Preface and Table of Contents to The Rebirth of Bukalanga

THE REBIRTH

OF

BUKALANGA

A Manifesto for the Liberation of a Great People with a Proud History Part I

NDZIMU-UNAMI EMMANUEL

The Rebirth of Bukalanga: A Manifesto for the Liberation of a Great People with a Proud History Part I

ISBN: 978 0 7974 4968 8

©Ndzimu-unami Emmanuel, 2012

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Email: ndzimuunami@gmail.com

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Language Editing and Proof-reading

Pathisa Nyathi

Bheki J. Ncube

Cover Design

Greg Sibanda, Tadbagn Designs

All rights reserved. Not more than one chapter of this publication maybe reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without prior permission in writing of the author or publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE. 10

The Earliest Settlements of Bukalanga South of the Zambezi and the Establishment of the Zimbabgwe Civilization. 10

CHAPTER TWO.. 23

An Account of Bukalanga: With A Description of their Character and Industries  23

CHAPTER THREE. 66

Who and What Actually Constitutes Bukalanga: A Re-Definition of Bukalanga vis‑à-vis the Ndebele  66

CHAPTER FOUR.. 97

The Relationship Between Bukalanga and the Shona: Are We Really a Shona People?  97

CHAPTER FIVE. 131

On the Question of BaLozwi or BaRozwi: Are they a Shona or Bukalanga People Group?  131

CHAPTER SIX.. 141

The Monomotapa, Togwa and Lozwi Kingdoms: Inside the Great Kingdoms of Bukalanga  141

CHAPTER SEVEN.. 168

How Did We End Up With the Shonalized Version of History?. 168

CHAPTER EIGHT.. 190

How Did We End Up With the Shonalized Version of History Continued: Further Influences  190

CHAPTER NINE. 203

And Who Actually Built the Zimbabgwe Ruins: Back Inside the Zimbabgwe Civilization  203

CHAPTER TEN.. 234

The Pre-Christian Worldview of Bukalanga: The Mwali Religion. 234

CHAPTER ELEVEN.. 259

On the Question of ‘Semitic Blood’ and the Origins of Bukalanga. 259

CHAPTER TWELVE. 272

But What Happened: Inside the Great Dispersion of Bukalanga. 272

 

PREFACE

This book has come about as a result of a desire to understand my own identity and origins as a Kalanga, as well as my deep concern for justice, freedom and self-determination for my own people and others in general in the context of having lived in two countries where everyone is bundled up together, willingly or unwillingly, into a Shona[1], Ndebele or Tswana identity. This led to three years of research into the history of Bukalanga^[2], culminating in the writing of this book. Here is the story of what was once the greatest nation Africa south of the Sahara.

It has been stated concerning Bukalanga by Dr Gerald Mazarire of the University of Zimbabwe that the common understanding of Kalanga identity in Zimbabwe is tainted by a general legacy of high school textbooks that have had a tremendous impact on our somewhat obviated knowledge of local ethnicities through a process known in history as ‘feedback’. He states that until fairly recently, we did not know as much about the Kalanga who have constantly been treated as a sub-ethnicity of the major groups in southwestern Zimbabwe such as the Ndebele, Tswana and Shona (Mazarire 2003, Online). Dr Mazarire’s view expressed above is echoed by Wim van Binsbergen who, in his contribution to R. Fardon and G. Furnis’ work, African Languages, Development and the State, observed that:

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Like the Nkoya language, this western Shona dialect[3] cluster known as Kalanga and today extending from northwestern Zimbabwe all the way into the North Central and North East districts of Botswana (where it mainly exists in the form of the Lilima dialect) boasts a considerable local presence. While much of the history of this language and of the ethnic group which identifies by it remains to be written, it is a well-established fact that Kalanga, already called by that name, was the state language of the Tjangamire state which in the late seventeenth century succeeded the Togwa state; the latter produced the archaeological complex known as the Khami culture, and was historically closely associated with the earlier extensive state system centring on the famous site of Great Zimbabwe (van Binsbergen 1994, Online).

