page_title: Tsonga people
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Tsonga people / History
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Dient ter ondersteuning van het hoofd tijdens slaap en rust.
context_page_description: The Tsonga people are a Bantu ethnic group native mainly to Southern Mozambique and South Africa. They speak Xitsonga, a Southern Bantu language.
  A very small number of Tsonga people are also found in Zimbabwe and Northern Swaziland. The Tsonga people of South Africa share some history with the Tsonga people of Southern Mozambique; however they differ culturally and linguistically from the Tonga people of Zambia and Zimbabwe.
context_section_description: The Tsonga people originated from Central and East Africa somewhere between AD 200 and 500, and have been migrating in-and-out of South Africa for over a thousand (1,000) years. Initially, the Tsonga people settled on the coastal plains of Northern Mozambique but finally settled in the Transvaal Province and around parts of St Lucia Bay in South Africa from as early as the 1300s. One of the earliest reputable written accounts of the Tsonga people is by Henri Philipe (HP) Junod titled "Matimu ya Vatsonga 1498-1650" which was formally published in 1977, and it speaks of the earliest Tsonga kingdoms. Before this, the older Henri Alexandri (HA) Junod released his work titled "The life of a South African Tribe" which was first published under two volumes in 1912-1913 and re-published in 1927.
  The historical movements of the Tsonga people is dominated by separate migrations, with the Tembe people settling at the Southern parts of Swaziland around the 1350s and the Van'wanati and Vanyayi settling in the eastern Limpopo region between the late 1400s and 1650s. Separate migrations from parts of Mozambique occurred shortly thereafter and particularly during the 1800s.
  According to historical records acquired from the Portuguese (who are perhaps the first Europeans to ship to African soil in the 1400s) and Swiss Missionaries who arrived to Mozambique and South Africa in the 1800s, Portuguese sailors encountered Tsonga tribes near the coast of Mozambique. Early tribes identified are names such as the Mpfumo who belong to the Rhonga clan within the wider Tsonga (Thonga) ethnicity, and further identified during the 1500-1650 are the Valenga, Vacopi, Vatonga (Nyembana), Vatshwa, and Vandzawu.
  The Vatsonga people from very early on were much like a confederacy where different groups settled and assimilated within a particular area and adopted a similar language that differed on the basis of geographic location (dialect). Various dialects of the Thonga/Tsonga language emerged from around the 1200s or earlier, such as Xirhonga, Xin'walungu, Xihlanganu, Xibila, Xihlengwe, and Xidjonga. They held large territorial areas in southern Mozambique and parts of South Africa and extracted tribute for those who passed through (paying tribute was to secure passage or to be spared from attack). The Tsonga tribes also operated like a confederacy in supplying regiments to different groups in the northern Transvaal region during times of Great Zimbabwe establishment and engaged in trade. The Nkuna and Valoyi tribes which supplied soldiers to help the Modjadji kingdom; and the Nkomati and Mabunda tribes for supplying regiments to the army of Joao Albasini (Xipolongo empire). The Tsonga people have an age-old custom of leading their own tribes, with a senior traditional leader at the forefront of their own tribal establishment and is seen with a status equal to that of a king. The Tsonga people have lived according to these customs for ages and they hold the belief that "vukosi a byi peli nambu" which is a metaphor meaning "kingship does not cross territorial or family borders".
  Within apartheid South Africa, a Tsonga "homeland", Gazankulu Bantustan, was created out of part of northern Transvaal Province (Now Limpopo Province and Mpumalanga) during the 1960s and was granted self-governing status in 1973. This bantustan's economy depended largely on gold and on a small manufacturing sector. However, only an estimated 500,000 people—less than half the Tsonga population of South Africa—ever lived there. Many others joined township residents from other parts of South Africa around urban centres, especially Johannesburg and Pretoria.
caption: Tsonga wooden headrest
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