaziland Oral History Project, Bonner series (B8): interview with Nyandza Nhlabatsi and Tomoyi Dlamini, kaZameya, 21… — https://emandulo.apc.uct.ac.za/collection/WITS/FLOPPYS/DISK3/(B8)NHLA.pdf (narrator Nyandza Nhlabatsi, p.17 of the transcript; endnote xlviii gives the siSwati)
Are You Nhlabatsi?
Put your name on the launch list.
Tell Me When It Opens Send This To Your Family
We write to you about Sibaya, and nothing else.
If Your Family Holds More Of This
A family saying its own tinanatelo knows them better than any directory does. If yours has more than what is on this page, it belongs here.
This is also how this clan's praise gets onto the page. Your family's own words are yours to give.