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Wozekhaya

Isiduko · isiXhosa

Bhele

  • PeopleamaMfengu
  • RegionEastern Cape

Recorded Praise Names

These are praise names, not a full recitation.

Izinqulo IZITHAKAZELO
BheleLangaQuntaMafuKhuboni
Second recorded form NIVILE
SikwethuMzozoNozuluMavusoNoteliNondelaBharhodi

Two versions are recorded and neither has been chosen. Where community sources differ on a praise, both readings are kept. A regional form and a transcription slip are indistinguishable to anyone who is not a first-language reader.

The History Behind This Name

As written down by the people named at the end.

The amaBhele are one of the four abaMbo groups - with the amaHlubi, amaZizi and amaNtlangwini - dispersed by the Mfecane and given refuge among the amaXhosa from about 1818.

The Gcaleka king Hintsa allocated them land and the name amaMfengu, read as wanderers. After years under Gcaleka authority they allied with the Cape government in 1835 and were settled on the Great Fish River in what became the Ciskei, an alliance sealed by the Fingo Vows pledged at Peddie that year.

The amaBhele kept their own isiduko through all of it, which is why Bhele is recited today as a Xhosa clan name and remembered as an abaMbo one.

Recorded from: WIKIPEDIA (Fengu people); SAHO; Britannica (Mfengu)

Written down by families and by the people who recorded them.

About This Record

What Was Written Down

One of the four abaMbo groups that became the amaMfengu. The nivile.co.za directory records a different sequence: Sikwethu, Mzozo, Nozulu, Mavuso, Noteli, Nondela, Bharhodi.

Families Tell This Differently

Families who carry this name tell parts of it differently. Each way it has been told is below.

The izithakazelo.blog Bhele entry lists Mandela among the associated surnames. Mandela is elsewhere recorded, in the same corpus, as an abaThembu surname of the Madiba isiduko. The surname list is NOT carried into this entry because repeating it would make a claim about a specific family's clan that the sources do not agree on. Recorded here instead.

Where This Comes From

Written down by
  • izithakazelo.blog/iziduko-zamaxhosa/ (read 2026-08-23)
  • nivile.co.za/iziduko.html (read 2026-08-23) — independent cross-check

Recorded Alongside

  • Nkomo Also recorded among the amaMfengu.

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If Your Family Holds More Of This

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