Nguni
Under the term Nguni , to the north also Ngoni , various ethnic groups of the Bantu are summarized.
'Nguni' is a collective term that suggests an ethnic unit. Only a linguistic relationship can be proven (see also Nguni languages ). The Bantu grouped under this collective term do not understand themselves as Nguni. For them, the respective society is in the foreground. Another, also controversial subdivision differentiates between the Northern Nguni, consisting of Zulu and Swazi , and the Southern Nguni, to which the Xhosa , Thembu , Mfengu , Mpondo and the Mpondomise are counted. There are also Nguni in Malawi , Mozambique , Zambia , Zimbabwe ( Matabele ) and Tanzania , who fled northwards from what is now South Africa in the 19th century because of the wars of the Zulu King Shaka .
habitat
Until the wars of the Shaka, the Nguni lived in the southeastern region of South Africa, between the inner highveld and the Indian Ocean . Its territory initially only included Natal , from 1800 also the east of today's Eastern Cape , parts of what was then Basutoland and areas as far as Swaziland .
To ensure food, the Nguni ran pasture farming and slash- and- burn agriculture. But they also knew how to hunt and collect wild fruits .
South African nguni
The uppermost unit of the Nguni were the lineages , each based on a male ancestor. The lineages were led by a chief, according to which lineage is a synonym for the controversial term trunk , as well as the often used term "chiefdom". Influential men tried to become self-employed by starting their own lineage. A chief's power often depended on how well they could hold their lineage together.
Northern Nguni
Until the 18th century, there was little culturally different between the Southern Nguni and the Northern Nguni. Both subgroups consisted of a large number of rather small chiefdoms. Only then did the main differences in socio-political structure emerge through the Northern Nguni's tendency towards centralism . The first powerful chiefdoms appeared among the Northern Nguni by the end of the 18th century, with the Zulu in particular. The Zulu gained great power through military conquest. Several lineages were incorporated into the Zulu Kingdom , as it is called to this day. As was common at the time, each family did not look after itself. Rather, only a few people were responsible for other people's food production. The result was a surplus of labor that allowed the Zulu to build an army.
Southern Nguni
The Southern Nguni living in the area of today's Eastern Cape Province formed further societies. The most famous people of the Southern Nguni are the Xhosa. As with the Zulu, the Xhosa also speak of kingship, with the respective king having great power. For example, he had the right to mobilize the entire kingdom for war. He was also the chief judge in all disputes. This powerful status of the king allowed a considerably greater strength and stability than with most chiefdoms. Despite this strength, the political structure could never be compared with the state apparatus of the Zulu. A specific characteristic of the Xhosa was the intensive regional trade . In particular, they exchanged cattle and tobacco for food from Thembuland , hides from Pondoland, and iron and copper from the Batswana . The arrival of the whites opened up further trading opportunities for the Xhosa.
Central African nguni
The Nguni in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania trace their roots back to the Zulu in Natal in what is now the Republic of South Africa. The degree of relationship between these Nguni tribes is by no means clear. Some ethnologists even assume that they have nothing to do with each other genetically.
Around 1817 the Mthethwa alliance , to which the Zulu belonged, came into conflict with that of the Ndwandwe and defeated it in 1819 in the battle of the Umhlatuze river near Nkandla in Natal. In the next 20 years, many groups of the Ndwande alliance fled north. One of the commanders, Zwangendaba kaHlatshawyo (1780-1848), head of the Jere or Gumbi tribe, led a small group through Mozambique and Zimbabwe to the region of the Viphya Plateau in present-day Malawi around present-day Mzimba . Some settled in Zambia around today's Lundazi and some in Tanzania around Matema . They applied fighting techniques and strategies of the Zulu, which they defeated and integrated the local tribes.
After the death of Zwangendaba in 1848, the Nguni split into five groups, each looking for their own country:
- Jere Ngoni of Mchinji under chief Mpezeni (whose residence is near today's Chipata in Zambia )
- Jere Ngoni of Mzimba under chief M'Mbelwa
- Maseko Ngoni of Dedza under the chiefs Kachindamoto and Kachere
- Maseko Ngoni from Ntcheu under chief Gomani
- Maseko Ngoni from Thyolo under Chief Vumbwe
Today around one million nguni are counted in these areas.
This hike must be distinguished from that of the Matabele King Mzilikazi to Matabeleland in Zimbabwe. He fled Natal with his tribes in 1823, first moving to Mozambique, then west and north to Barotseland and from there, beaten by the Kololo and Lozi , back south to the area around Bulawayo , where these Nguni still settle as Matabele today.
Ngoni from Tanzania
Maseko Ngoni under the leader Mputa crossed the Rovuma around 1844 , defeated the Wayao and settled in the Ruvuma region in what is now southwestern Tanzania .
Those Ngoni who had circled the northern end of Lake Malawi arrived under the leaders Zulu Gama and Mbonani Tawete in the Ruvuma region in 1856, where they met the Maseko Ngoni. Since these were outnumbered, it was peacefully agreed that Mputa should take over the supremacy. Mputa thus became the first king ( nkosi ) of the Tanzanian Ngoni.
As a result, the Ngoni mixed with the old local population ( Nindi , Ndendeule , Pangwa , Matengo , Nyanja , Yao ). Over time, the Nguni of the conquerors, the old Kingoni, was overlaid by the languages of the old local population, and the new Kingoni came into being.
The Tanzanian census of 1967 counted 29,686 Ngoni in the Ruvuma region, of which 19,535 were in the Songea district .
See also
literature
- JD Omer-Cooper: The Zulu Aftermath. A Nieneteenth-Century Revolution in Bantu Africa. London 1966, (2) 1975.
- Hans Stirnimann: Nguni and Ngoni. A study of cultural history. Vienna 1963.
- WE Rau: Mpezeni's Ngoni in Eastern Zambia, 1870–1920. Los Angeles 1974.
- GJ Liesegang: Contributions to the history of the Gaza Nguni Empire in southern Mozambique. Cologne 1967.
- Rupert Moser: Aspects of the cultural history of the Ngoni in the Mkoa wa Ruvuma. Vienna and Bern 1983.
