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Wozekhaya

Isibongo · isiNdebele (Northern Ndebele)

Mabhena (Matabeleland)

Also spelled Mabhena, Mabena, aManala.

  • PeopleamaNdebele (Matabeleland)
  • Grouping Ndubazi / abeNhla - Manala descendants incorporated on the Steelpoort
  • Surnames recorded Mabhena
  • Places recorded Nkayi, Singwangombe, Bulawayo
  • Branch Matabeleland

Your Family's Praise Belongs Here

This clan has a praise. It is not on this page yet, and that is our doing, not anything about your family or the praise itself. If the people at home still say it, you can put the true one here.

Why It Is Not Here Yet

The rendering that was read: totems.co.zw (Zimbabwean community heritage site, uncredited), totems.co.zw - Ndebele Totems category (about thirty entries: Ngwenya, Khumalo, Nyoni, Dlamini, Mthunzi, Gumbo, Mnkan…, 2023-2025 (post dates), totems.co.zw — https://totems.co.zw/category/ndebele-totems/ (Mabhena; opening lines)

A praise belongs to the families who recite it, not to whoever wrote it down. A isiNdebele (Northern Ndebele)-speaking family that still holds this one holds the better version of it, and can put that version on this page.

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

About This Record

What Was Written Down

Nyathi's column follows Mabhena families descended from Chief Maphungo Mabhena, killed by a native commissioner at Inyathi, whose father Mfundani came north leaving his own father at Ndubazi (Tubatse/Steelpoort). He explains that these Manala descendants and their neighbours became known as abeNhla, that the king took no queen from them, and that they married among themselves. He also records the Matabeleland telling of the Manala-Nzuza succession story. Welshman Mabhena, former governor of Matabeleland North, appears in Ndlovu-Gatsheni's ACCORD article. Recorded from the sources named on this entry; the wording here is Sibaya's own.

Families Tell This Differently

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

Where This Comes From

Written down by
  • Pathisa Nyathi, Names and naming: Mabhena history captured in names (Sunday News column), 2020-02-23, Zimpapers (Sunday News / heraldonline.co.zw) — https://www.heraldonline.co.zw/names-and-naming-mabhena-history-captured-in-names/
  • Mloyiswayizizwe Sokhela, Reconstruction of the Kalanga history welcome but beware of distortions! (opinion column, Bulawayo24, reprinted on ka…, 2012-05-09, Bulawayo24 / kalanga.org — https://kalanga.org/blogs/reconstruction-of-the-kalanga-history-welcome-but-beware-of-distortions/
  • totems.co.zw (Zimbabwean community heritage site, uncredited), totems.co.zw - Ndebele Totems category (about thirty entries: Ngwenya, Khumalo, Nyoni, Dlamini, Mthunzi, Gumbo, Mnkan…, 2023-2025 (post dates), totems.co.zw — https://totems.co.zw/category/ndebele-totems/ (Mabhena)
  • totems.co.zw (Zimbabwean community heritage site, uncredited), totems.co.zw - Ndebele Totems category (about thirty entries: Ngwenya, Khumalo, Nyoni, Dlamini, Mthunzi, Gumbo, Mnkan…, 2023-2025 (post dates), totems.co.zw — https://totems.co.zw/category/ndebele-totems/ (Mabhena; opening lines)

Recorded Alongside

  • Bhebhe Also recorded among the amaNdebele (Matabeleland).
  • Dlamini Also recorded among the amaNdebele (Matabeleland).
  • Dlodlo Also recorded among the amaNdebele (Matabeleland).
  • Dube Also recorded among the amaNdebele (Matabeleland).
  • Gumbo Also recorded among the amaNdebele (Matabeleland).
  • Gumede Also recorded among the amaNdebele (Matabeleland).

Are You Mabhena (Matabeleland)?

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If Your Family Holds More Of This

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