The South-Eastern Bantu
Abe-Nguni, Aba-Mbo, Ama-Lala

A 1930 study of the history, traditions and tribal lives of the Xhosa people, offering a unique indigenous perspective.

John Henderson Soga (Author)

9781108066822, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 31 October 2013

558 pages, 1 b/w illus. 1 map 12 tables
21.6 x 14 x 3.2 cm, 0.7 kg

Son of Tiyo Soga, the first black South African to be ordained, John Henderson Soga (1860–1941) was a Xhosa minister and scholar. Like his father, he was one of the first of his people to receive an education in Europe and to marry a European woman. His perspective on his people's history is therefore distinctive. Driven by a desire to record Xhosa traditions before they were lost in a changing world, Soga collected oral histories during his work at mission stations in South Africa, producing this historical survey of three branches of the Bantu family. Including genealogies of the main tribes, and tracing their traditions, beliefs and conflicts, the work first appeared in this English version in 1930, having been translated by the author from his native language. His equally authoritative work of social anthropology, The Ama-Xosa: Life and Customs (1932), is also reissued in this series.

Editor's introduction
Biographical note on the author
Preface
Bibliography
1. Who are the Bantu
2. Arabs and Portuguese
3. First contact of Portuguese with Makalanga
4. Gradual spread of Bantu tribes
5. Migration of Bantu tribes from the north
6. Ama-Zimba and Aba-Mbo
7. Tribal and clan names
8. Correlation of Bantu tribes
9. Abe-Nguni, significance of the term
10. Togu's reign
11. Palo, his character
12. State of hostility between Rarabe and Gcaleka
13. Gcaleka succeeds Palo
14. Hintsa, sixth Kafir war starts near Fish river
15. A friend of the Bantu
16. Kreli (Sarili)
17. The Abe-Nguni of Nyasaland
18. Aba-Mbo, second branch of eastern Bantu
19. The Pondomise
20. Ama-Bomvana
21. The Ama-Lala
22. Tshaka, his childhood
23. Kills his mother, Nandi
24. The Aba-Tembu.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC]