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The Ngoni people are a dispersed ethnic group living in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia, in east-central Africa. The Ngoni trace their origins to the Zulu people of kwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.
History
In the early nineteenth century a period of political instability in southern Africa known as the mfecane saw the rise of the Zulu nation and the creation of a number of other groups. The creation and destruction of political allegiances led to a number of northward migrations of Nguni people from the kwaZulu-Natal region in South Africa.
In around 1817, the Mthethwa alliance (which included the Zulu clan) came into conflict with the Ndwandwe alliance. One of the military commanders of the Ndwandwe army was Zwangendaba kaHlatshwayo, (c1780-1848), head of the Jere or Gumbi clan, which itself formed part of the larger emaNcwangeni alliance in what is now north-east kwaZulu-Natal.
In 1819 the Ndwandwe alliance was defeated by the Zulu army under Shaka at a battle on the Umhlatuze River, near Nkandla. Many of the Ndwandwe fled, and over a period of about 20 years Zwangendaba led a small group of his followers north through Mozambique and Zimbabwe to the region around the Fipa Plateau, between what is now Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania. In this region he established a state, using Zulu warfare techniques to conquer and integrate local peoples.
Following Zwangendaba's death in 1848, succession disputes split the Ngoni people into five groups, some of whom moved to new territories.
In Malawi, there are the following Ngoni groups:
- Jere Ngoni of Mchinji under paramount chief Mpezeni (whose actual residence is close to Chipata in Zambia)
- Jere Ngoni of Mzimba under paramount chief M'Mbelwa
- Maseko Ngoni of Dedza under paramount chief Kachindamoto and Kachere
- Maseko Ngoni of Ncheu under paramount chief Gomani
- Maseko Ngoni of Cholo under paramount chief Vumbwe
Present day
While the Ngoni have largely retained a distinct identity in the post-colonial states in which they live, integration and acculturation has led to them adopting local languages; nowadays Zulu is used only for a few ritual praise poems.
See also
External links
Literature
- Ngoni by Nwankwo T. Nwaezeigwe (The Heritage Library Of African Peoples)
- Mpezeni's Ngoni of Eastern Zambia, 1870-1920, Ph.D. dissertation by William Eugene Rau, 1974
Ethnic groups in Malawi | Ethnic groups in Tanzania | Indigenous peoples of Africa | Ethnic groups in Zambia
"Ngoni people"