Ngoni people
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Ngoni |
|---|
 |
| Total population |
|
758,000 (Johnstone, Ethnologue 1993) |
| Regions with significant populations |
| Malawi: 758,000, Tanzania, Zambia |
| Languages |
| Tumbuka, Chewa, Zulu |
| Religions |
| Christian, Animist |
| Related ethnic groups |
| Nguni, Zulu |
The Ngoni people are an ethnic group living in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia, in east-central Africa. The Ngoni trace their origins to the Zulu people of kwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. The degree of relationship between the Ngoni of Malawi and Zambia and the Ngoni of Tanzania and Mozambique is unclear, with Ethnologue [1] asserting that the groups are not related.
Contents |
[edit] History
In the early nineteenth century a period of political instability in southern Africa known as the mfecane saw the rise of the Zulu nation and the creation of a number of other groups. The creation and destruction of political allegiances led to a number of northward migrations of Nguni people from the kwaZulu-Natal region in South Africa.
In around 1817, the Mthethwa alliance (which included the Zulu clan) came into conflict with the Ndwandwe alliance. One of the military commanders of the Ndwandwe army was Zwangendaba kaHlatshwayo, (c1780-1848), head of the Jere or Gumbi clan, which itself formed part of the larger emaNcwangeni alliance in what is now north-east kwaZulu-Natal.
In 1819 the Ndwandwe alliance was defeated by the Zulu army under Shaka at a battle on the Umhlatuze River, near Nkandla. Many of the Ndwandwe fled, and over a period of about 20 years Zwangendaba led a small group of his followers north through Mozambique and Zimbabwe to the region around the Viphya Plateau, between what is now Zambia (Lundazi district), Malawi (Mzimba and Karonga district) and Tanzania (Matema district). In this region he established a state, using Zulu warfare techniques to conquer and integrate local peoples.
Following Zwangendaba's death in 1848, succession disputes split the Ngoni people. Zwangendaba's following and the Maseko Ngoni eventually created seven substantial Ngoni kingdoms in Tanzania, Zambia and Malawi.
In Malawi, there are the following Ngoni groups:
- Jere Ngoni of Mchinji under paramount chief Mpezeni (whose actual residence is close to Chipata in Zambia)
- Jere Ngoni of Mzimba under paramount chief M'Mbelwa
- Maseko Ngoni of Dedza under paramount chief Kachindamoto and Kachere
- Maseko Ngoni of Ntcheu under paramount chief Gomani
- Maseko Ngoni of Thyolo under paramount chief Vumbwe
[edit] Present day
While the Ngoni have largely retained a distinct identity in the post-colonial states in which they live, integration and acculturation has led to them adopting local languages; nowadays Zulu is used only for a few ritual praise poems.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] Literature
- Ngoni by Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe (The Heritage Library Of African Peoples)
- Mpezeni's Ngoni of Eastern Zambia, 1870-1920, Ph.D. dissertation by William Eugene Rau, 1974