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I have emphasized the sentences in italics above to show just how little of Kalanga history is known in this generation. What little history of the Kalanga we know is so distorted that one can hardly tell who the Kalanga people are. As a matter of fact, nothing is mentioned in Zimbabgwean school history textbooks and the Constitutions of Zimbabgwe[4] and Botswana about the Kalanga. It leaves one wondering, who and from where the Kalanga people came. One is left wondering, how is it possible that so little is known of a people whose ancestors were the builders of three of the four man-made UNESCO World Heritage sites in Southern Africa?

The common and prevailing understanding of the Kalanga is that they are a hybrid of the Ndebele and the Shona, and therefore came into being as a result of intermarriage between the Shona and Ndebele in the 19th century. This has left many a Kalanga with an identity crisis, not knowing who they are and what their origins be. In Botswana, as in Zimbabwe, at least speaking from a constitutional viewpoint, the existence of the Kalanga is being denied, and as such it gives the impression that the Kalanga are a people of recent origin. But it is interesting to note that a deeper research into Kalanga history reveals that the Kalanga are actually a distinct group of people, distinct from the Shona, the Ndebele and the Ngwato-Tswana. All these identities have been politically imposed upon Bukalanga - many times against their will - and all they do is to conceal and destroy the understanding of Kalanga history and identity.

But we ask: whence are the Kalanga peoples? The origins of these interesting people can be traced back to a people that originated in north-east Africa and settled in the Zimbabwean plateau at the turn of the Christian era, which explains their Semitic strain of blood, a claim which was scientifically proven in two genetic studies in 1996 and 2000. The Kalanga are also known to have been great miners and traders in gold since the earliest centuries of the Christian era. They were involved in extensive agriculture and manufactured iron and copper implements. They were the builders of the great city-states of Mapungubgwe, Great Zimbabgwe, Khami, and others. The Kalanga also had distinct forms of government and religion amongst the peoples of Southern and Central Africa which were unknown anywhere else in the region. Their governments - the Mapungubgwe, Monomotapa, Togwa and Lozwi Kingdoms - spanned a combined period of about 1000 years. Their religion, the Mwali Religion, unique and distinctive amongst the religions of all the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa, had its origins in the Semitic world, and is indeed a corrupted form of Judaism according to some researchers.

Despite their many years of existence as the greatest Civilization Africa south of the Sahara, the Kalanga have been subjected to merciless treatment and subjugation over the last 200 years by the Ndebele, the Shona and the Tswana, which explains their relative insignificance in recent years. This has exposed them to an existential threat as an ethno-linguistic and cultural community which might see their languages, and as a result their cultures, disappearing from the face of the earth before the close of this century unless drastic and indeed radical measures are taken to arrest the decline. This book is part of such drastic and radical measures that need to be taken to arrest the decline of Bukalanga and the rush towards extinction. By telling the 2000 year-old story of Bukalanga this book seeks to bring to the attention of Bukalanga peoples a knowledge and appreciation of what a great heritage and history this our nation has. Not only so, it is intended that the reader, if he or she has Bukalanga origins, will take great pride in their identity and actively participate in the Rebirth of Bukalanga.

The book begins by tracing the earliest settlements of Bukalanga in the Zimbabgwean Tableland and the establishment of the Zimbabgwe Civilization starting about the first century of the Christian era. We follow that with an account of the character, culture and industries of Bukalanga, a really exciting chapter. That is followed by a redefinition of who and what actually constitutes the nation called Bukalanga, no doubt the most important question in the book. This is in light of the argument that all who live in the so-called Matebeleland are Ndebele, and those who live in the remaining half of the country are Shona. Having settled the Bukalanga-Ndebele identity questions, we answer the next important question, that is, is it true that the Kalanga are a Shona people as is commonly claimed by Shona scholars and political elites. Having settled the questions of identity we turn our attention to the precolonial kingdoms of Bukalanga - the Monomotapa, Togwa and Lozwi Kingdoms, followed by an answer to another extremely important question: how did we end up with the shonalized version of history that is being taught in Zimbabgwean schools? We then turn our attention to the the Mwali Religion - the precolonial religion of Bukalanga which has its origins in the Semitic world. This question has become very important too in light of the recent Shona invasions at the Njelele shrines of Mwali in Matopo. We will seek to understand if the Shona have any historical claim to that shrine in the first place. We follow that with an answer to the question concerning the Semitic-Jewish and/or Asiatic blood running in their veins of the Kalanga. The book then closes with a look at what happened to this once Great Nation for it to be where and what it is today.

