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Sibaya

Mutupo · Tshivenda

Vhadau

Also spelled Mudau, Vhadau vha Damani, Vhadau vha Tshakhuma, Vha Damani.

  • PeopleVhavenda
  • Mutupo Ndau — lion
  • Grouping Vhangona
  • Surnames recorded Mudau
  • Places recorded Tshakhuma, Damani, Mashau, Thenzheni, Tshiheni, Luheni, Luonde, Mount Songozwi, Mount Tshitumbe, Messina

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

Everything else on this page is unaffected. The clan name, the Tshivenda terms, the totem, the grouping, the surnames and the places recorded are facts, and facts carry no copyright no matter which book they were read in. What is absent is one author's particular wording, which is the part copyright does protect.

N.C. Ṋetshisaulu, 'The Role Played by Nicknames and Totems in the Development of Tshivenḓa Surnames', E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 6(7) (2025)

In copyright. A peer-reviewed article published in 2025. In copyright. Its totem, oath and taboo statements are facts and are published here; its wording is not.

S.M. Dzivhani & E. Mudau, Mahosi a Venḓa na Vhadau vha Tshakhuma (Government Printer, Pretoria, 1958)

Rights position unresolved. The same unsettled question as Van Warmelo 1935, and for the same reason: a Government Printer publication, so whether s 5 State copyright (50 years from publication, expired end 2008) or s 3 life-plus-50 governs decides it, and no rights statement exists either way.

The rendering that was read: Lines 1-3 NETSHISAULU-2025; lines 4-5 MUDAU-TS (OCR reading)

A praise belongs to the families who recite it, not to whoever wrote it down. A Tshivenda-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

Netshisaulu calls Mudau the commonest Venda surname and records a tradition (from Marole) that the clan began as a small group at Tshakhuma, split after a senior man found his house burnt, and dispersed to Mashau, Thenzheni and Tshiheni while still regarding themselves as one people. He records three distinct oath formulas for the Tshakhuma, Mashau and Tshiheni branches and a shared taboo on eating the tail of a goat. The typescript gives the Tshakhuma (Damani) branch's own history: arrival from the west from a country called Damani, a first royal seat at Tshiozwi, chiefs Radzaga, Ratshiangwana (who seized Luvhalani), Bodomedzha, Rundani, Masuvhe (killed by Mphaphuli's men), Raluthaga, Mbodi (chief at the time of the 1898 Boer war against Mphephu, and friend of the Berlin missionaries) and Tshimbiluni; the chiefly title Madzivhandila; and a change of oath name from Tshiembe (an ancestral. 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
  • Luonde.co.za - Brief History; Ngomalungundu (community heritage site), accessed 2026-09-05, luonde.co.za — https://luonde.co.za/brief-history/ and https://luonde.co.za/brief-history/ngomalungundu
  • Vhadau vha Tshakhuma (Tshivenda-language typescript on the Vhadau of Tshakhuma and the early peoples of Venda; author… — https://repository.up.ac.za/server/api/core/bitstreams/e2593648-436f-4316-87cf-b72e71970958/content
  • Nthambeleni Charles Ṋetshisaulu (University of Venda), The Role Played by Nicknames and Totems in the Development of Tshivenḓa Surnames, 2025 — https://noyam.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/EHASS20256715.pdf
  • The Ramunangi Claim of Rights to the Sacred Sites of Phiphidi Waterfall (Lanwadzongolo and Guvhukuvhu), 2008, sacredland.org (document authored by the clan) — https://sacredland.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Ramunangi-Claim-of-Rights_15Nov08.pdf
  • Wikipedia contributors, Venda people (Wikipedia article), accessed 2026-09-05, Wikimedia Foundation — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venda_people
  • Lines 1-3 NETSHISAULU-2025; lines 4-5 MUDAU-TS (OCR reading)

Recorded Alongside

  • Dzivhani Also recorded among the Vhavenda.
  • Kwinḓa Also recorded among the Vhavenda.
  • Lambani Also recorded among the Vhavenda.
  • Luvhimbi Also recorded among the Vhavenda.
  • Makuya Also recorded among the Vhavenda.
  • Manenzhe Also recorded among the Vhavenda.

Are You Vhadau?

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If Your Family Holds More Of This

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