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Wozekhaya

Xivongo · Xitsonga

Maluleke

Also spelled Van'wanati / VaN'wanati, Nwanati, Yen'weneti, Mn'wanati, Mhinga.

  • PeopleVatsonga
  • Grouping N'walungu group, one half of the Nwanati whose other half are the Makwakwa (Junod); VaN'wanati cluster with Makwakwa, Mondlane and Xivambu (Wikipedia, uncited); Hlengwe group's third subdivision (Junod)
  • Surnames recorded Maluleke, Mhinga, Xikundu / Shikundu, Xigalo, Mulamula, Hlaneki, Nkuri, Majeje, Muyexe, Makuleke, Mavambe, Ntsan'wisi
  • Places recorded Limpopo-Levubu, Levubu, Vhembe, Malamulele, Limpopo, Mapai, Gaza, Mozambique, Chiredzi, Zimbabwe

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 Xitsonga 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.

S.J. Malungana, Vuphato: Praise Poetry in Xitsonga (D.Litt. et Phil. thesis, Rand Afrikaans University, 1994)

In copyright. A doctoral study whose swiphato were recorded from named performers in the author's own fieldwork. In copyright. The performers are the authority on the recitations; the thesis is the author's rendering of them.

The rendering that was read: Wikipedia contributors, Maluleke (Van'wanati Maluleke), read 2026-09-05, Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maluleke (; MALUNGANA1994 (Ntsan'wisi 1986 and informant H.G. Mabasa)

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

Junod records that the Maluleke were, by native account, one half of the larger Nwanati clan, whose other half were the Makwakwa near the Limpopo mouth; the Nwanati came from the Nyai/Kalanga country with the Baloyi, stayed on the coast to eat the makwakwa fruit, and later the Maluleke, led by the hunter Mashakatsi, returned north to defeat the Ba-Nyai and found the Maluleke dynasty; his list runs Mashakatsi, Dlamana, Shitanda, Shihala, Nkuri, Mhinga, Sunduza. Malungana says the Maluleke under hosi Mhinga, who praise themselves as Yen'weneti, settled at the Limpopo-Levubu confluence before the other Vatsonga arrived; that Mn'wanati was the address name used for Chief Minister Ntsan'wisi; and that a Malamulele policeman cited a Maluleke praise line, Hi va ka Xinyela-babeni, as an example of the vulgar words that make some people reject clan praises. Wikipedia's Maluleke article gives a di. 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
  • Henri-Alexandre Junod, The Life of a South African Tribe, Vol. I: The Social Life, Imprimerie Attinger Freres, Neuchatel — https://archive.org/details/lifeofsouthafric01junouoft
  • Shidjabadjaba John Malungana, Vuphato: Praise Poetry in Xitsonga (D.Litt. et Phil. thesis), 1994 — https://ujcontent.uj.ac.za/esploro/outputs/doctoral/Vuphato---praise-poetry-in/9913242107691
  • Shidjabadjaba John Malungana, Vuphato: Praise Poetry in Xitsonga (D.Litt. et Phil. thesis), 1994 — https://ujcontent.uj.ac.za/esploro/outputs/doctoral/Vuphato---praise-poetry-in/9913242107691 (Ntsan'wisi 1986 and informant H.G. Mabasa)
  • Wikipedia contributors, Maluleke (Van'wanati Maluleke), read 2026-09-05, Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maluleke
  • Wikipedia contributors, Tsonga people, read 2026-09-05, Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsonga_people
  • Wikipedia contributors, Maluleke (Van'wanati Maluleke), read 2026-09-05, Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maluleke (; MALUNGANA1994 (Ntsan'wisi 1986 and informant H.G. Mabasa)

Recorded Alongside

  • Bila Also recorded among the Vatsonga.
  • Cawuke Also recorded among the Vatsonga.
  • Hlabi Also recorded among the Vatsonga.
  • Hlanganu Also recorded among the Vatsonga.
  • Hlungwani Also recorded among the Vatsonga.
  • Honwana Also recorded among the Vatsonga.

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If Your Family Holds More Of This

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