It would be amiss not to pass a word of thanks to those who helped in the preparation of this work over the three years it was being developed. I would like to pass my thanks to the librarians at the National Free Library in Bulawayo who helped me during my research to access some of the rarest collections in our libraries. Thanks are also due to Mr. Tjidzanani Malaba, Secretary of KLCDA (the Kalanga Language and Cultural Development Association) who constantly encouraged me to finish the work and also advised me on works of Kalanga history that he had found before me. I shall not forget his father too, Mr. Thompson Tsambani of Khame village in Bulilima-­mangwe who encouraged me to refuse pfuwiwa, i.e., being held in captivity by always having to be subsumed to the identities of other peoples as if I don’t have my own. May I also pass thanks to all those who I have extensively interacted with on the social networking site Facebook, some of who encouraged me and some who challenged my ideas and helped me to anticipate the questions in advance. Thank you very much. To my terrific language and grammar editors, Bheki J. Ncube, Isiqholo saseZhowane, and historian Pathisa Nyathi, thank you very much. The content may be mine, but without your assistance I would not have pulled this off. Lastly, my thanks and gratitude goes to my grandmother, Elizabeth ‘bakaGi’ maDumani who bore the brunt of raising me on practically nothing and had to bear the humiliation of always asking for food from other villagers to raise us. Thank you very nkuku. Ndoboka. Hakula minda dzebamwe nendotihuhhila zwodliwa kwakatibhatsha nkuku. Ndatjikula nasi habe n'hhuhha mihingo yenyu. Ndoboka eDumani. And to all the teachers at Tokwana Primary and Secondary Schools and specifically the former headmistress, Ms. Faith Sebatha, all who believed in me against many odds, thank you very much. Ndolivhuwa ngamaanda. Ndoboka.

Ndzimu-unami Emmanuel Moyo wa Makulukusa

Plumtree, Bukalanga 2012

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[1] Throughout this book, unless indicated otherwise, the term Shona shall be used with reference to the Zezuru, Manyika and Korekore, and excludes the broader section of the Karanga, of which explanation shall be given in Chapters Three and Four. That is important to keep in mind in reading the book.   

[2] As shall be seen later in the book, the name Bukalanga is used in reference to a congerie of at least eighteen tribes who all trace their origins to Bukalanga, these being: BaLilima, Bakalanga, Vakaranga, BaTalawunda, BaNambya, BaLozwi, Ba-ka-Baloyi, BaPfumbi, BaLemba, BaLembethu, Babirwa, BaTwambambo, BaShangwe/Shankwe, BaLeya, BaTembe, BaJawunda, BaLobedu, BaTswapong, and Vhavenda. This also includes the majority of those people currently identified as Ndebele in Zimbabgwe who use such surnames as Ndlovu, Khupe, Sibanda, Tshuma, Mpala, Nyoni, Nyathi, Ndebele, Ngwenya, Shoko, Zhowu, Shumba, Moyo, Nkomo, Nleya, Dumani, Mlalazi, and so forth. Also included are thousands of other Kalanga in Botswana who identify as Ngwato. Evidence for the foregoing shall be provided in Chapter Three of the book. ‘Bukalanga/Vhukalanga’ and ‘the Kalanga’ shall be used interchangeably following the general Anglicization of Bantu names.

[3] There is debate over whether Kalanga is a Shona dialect or not. That question shall be dealt with in Chapter Four. 

[4] Whilst I am aware of the rule of academic writing that one cannot change the spelling of a name, I have added the g to the name Zimbabwe, hence Zimbabgwe, to emphasize the Kalanga pronunciation and way of writing. The ‘misspelling’ is intentional and deliberate. Similarly, most of the niceties of academic writing have been left out of this book to those working on the subject in professional academic circles. The reader will therefore encounter a number of ‘violations’ of the rules of academic writing. It is deliberate and intentional.