AY Honors/African Lore/Answer Key
The Xhosa people are a group of peoples of Bantu origins living in south-east South Africa.
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[[Image:File:Mandelaza.jpg Nelson Mandela is a famous Xhosa-speaker.|thumb|300px|{{{image caption}}}]]
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History of the Xhosa
The Xhosa are part of the southern Nguni migration which slowly moved south from the region around the Great Lakes from around 1400. The name Xhosa refers to a specific tribal leader, called uXhosa, from whom the Xhosa claim descent. They refer to themselves as the amaXhosa and their language as isiXhosa, a Bantu language. Xhosa society was historically viewed as an 'open' society, because of its readiness to learn from, trade and interact with other societies. This included the incorporation or absorption of entire Khoi and Griqua cultural groups into Xhosa communities, often through marriage, and the wholesale adoption of Khoisan loanwords into Xhosa vocabulary.
The Xhosa people split in the eighteenth century as the result of a succession dispute between chiefs. The two branches of the group are known as the Gcaleka and the Rharhabe or Ngqika. The name Xhosa is also often used to refer to anyone from a number of different Xhosa-speaking ethnic groups that includes the Pondo and Thembu, neighbours of the Xhosa people, and the Mfengu people, who are descendants of scattered clans who were displaced during the mfecane of the early nineteenth century.
Although nowadays around 8 million Xhosa people are distributed across the country, the population is concentrated in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Under the pre-1994 South African system of bantustans, they were allocated to Transkei or Ciskei, now both a part of Eastern Cape.
The Xhosa and white settlers first encountered one another around Somerset West in the early 1700s. In the late 1700s Afrikaner trekboers migrating outwards from Cape Town came into conflict with Xhosa pastoralists around the Great Fish River region of the Eastern Cape. Following more than 20 years of intermittent conflict, in 1811 to 1812 the Xhosas were forced east by British colonial forces in what was known as the Third Frontier War.
In the years following, many Xhosa-speaking clans were pushed west by expansion of the Zulus, as the northern Nguni put pressure on the southern Nguni as part of the historical process known as the mfecane, or "scattering". Xhosa unity and ability to resist colonial expansion was weakened by the famines and political divisions that followed the cattle-killing delusion of 1856 (see Nongqawuse).
The "X" in the word "Xhosa" is a click consonant: it is pronounced with a sideways click of the teeth - the same noise one makes when urging on a horse.
Famous Xhosa People
Nelson Mandela is a Xhosa-speaking member of the Thembu people, and a significant portion of the African National Congress leadership is Xhosa or Xhosa-speaking.
References
- Note that the figure mentioned on this page is based upon the number of people speaking Xhosa as their home language, which may be greater or less than the total number of people claiming Xhosa descent.
- Reader, J., 1997. Africa: A Biography of the Continent, Vintage Books, New York, NY, United States of America.
External Links
- Xhosa Folklore - a collection of Xhosa folklore collected in 1886.
