Embo-Nguni

Embo-Nguni

Regions with significant populations
Mozambique, Eswatini, South Africa
Languages
Nguni languages
Religion
Traditional African religion, Christianity

Embo-Nguni is a historiographical term used to describe a cluster within the broader Embo identity of historic Nguni-speaking community that migrated to the Maputo-Lubombo region of coastal Southern Africa during the Bantu expansion. ^{[1] [2]}

Historically, the Bantu-speaking people of the southern part of Africa came from the Katanga direction and continued to expand to the south along the east coast of Africa. ^{[3] [4]}

The Embo-Nguni split into various subgroups such as the Embo-Dlamini under Dlamini I, Embo-Hlubi that migrated to present-day KwaZulu Natal and other groups that moved further south into what is now the Eastern Cape, including communities that later became part of the AmaMpondo, in the Xhosa-speaking region. ^[5]

Further Embo-Nguni splits were formed in the movement across the Pongola River, some settling between the Pongola River and Mfolozi River and becoming known as the Ndwandwe, BakaNgwane ("people of Ngwane") and the Hlubi people. ^[5]

References

1. Ngcobo, Mtholeni N. (1 June 2008). "On account of a basket: A socio-historical and ethnographic perspective on the development of multilingualism in South Africa". Indilinga: African Journal of Indigenous Knowledge Systems. 7 (1). Sabinet. Retrieved 26 December 2025.
2. Sikhondze, Bonginkosi Bhutana. State Within A State: The History of the Evolution of the Mamba clan of Swaziland Transafrican Journal of History, vol. 15, 1986, pp. 144–63. JSTOR. Accessed 22 Dec. 2025.
3. Atmore, Anthony (1982). Africa Since 1800 (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 15–16.
4. Wiedner, D. L. (1962). A History of Africa South of the Sahara. Vol. 1. MacFadden Books. pp. 15–32.
5. Matsebula, J.S.M. (1988). History of Swaziland. 3rd edition. Longman. ISBN   0582031672. Page 10