‘Real Shangaans’ are Nguni by blood. They intermarried with Vatsonga, and assimilated into Xitsonga and Vutsonga. Don’t confuse the two. If anything, Shangaans are Tsonga by assimilation, language & practice, not the other way round.
#TsongaDrive
#TsongaLessons
#TsongaAndProud
#TsongaDrive
#TsongaLessons
#TsongaAndProud
I refer to ‘real Shangaans’ because there are Vatsonga who have no trace of Nguni blood, yet they proudly call themselves Shangaans. There are many reasons to that end: distorted history, inferiority dynamics, and ignorance.
There’s a clear trace of Vatsonga’s existence frm as early as the 1400s. While the Shangaan dynasty was only est. in the early 1800s when Mdungaise & his men arrived in Vutsonga from present-day KZN. The purpose was to subjugate Vatsonga in the process of building the Zulu empire
Tsonga men were captured and killed, their land was grabbed, wives and daughters raped - and those who submitted were trained as soldiers and placed in the frontline of battles. But some resisted and fought, while others fled.
The Nguni men came with no women. They forcefully raped, abducted, and made wives of the captured women. But the women refused to speak the Nguni men’s language. They insisted on speaking Xitsonga with their children (Ririmi Ra manana).
