Skip to content
Wozekhaya

Xivongo · Xitsonga

Tembe

Also spelled Zembe, Tembe-Thonga, Tembe-Tonga, AbakwaMabudu.

  • PeopleVatsonga
  • Grouping Ronga group (Junod); classified Tonga-Nguni / Tembe-Tonga by Bryant; today Nguni-speaking in KwaZulu-Natal
  • Surnames recorded Tembe
  • Places recorded South, Maputo, Delagoa, Mozambique, Maputaland, KwaNgwanase, KwaZulu-Natal

The Swiphato swa swivongo

Mulao Ngolanyama madlaya a nga di makhama a nga di, a dlayele bahloti

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

About This Record

What Was Written Down

Junod places the Tembe in the Ronga group south of Delagoa Bay, with two sub-clans, Matutwen and Maputju, that became independent. He gives their tradition of coming from the Kalanga country down the Nkomati on a floating papyrus island and crossing the Tembe river, and records that Tembe people sometimes greet each other with Nkalanga, man of the north. He identifies the Zembe named by the Portuguese chronicler Perestrello in 1554 with the Tembe chief and the Mi-Tembe river, and gives a royal list: Tembe, Nkupu, Nwangobe, Silambowa, Muhari (1781-1795), Mayeta (1823), Bangwana, Bukutje (1857), Mabayi (banished 1890), Bukutje II. Wikipedia's Tembe article gives a longer ruler list from Mathebula 2017 and Kloppers 2003 beginning Sikuke (c.1692), Ludahumba, Silamboya, Mangobe, Mabudu (1764-1782), and records the 1746 split into a senior Mwali line and a junior Mangobe line from which the Ma. 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
  • Wikipedia contributors, Tembe (Southern African clan), read 2026-09-05, Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tembe_(Southern_African_clan)

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.

Are You Tembe?

Put your name on the launch list.

Tell Me When It Opens

We write to you about Wozekhaya, and nothing else.

If Your Family Holds More Of This

A family saying its own swiphato swa swivongo knows them better than any directory does. If yours has more than what is on this page, it belongs here.

Add What Your Family Holds Get Wozekhaya All clan names