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| Overview
of the Social structure of the Ndebele Tribe |
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The way in which Mzilikazi built his Ndebele Kingdom as a
result of the need for it to grow in numbers beyond the
just the mere 300 people, that he left with when he was
fleeing from Tshaka, through
raids and assimilation of youths and women. In order to
be able maintain the culture and beliefs of his people,
Mzilikazi stratified his kingdom into three distinct
groups or classes with separate societal
privileges.
The Ndebele state was divided
into three groups, the Zansi, Enhla and Hole.
The Zansi were the original followers of Mzilikazi from
Zululand. They were fewer in number, but they formed a
powerful portion of the society. They were the upper
class of the Ndebele society, the aristocrats. The Zansi were divided amongst themselves into clans
according to their totems and clan leaders formed the
political elite of the Kingdom.
Below the Zansi were the Enhla. These were people who
had been conquered and incorporated into the Ndebele
state before it came into Zimbabwe. They comprised
mainly people of Sotho, Venda and Tswana origin and they
were more numerous than the Zansi.
The Hole formed the lowest but largest class in the
kingdom. They were a fusion of Nguni, Sotho, Tswana and Shona. There were two types of Hole. The first group
comprised chiefdoms that were moved or voluntarily
migrated into Ndebele settlement. Examples of such
people include the Nanzwa from Hwange, Nyai from Matobo,
Venda from the Gwanda-Beit Bridge area, and the Shona from western Mashonaland. Most of these chiefdoms,
unable to resist their enemies, chose to go and live
under the security of the Mzilikazi. The youths of these
chiefdoms were merged to form the Impande and
Amabukuthwani military regiments, while the elders were
given land to settle under one of their chiefs. |
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| Some of these elders were even privileged into positions
of being the king’s intelligence agents, thereby forming
important polities in Ndebele society. An example of this
was the Venda chief Tibela who sought refuge from Mzilikazi after constant harassment from Swazi raiders.
Tibela was made into one of the king’s intelligence
agents. One of the distinguishing characteristics of this
group of Hole is that they were bi-lingual, speaking both
their mother tongue, and siNdebele.
The other group of Hole comprised of captives and young
men supplied by the subject chiefs for the Ndebele army.
It was acceptable for Ndebele soldiers to bring back
captives from their raids and these captives were
incorporated into Ndebele society either as wives of Ndebele soldiers or slaves. It is estimated that by the
fall of the Ndebele state in 1893, there were three times
as many Hole as were the Zansi and Enhla combined, showing
the success of the Ndebele’s policy of assimilation.
Undoubtedly, this huge class of Ndebele came to have a
big influence on the Ndebele culture, an influence that is
evident even today. In the modern day Ndebele society these demarcations exist, but as strongly as they
did by the fall of the Ndebele
kingdom.
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| If you feel this is not an
accurate account and you have a more accurate one, or
you have a clarification , you can submit
your version of the account here |
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| Other
documents related to this Profile |
| Changes in
the Ndebele (Matabele) religion |
| Mzilikazi,
the Ndebele and Christianity religion |
| Ndebele
Religious beliefs |
| Ndebele
Social structure |
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