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Sibaya

Xivongo · Xitsonga

Xipalana

Also spelled Xipelene.

  • PeopleVatsonga
  • Totem nyarhi (buffalo), rarely used; the sub-c — Malungana: the poem ends with the xithopo Dzungeni, the common ancestor, which s
  • Grouping Sub-clan (nyimba) of Nkuna
  • Surnames recorded Xipalana
  • Places recorded Sedan, Ritavi, Limpopo

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: 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

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

Malungana interviewed Makhurumela Solomon Xipalana at Sedan in 1990, who first gave his lineage (Mukhomazi, N'wa-Dzimanyana, Bangabanga, Murhonga, Dzungeni, Nkuna, Nyarhini, Xipalana) and later performed the clan poem; Ida Xipalana's father performed it again at her wedding (muchongolo) in October 1990. The poem identifies the Xipalana as Nkuna of the royal kraal rather than commoner Nkuna, names Nyarhini of Ngomana and Nkuna of Mavutana, and closes on Dzungeni with a Zulu phrase (sibongo sihle) that Malungana takes as a mark of Zululand origin. The old man told the researcher that every person should know the history of their clan name and its praise. Recorded from the sources named on this entry; the wording here is Sibaya's own.

Where This Comes From

Written down by
  • 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

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 Xipalana?

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Tell Me When It Opens

We write to you about Sibaya, 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.

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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