Xhosa

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For the Pakistani ethnic group, see Khosa.

Xhosa

Nelson Mandela is a famous Xhosa-speaker.
Total population
7.9 million (2001 estimate)¹
Regions with significant populations
Eastern Cape: 5.4 million Western Cape: 1.1 million Gauteng: 0.7 million Free State: 0.25 million Kwazulu-Natal: 0.22 million (2001 estimates¹)
Languages
Xhosa (many also speak English or Afrikaans)
Religions
Animist, Christian
Related ethnic groups
Bantu, Nguni, Basotho, Zulu, Khoisan

The Xhosa (IPA [ˈkǁʰoːsa]) people are a group of peoples of Bantu origins living in south-east South Africa, and in the last two centuries throughout the southern and central southern parts of the country.

1 History
2 Local environment
3 Language
4 Religion
5 Oral tradition
6 Notables
7 Xhosa in popular culture
8 See also
9 References
10 External links

[edit] History

The Xhosa are part of the southern Nguni migration which slowly moved south from the region around the Great Lakes; based on linguistic and archeological evidence, the ancestors of the Xhosa are likely to have arrived in South Africa around 1500 years ago.^{[citation needed]}

The name Xhosa refers to a specific tribal leader, called uXhosa, from whom the Xhosa clan descend. 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 (an enormous upheaval of southern African peoples in the early nineteenth century, resulting in an internal diaspora).

Although presently at least 8 million Xhosa people are distributed across the country, the population is concentrated in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The pre-1994 South African system of bantustans attempted to confine Xhosa people to the nominally self-governing 'homelands' of Transkei or Ciskei, now both a part of the Eastern Cape Province.

The Xhosa and white settlers first encountered one another around Somerset East 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 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 further weakened by the famines and political divisions that followed the cattle-killing movement of 1856. Historians now view this movement as a millenialist response both directly to a lung disease spreading among Xhosa cattle at the time, and less directly to the stress to Xhosa society caused by the continuing loss of their territory and autonomy. At least one historian has also suggested that it can be seen as a rebellion against the upper classes of Xhosa society, which used cattle as a means of consolidating wealth and political power, and which had lost respect as they failed to hold back white expansion.^{[citation needed]}

Some historians argue that this early absorption into the wage economy is the ultimate origin of the long history of trade union membership and political leadership among Xhosa people. That history manifests itself today in high degrees of Xhosa representation in the leadership of the African National Congress, South Africa's ruling political party.

[edit] Local environment

The Xhosa settled on mountain slopes of the Amatola and the Winterberg Mountains. Many streams drain into great rivers of this Xhosa territory including the Kei and Fish River. Rich soils and plentiful rainfall make the river basins good for farming and grazing making cattle important and the basis of wealth. Traditional foods include sorghum, maize, milk, pumpkins, beans, vegetables, and umphokoqo, or dry maize porridge. Tobacco is an important crop in this area.

[edit] Language

Main article: Xhosa language

In South Africa, the Xhosa-speaking people form the second largest language group (after Zulu, to which the Xhosa language is very closely related). Among a wide variety of common speech sounds, the Xhosa language famously contains a variety of consonantal 'click' sounds, which have been borrowed from now extinct Khoisan languages of the region.

Xhosa has three basic click consonants: a dental (front) click, written with the letter 'c', e.g. icici 'earring' (very similar to the English tut-tut sound of disapproval); a palatal (top click), written with the letter 'q', e.g. iqaqa 'skunk' (similar to the imitation of a bottle being decorked); and a lateral (side) click, written with the letter 'x', e.g. xoxa 'discuss'. Each click can be used in up to six contrastive forms (each one is a completely separate consonant in Xhosa), e.g. c (plain), ch (aspirated), gc (voiced), nc (nasalised), ngc (nasalised voiced), nkc (nasalised, velarised). By contrast, Xhosa has five straightforward Spanish-type vowels (a, e, i, o, u).

[edit] Religion

Traditional Xhosa culture includes diviners, who serve as herbalists, prophets, and healers for the community. This job is mostly taken by women, who spend five years in apprenticeship. Many Xhosa people are Christian, particularly within the African Initiated Churches such as the Zion Christian Church.

[edit] Oral tradition

The key figure in the Xhosa oral tradition is the imbongi (plural: iimbongi) or praise singer. Iimbongi traditionally live close to the chief’s 'great place' (the cultural and political focus of his activity); they accompany the chief on important occasions - the imbongi Zolani Mkiva preceded Nelson Mandela at his Presidential inauguration in 1994. Iimbongi's poetry praises the chief’s actions and best features, and may also criticise the chief if aspects of his reign or government are unpopular.

[edit] Notables

Nelson Mandela is a Xhosa-speaking member of the Thembu people.

Other famous Xhosa speakers include: Amampondo · Stephen Biko · Fats Bookulane · Brenda Fassie · Ken Gampu · Chris Hani · General Bantu Holomisa · Archibald Campbell Jordan · John Kani · Winnie Madikizela-Mandela · Miriam Makeba · Govan Mbeki · Thabo Mbeki · S.E.K. Mqhayi · Victoria Mxenge · Bongani Ndodana · Bulelani Ngcuka · Makhaya Ntini · Winston Ntshona · Percy Qoboza · Walter Sisulu · Robert Sobukwe · Enoch Sontonga · Oliver Tambo · Zwelithini Tunyiswa · Desmond Tutu · Ashley Buti · St John Page Yako · Dr. George Clark^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Xhosa in popular culture

The Xhosa, named for the Xhosa people, is the name of the freighter commanded by Kasidy Yates in the science fiction television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

There is a well noted Canadian metal band called Xhosa out of Cranbrook, British Columbia. The band features Craig McCue as it's lead vocalist.

[edit] See also

Reverend Henry Hare Dugmore, the first translator of the Christian bible and psalms into Xhosa
Partners Across The Ocean
South African Translators' Association

[edit] References

Results of the 2001 South African census

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. In addition, several million people in the Johannesburg-Soweto region speak Xhosa or Zulu as a second or third language. For a majority of these, the two languages become difficult to distinguish (unsurprising given the extreme closeness of their linguistic relationship).

Reader, J., 1997. Africa: A Biography of the Continent, Vintage Books, New York, NY, United States of America.jkadfgl;uh;lpuylaerpgh
Kaschula, Russell The Heritage Library of African People: Xhosa, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc., 1997.