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Wozekhaya

Isithakazelo · isiZulu

Khumalo

  • PeopleamaZulu
  • RegionKwaZulu-Natal

The Izithakazelo

Version 1
Mntungwa,Mbulaz' omnyama,Nina bakaBhej' eseNgome,Nin' enadl' umuntu nimyenga ngendaba,Nin' enadl' izimf' ezimbili ikhambi laphuma lilinye,Lobengula kaMzilikazi,Mzilikazi kaMashobana,Shobana noGasa kaZikode,Zikode kaMkhatshwa,Okhatshwe ngezind' izinyawo nangezimfushanyana,UMkhatshwa wawoZimangele,UNyama yentini yawoZimangele,Mabaso owabas' entabeni kwadliwa ilanga lishona,BaNtungw' abancwaba,Zindlovu ezibantu,Zindlovu ezimacocombela,Nin' abakwaMawela owawel' iZambezi ngezikhali,Nin' abakwaNkomo zavul' inqaba,Zavul' inqaba ngezimpondo kwelaseNgome zahamba,Nin' enalukudl' umlenze kwaBulawayo,Mantungwa Aluhlaza,Mantungwa Amahle,Bantwana benkosi!
Version 2
Nin' abakwaNtokela,Inkubele abayihlabe ngamanxeba,Abakhule ngezinyawo ezimfishanyana nezimaqhukulwana,Inyang' abathe beth' ifil' uZulu kanti isiyetheswe,Yetheswe ngoNyakana kaMpeyana,UBando abalubande balushiy' uZulu,UNtshwintshwintshwi kaNoyanda noNdaba,UNkone evele ngobus' emdibini,Maqhaw' amakhulu!

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 Name

Associated with khumala, connoting reverence, exaltation, or high status; the Khumalo are grouped among the Mntungwa lineage of the Nguni.

The History Behind This Name

As written down by the people named at the end.

The Khumalo originated in northern KwaZulu around Mkhuze, in fertile, well-watered country contested by the rising Ndwandwe and Mthethwa powers in the early nineteenth century. Chief Mashobane kaMangethe, seeking to keep peace with the powerful Ndwandwe, married a daughter of the Ndwandwe king Zwide and fathered a son, Mzilikazi. Zwide nonetheless later had Mashobane killed, leaving leadership of the Khumalo to the young Mzilikazi.

Mzilikazi kaMashobana initially served as a favoured lieutenant of King Shaka, who granted him semi-autonomy after Khumalo intelligence helped defeat Zwide's Ndwandwe. A dispute over captured cattle in 1823 led to a rupture with Shaka; Mzilikazi led his followers north across the Vaal and, after conflict with Voortrekkers and other groups, ultimately settled beyond the Limpopo in what is now Zimbabwe, founding the Ndebele (Mthwakazi) kingdom with its capital at Bulawayo in 1840.

Mzilikazi was succeeded by his son Lobengula kaMzilikazi in 1868–69. Lobengula ruled a powerful, militarised state but was drawn into the Rudd Concession of 1888, which ceded mineral rights to Cecil Rhodes's British South Africa Company. The company's invasion in 1893 (the First Matabele War) overwhelmed Ndebele forces, and Lobengula died in 1894 while fleeing, ending Khumalo sovereign rule, though the royal line and Khumalo identity endure strongly among the Ndebele of Zimbabwe today.

In South Africa the Khumalo surname remains extremely widespread and is borne by numerous prominent figures across politics, music, and business, including musician Joseph Shabalala (born Khumalo), founder of Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

Recorded from: Zulu oral-history archives (see sources)

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

About This Record

Families Tell This Differently

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

Buthelezi and Khumalo relatedness

Some hold the Buthelezi are amaNtungwa and therefore kin to the Khumalo. Others hold there is no relation, and that the eMaNtungweni place name at the Buthelezi great place arose because a Buthelezi chief married two Mntungwa wives, a Khumalo and a Mabaso, who lived in one homestead. A precise, testable counter-explanation for an apparent praise-name overlap

The same document's Nkomo commentary states that four elements 'appear in both' Nkomo and Khumalo: the red beast that opened the fortress with its horns in the Ngome country, the eating of the leg at Bulawayo, Bantwana benkosi, and Mantungwa amahle. The last two DO stand in the Khumalo sequence recorded above. The first two DO NOT: they appear only in the Nkomo sequence ('Nina enala ukudla umlenze kwaBulawayo! Nkomo ebomvu eyavula inqaba ngezimpondo kwelaseNgome!'). So the document's prose implies a Khumalo recitation longer than the one it records. Nothing has been added on the strength of that: composing two lines into somebody's izithakazelo from a sentence describing them is fabrication however well-sourced the sentence is. Recorded so Themba, who is Khumalo, can say whether his family's recitation carries those lines, in which case this entry lengthens again.

Where This Comes From

Written down by
  • Themba, 2026-08-11: IZITHAKAZELO ZAMAZULU, Full Text Corpus, Tranche One
  • Community compilation: iafrika.org
  • Community compilation: zuluring.blogspot.com
  • Community compilation: izithakazelo.blog
  • Community compilation: izithakazeloizibongo.blogspot.com
  • Community compilation: izithakazelo.wordpress.com

Recorded Alongside

  • Mabaso One lineage recorded under two surnames. The same text is recited for both.
  • Bhebhe Also recorded among the amaZulu.
  • Bhembe Also recorded among the amaZulu.
  • Bhengani Also recorded among the amaZulu.
  • Bhengu Also recorded among the amaZulu.
  • Bhuyeni Also recorded among the amaZulu.

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If Your Family Holds More Of This

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