Tsonga-history.blogspot.com Website Review

TSONGA HISTORY PERSPECTIVE BY MANDLA MATHEBULA, ROBERT NKUNA, HLENGANI MABASA AND MUKHACANI MALULEKE. Archaeological evidence points to a continuous occupation of the area between St Lucia Bay from at least the thirte*n century, probably at 1250. Early Portuguese docu*ents of shipwreck sailors indicate that Tsonga Communities were already based between Maputo and Saint Lucia Bay by 1550. Writings of Perestrello (Santa. Bento-1554), Diogo de Couto (Santa Thome-1589), Lavanha (Santa Alberto-1593) record presence of Ronga chiefdoms between Saint Lucia Bay and the Maputo region in sixte*n century. They recorded the names of chiefdoms like Ngomane, Nyaka, Mpfumo, Lebombo (Livombo), Manyisa and Tembe. These names have survived till today. What is significant is that Portuguese docu*ents of the 16th century point to the fact that Tsonga (Ronga) chiefdoms were larger their Nguni counterparts. Actually, Nyaka and Tembe developed powerful kingdoms, the first extending from Delagoa Bay in the north to as far as Saint Lucia Bay in the south and the latter covering the Delagoa Bay region and all land as far as the Lebombo (Livombo) mountains. By the eighte*n century, the Maxabane (Mashabane) (which broke away from the Nyaka chiefdom), , Matsolo and Mabota chiefdoms were added to the chiefdoms observed by the Portuguese in the sixte*nth century. Historically, Tsonga communities stretched from St Lucia Bay in Northern KwaZulu Natal up to the upper Save river in Mozambique, covering parts of Swaziland, Mpumalanga, Kruger National Park and South Eastern Zimbabwe In the 1720s , Portuguese and Dutch identified the Tsonga as linguistically and culturally belonging to one group despite the fact that they belonged to different chiefdoms. This was motivated by the fact the Ronga themselves identified themselves as one group with people who spoke the same language, regardless of the fact that they belonged to different chiefdoms. Dutch reports mention that there were visitors into the Delagoa Bay area from the interior (probably the Hlanganu) who were identified by the Ronga as speaking the same