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Wozekhaya

Isibongo · isiNdebele (Southern Ndebele)

Mahlangu (Southern)

Also spelled Mahlangu, Ntobela, Mgwezani.

  • PeopleamaNdebele (Southern)
  • Grouping Ndzundza house - royal surname
  • Surnames recorded Mahlangu
  • Places recorded Mpumalanga, Roossenekal, Weltevrede, Nebo, Stofberg, Gauteng
  • Branch Southern

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: iAfrika (community directory, uncredited contributors), iAfrika - isiNdebele section, category 'Umlando neenanazelo' (history and clan praises), including Umlando wamaNdebel…, 2025 (post dates), iafrika.org — https://iafrika.org/nr/category/umlando-neenanazelo/ (Iinanazelo zakwa Mahlangu (Mgwezani); opening lines only - the Mgwezani sub-lineage set)

A praise belongs to the families who recite it, not to whoever wrote it down. A isiNdebele (Southern 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

Van Vuuren records Mahlangu as the ruling clan of the Ndzundza, with the royal lineage named as Mgwezane Mahlangu. SAHO explains the surname historically: the Ndzundza ruling family had been called Mdungwa until Sindeni's son Mahlangu took the chieftainship in about the mid-eighteenth century, after which the family carried his name. iAfrika's isiNdebele directory records separate praise sets for sixteen Mahlangu sub-lineages (Ntobela, Ndimande, Sirudla, Maridili, Bhorholo, Goda, Kotheni, Qongo, Bongwe, Magobholi, Mgwezani, Gembe, Bungela, Sombili, Lamula, Dima), most of them named after kings in the Ndzundza succession. King Magodongo was killed by Mzilikazi's forces in the 1820s; Nyabela led the 1882-83 resistance against the ZAR and was imprisoned; the dispersal that followed scattered the Ndzundza as farm labour. 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
  • iAfrika (community directory, uncredited contributors), iAfrika - isiNdebele section, category 'Umlando neenanazelo' (history and clan praises), including Umlando wamaNdebel…, 2025 (post dates), iafrika.org — https://iafrika.org/nr/category/umlando-neenanazelo/
  • iAfrika (community directory, uncredited contributors), iAfrika - isiNdebele section, category 'Umlando neenanazelo' (history and clan praises), including Umlando wamaNdebel…, 2025 (post dates), iafrika.org — https://iafrika.org/nr/category/umlando-neenanazelo/ (Iinanazelo zakwa Mahlangu (Mgwezani)
  • South African History Online, The Ndebele in history (article A-0063369; project researched by Franco Frescura), 2011 (updated 2026), South African History Online — https://sahistory.org.za/article/ndebele-history
  • Chris J. van Vuuren, Ndebele (Encyclopedia of World Cultures, vol. 9, Africa and the Middle East), 1995, G. K. Hall / Macmillan; read via encyclopedia.com — https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/ndebele-0
  • iAfrika (community directory, uncredited contributors), iAfrika - isiNdebele section, category 'Umlando neenanazelo' (history and clan praises), including Umlando wamaNdebel…, 2025 (post dates), iafrika.org — https://iafrika.org/nr/category/umlando-neenanazelo/ (Iinanazelo zakwa Mahlangu (Mgwezani); opening lines only - the Mgwezani sub-lineage set)

Recorded Alongside

  • Bhuda Also recorded among the amaNdebele (Southern).
  • Dlomu Also recorded among the amaNdebele (Southern).
  • Jiyane (Southern) Also recorded among the amaNdebele (Southern).
  • Kabini Also recorded among the amaNdebele (Southern).
  • Likere Also recorded among the amaNdebele (Southern).
  • Mabhena (Southern) Also recorded among the amaNdebele (Southern).

Are You Mahlangu (Southern)?

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If Your Family Holds More Of This

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This is also how this clan's praise gets onto the page. Your family's own words are yours to give.

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