Skip to content
Wozekhaya

Sinanatelo · siSwati

Dlamini

Also spelled Dhlamini, Nkhosi Dlamini, bakaNgwane, Malangeni.

  • PeopleemaSwati
  • Grouping Bemdzabuko
  • Surnames recorded Dlamini
  • Places recorded Whole, Zombodze, Shiselweni, Lobamba, Ludzidzini, Mdzimba

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 siSwati 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.

Swaziland Oral History Project — edited transcripts and editorial endnotes, Wits Historical Papers A2760 (interviews 1968–1987; typescripts printed 2016 and 2021)

In copyright. The tinanatelo here were read out of SWOHP's edited typescripts and the editorial team's endnotes. The recitations belong to the narrators and their families; the edited transcription and the apparatus around it are a recent editorial work and are in copyright. The eMandulo platform's own label is a platform term applied by a non-rightsholder and determines nothing.

The rendering that was read: Swaziland Oral History Project, Royal series (A1): interview with Phuhlaphi Nsibandze, 1968, recorded for King Sobhuz…, 1968; printed 2021 — https://emandulo.apc.uct.ac.za/collection/WITS/FLOPPYS/DISK1/(A1)PHU.pdf (endnotes xxxvii, xli, l); SWOHP_NHLABATSI (footnote on wena wekunene); SWOHP_NDLELA1983 (Ndlela praise chain ending in the Lubombo line)

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

The royal clan of Eswatini. The SWOHP editors describe Dlamini as the putative ancestor of the royal house and record two genealogies: Matsebula's chart makes Hlubi and Dlamini sons of Ludvonga waMavuso, with Dlamini taking the kingship though Hlubi was elder; Simbimba Ndlela's Ndlela tradition adds Mamba as a third brother and explains Hlubi's exclusion by a burnt right hand. Nkhosi is recorded as the original sibongo of the royal house, now used as a sibongo in its own right and as a praise name of clans related to royalty. The kings named in the sources, in order, are Ngwane III, Ndvungunye, Sobhuza I (Somhlolo), Mswati II, Ludvonga, Mbandzeni, Bhunu (Mahlokohla), Sobhuza II and Mswati III. Kuper's table, as reported, lists Ginindza, Dvu, Magutfula and Magongo as sharing the Nkhosi appellation. 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
  • Swaziland Oral History Project: consolidated editorial endnotes and glossary, letters A to K — https://emandulo.apc.uct.ac.za/collection/WITS/FLOPPYS/DISK5/ENDNOTES.pdf
  • Swaziland Oral History Project, Hamilton series (A22): interview with Simbimba Ndlela, 27 July 1983, with endnotes, 1983; printed 2021 — https://emandulo.apc.uct.ac.za/collection/WITS/FLOPPYS/DISK1/(A22)SIM.pdf (Ndlela praise chain ending in the Lubombo line)
  • Swaziland Oral History Project, Bonner series (B8): interview with Nyandza Nhlabatsi and Tomoyi Dlamini, kaZameya, 21… — https://emandulo.apc.uct.ac.za/collection/WITS/FLOPPYS/DISK3/(B8)NHLA.pdf (footnote on wena wekunene)
  • Swaziland Oral History Project, Royal series (A1): interview with Phuhlaphi Nsibandze, 1968, recorded for King Sobhuz…, 1968; printed 2021 — https://emandulo.apc.uct.ac.za/collection/WITS/FLOPPYS/DISK1/(A1)PHU.pdf (endnotes xxxvii)
  • Thabani Thwala, The Politics of Placing Princes in Historical and Contemporary Swaziland (MA research report, supervisor Philip Bonner), 2013 — https://emandulo.apc.uct.ac.za/collection/FHYA%20Depot/Theses%20and%20Dissertations/Thwala_2013_The_Politics_of_Placing_Princes_in_Historical_and_Contemporary_Swaziland.pdf (pp.14-15)
  • Wikipedia contributors, Bemdzabuko (English Wikipedia), read 2026-09-05, Wikimedia Foundation — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bemdzabuko (citing MATSEBULA1988 p.21)
  • Swaziland Oral History Project, Royal series (A1): interview with Phuhlaphi Nsibandze, 1968, recorded for King Sobhuz…, 1968; printed 2021 — https://emandulo.apc.uct.ac.za/collection/WITS/FLOPPYS/DISK1/(A1)PHU.pdf (endnotes xxxvii, xli, l); SWOHP_NHLABATSI (footnote on wena wekunene); SWOHP_NDLELA1983 (Ndlela praise chain ending in the Lubombo line)

Recorded Alongside

  • Bhembe Also recorded among the emaSwati.
  • Dladla Also recorded among the emaSwati.
  • Dvuba Also recorded among the emaSwati.
  • Fakudze Also recorded among the emaSwati.
  • Gama Also recorded among the emaSwati.
  • Gamedze Also recorded among the emaSwati.

Are You Dlamini?

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 tinanatelo 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.

Add What Your Family Holds Get Wozekhaya All clan names