XHOSA
TheXhosa are oneof thegreatpeople of So uth
Africa.Theyar e concentrat ed in the so utheastpa rt
of thecountry,but arefoundeverywherein South
Africa.A highlymobilepeople,theXhosahavea
historythatdatesbackto antiquityin theupper
reachesof th e GreatLakesof Af rica.However,ov er
the past 700 years, theyhavelivedin thesouthern
partofAfrica,being oneofthe Africanpe ople,
alongsidetheSan,whohaveventuredthefarthest
to thesouthfro m theGreatNorth.
Li kemany otherAfri cangroups, theXhosa
haveseveralclansthatspeakthesamelanguage
andtracetheiror iginsto thelegendaryuXhosa.
Th e mainclansareTh embu,Xesibe,Bomvana,
Bhaca,Mfengu,Mpondo,andMpondomise. It is
be lie vedthatthenameXhosacanbetranslated
intothelanguageof theKhoi-Khoior Santo mean
“fierce .” Thisis probably de rivedfrom thefact
thattheXhosamet those earlierpeoplein warfare
whenthey arrivedin the south.However,th ey
soonle arnedto livein proximitywitheachother,
bu t the name Xhosa,wi th its me aningof anger or
fierce,stuckin theKhoian d San’slexicon.
Thenearly 10 millionXhosape oplespeakthe
se condmostpopularlanguagein theco untryafter
Zulu,a closelyrelatedlanguage.BoththeXhosa
and the Zulu are part of th e Great Nguni
Migration that moved south over a period of
30 0 to 400yearsbe ginningin the14thce ntury.
Be causethepeoplehadmadethegreattre k south-
ward,theyhadbroughtwiththemmanyof the
values theyhadlearnedin thenorth,as wellas the
on es th ey hadgainedin theirmigration.Thereare
certainvaluesandcustomsthatassistedtheXhosa
in theirsocialinteractionsthatmust be attributed
to th eirideasabout ethicsandmorality.
The Xhosa society learned from allof their
neighbors,andalsogavetheirneighborsinforma -
tionandpracticesof or ganizationandwarfare.In
thefirst instance,theXhosaborrowedwordsand
terminology from the San people, intermarried
with them,andalso borrowedtheclick conso -
nants so characteristic of theSan.Thewhiteswho
laterinvadedthecountryin the1700ssoughtto
subdueboththe SanandXhosaandweremet
withintermittentbattlesthatlastedfordecades.
Duringthe18thand19thcenturies,theXhosa
feltthepressureof theMfecane,thescatteringof
people thathadbeencausedbywarsamongthe
Nguni andother groupstothenorth andeast.
Th ey experiencedthemillennialist responseto the
endangeringof their cattlebya widespreadlung
di seaseblamedonth e whitesin 1856.Therewas
alsopressureontheXhosacreatedby thelossof
theirterritory towhitefarmers andthefurther
lo ss of theirindependenceas a people.
One of the co mmon features of the Xhosa
cultureis itslanguagethathas 15 clicksounds
bo rrowed fromtheKhoisanlanguages.Thebasic
clicksofisiXhosa , thetermforthelanguage,area
dentalclick,wr ittenwitha “c”;analveolarclick,
writtenwith“q”;anda lateralclick,writtenwith
“x ,” as in Xhosa.
To un derstandXhosarel igion,it is important
tovie w thesangomaasthecoreofthepriestly729