The Southern Ndebele tribe of South Africa, Facts & History

The Nguni-speaking Southern Ndebele, often called the Transvaal Ndebele, are mostly found in the South African provinces of Mpumalanga and Limpopo. They make up a sizable portion of the larger Ndebele population, which numbers about 700,000 in South Africa. The bright wall paintings, beading, and traditional attire of the Southern Ndebele are examples of their unique culture.

There are roughly 1.1 million people living there. The southern Ndebele people primarily inhabit the northeastern provinces of South Africa, such as Mpumalanga, Limpopo, and Gauteng. It is thought that the Ndebele tribes are near relatives of the Zulu since they share language traits with them. Nonetheless, the Ndebele are unique in a variety of ways, including their beliefs and the various ways they express their culture. According to traditional beliefs, any illness or disease is caused by an external entity casting a spell or curse on a person. It is the duty of the sangoma, or traditional healer, to combat these outside influences by employing traditional remedies like herbal remedies or bone-throwing. Although the Ndebele believe that the izangoma (men and women) can communicate with the ancestral spirits, the tribe as a whole judges their success or failure based on their ability to recover from a disease.

Every child—boys and girls alike—must complete initiation school before entering adulthood, which is held every four years. Ndebele boys are separated into divisions (indanga) when they reach the age of 18. Depending on the tribe, each Indanga is given a name that is chosen from a cycle of thirteen or fifteen names. Circumcision is one of the initiation rites, but the majority of them are kept secret. The Ndebele girls are required to wear izigolwan, or colourful beaded hoops, around their waist, neck, and limbs. They receive instruction on how to be both homemakers and matriarchs while being isolated from the rest of the community. The Ndebele girls exchange their izigolwan for amaphephetu (hard leather aprons) as a celebration of their “coming out.” During the initiation period, friends and family gather to emphasise the significance of this ritual. They take part in a variety of events and rituals that commemorate this significant turning point from childhood to maturity.

Although the Ndebele initiation and shamanic traditions are fascinating, they stand out due to their distinctive creative flair. The women are in charge of decorating the houses, and typically, the front and sides are exquisitely painted with vivid hues and distinctive, colourful patterns. The Ndebele traditionally employed earth tones and subdued dyes, but contemporary Ndebele designers employ more vivid and brilliant hues. With South Africa, these trends are now the same.

Mzilikazi kaMashobane (Mzilikazi Khumalo) started the powerful Ndebele kingdom in Zimbabwe