Nguni homestead

Last updated
Beer-brewing at a Zulu umuzi, c. 1849. Angas - Zoeloe vrouens brou bier.png
Beer-brewing at a Zulu umuzi, c. 1849.

A homestead (Xhosa: umzi) in southern Africa is a cluster of several houses, typically occupied by a single extended family and often with an attached kraal. Such settlements are characteristic of Nguni-speaking peoples. A house within a homestead is known as an indlu, plural tindlu (Swati) or izindlu (Xhosa and Zulu).

See also

Big single-family home 2.jpg  Housingportal


Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xhosa language</span> Nguni language of southern South Africa

Xhosa also isiXhosa as an endonym, is a Nguni language and one of the official languages of South Africa and Zimbabwe. Xhosa is spoken as a first language by approximately 8.2 million people and by another 11 million as a second language in South Africa, mostly in Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Gauteng and Northern Cape. It has perhaps the heaviest functional load of click consonants in a Bantu language, with one count finding that 10% of basic vocabulary items contained a click.

Currawinya is a national park near Hungerford in South West Queensland, Australia, 828 km west of Brisbane. Part of the mulga lands bioregion this is an area of dry sandy plain with small trees and shrubs. The Paroo River passes through the park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kraal</span> South African livestock enclosure.

Kraal is an Afrikaans and Dutch word, also used in South African English, for an enclosure for cattle or other livestock, located within a Southern African settlement or village surrounded by a fence of thorn-bush branches, a palisade, mud wall, or other fencing, roughly circular in form. It is similar to a boma in eastern or central Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nongqawuse</span>

Nongqawuse was the Xhosa prophet whose prophecies led to a millenarian movement that culminated in the Xhosa cattle-killing movement and famine of 1856–1857, in what is now Eastern Cape, South Africa.

Phuthi (Síphùthì) is a Nguni Bantu language spoken in southern Lesotho and areas in South Africa adjacent to the same border. The closest substantial living relative of Phuthi is Swati, spoken in Eswatini and the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. Although there is no contemporary sociocultural or political contact, Phuthi is linguistically part of a historic dialect continuum with Swati. Phuthi is heavily influenced by the surrounding Sesotho and Xhosa languages, but retains a distinct core of lexicon and grammar not found in either Xhosa or Sesotho, and found only partly in Swati to the north.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waterkloof</span> Place in Gauteng, South Africa

Waterkloof is a upmarket suburb of the city of Pretoria in the Gauteng province of South Africa, located to the east of the city centre. It is named after the original farm that stood there when Pretoria was founded in the 19th Century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bantu peoples of South Africa</span> Ethnic descriptor in South Africa

South African Bantu-speaking peoples are the majority of black South Africans. Occasionally grouped as Bantu, the term itself is derived from the word for "people" common to many of the Bantu languages. The Oxford Dictionary of South African English describes its contemporary usage in a racial context as "obsolescent and offensive" because of its strong association with white minority rule with their apartheid system. However, Bantu is used without pejorative connotations in other parts of Africa and is still used in South Africa as the group term for the language family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Africa Medal (1853)</span> Award

The South Africa Medal (1853) is a campaign medal instituted in 1854, for award to officers and men of the Royal Navy, British Army and locally recruited Cape Mounted Riflemen, who served in the Cape of Good Hope during the Xhosa Wars between 1834 and 1853.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xhosa Wars</span> (1779-1879) Wars between the Xhosa Kingdom and the British Empire as well as Dutch settlers

The Xhosa Wars were a series of nine wars between the Xhosa Kingdom and the British Empire as well as Trekboers in what is now the Eastern Cape in South Africa. These events were the longest-running military action in the history of European colonialism in Africa.

Rarabe ka Phalo was a Xhosa Prince and the founder of the Right Hand House of the Xhosa nation. Rarabe was the eldest son and right hand son of King Phalo ka Tshiwo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Compound (enclosure)</span>

Compound when applied to a human habitat refers to a cluster of buildings in an enclosure, having a shared or associated purpose, such as the houses of an extended family. The enclosure may be a wall, a fence, a hedge or some other structure, or it may be formed by the buildings themselves, when they are built around an open area or joined together.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xhosa people</span> Ethnic group in South Africa

The Xhosa people, or Xhosa-speaking people are a Nguni-affiliated ethnic group whose traditional homeland is primarily the Cape Provinces of South Africa. They are the second largest race group in Southern Africa and are native speakers of the IsiXhosa language.

The Rharhabe House is the second senior house(Right Hand House) of the Xhosa Kingdom.

The Gcaleka House is the senior house of the Xhosa Kingdom in what is now the Eastern Cape. Its royal palace is in the former Transkei and its counterpart in the former Ciskei is the Rharhabe, which is the second senior house.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maqoma</span>

Jongumsobomvu Maqoma (1798–1873) was a Xhosa chief and a commander of the Xhosa forces during the Cape Frontier Wars. Born in the Right Hand House of the Xhosa Kingdom, he was the older brother of Chief Mgolombane Sandile and nephew to King Hintsa. In 1818, he commanded the forces of his father, Ngqika, who seemingly was trying to overthrow the government and become the king of the Xhosa nation. In 1822, he moved to the so-called neutral zone to take land but was expelled by the British troops.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thimlich Ohinga</span> National Monument of Kenya

Thimlich Ohinga is a complex of stone-built ruins in Migori county, Nyanza Kenya, in East Africa. It is the largest one of 138 sites containing 521 stone structures that were built around the Lake Victoria region in Kenya. These sites are highly clustered. The main enclosure of Thimlich Ohinga has walls that vary from 1 to 3 meters in thickness, and 1 to 4.2 meters in height. The structures were built from undressed blocks, rocks, and stones set in place without mortar. The densely packed stones interlock. The site is believed to be more than 550 years old.

The AmaNdlambe or the Ndlambe is a Xhosa chiefdom located in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Founded by Chief Ndlambe, son of Chief Rharhabe and grandson of King Phalo, Ndlambe's advisors and strong army were known as the 'AmaNdlambe'. Chief Ndlambe was also the uncle of King Hintsa.

The Imidushane clan was founded by one of the greatest Xhosa warriors Prince Mdushane who was the eldest son of Chief Ndlambe, the son of Prince Rharhabe.

St John Page Mbalana Yako was a Qokolweni-born Xhosa poet and professor of Xhosa literature in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. A translation of one of his poems was published as "The Contraction and Enclosure of the Land" in The Lava of the Land, an anthology of South-African poetry edited by Denis Hirson. "The Contraction and Enclosure" uses imagery from oral poetry to illustrate the consequences of race-based land legislation of South Africa in the 1950s that destroyed the traditional ways of life of many tribes.