The Xhosa polity achieved political ascendancy over most of the Cape Khoi extending to the very fringes of the Cape Peninsula. Also Khoikhoi tribes were incorporated, these include the Inqua, the Giqwa and the amaNgqosini (both khoi and sotho origin).įormerly independent clans (many of khoi origin) and chiefdoms in the region became tributary to the amaTshawe and spoke isiXhosa as their main language. Tshawe and his army then incorporated formerly independent Nguni clans into the Xhosa Kingdom. History Īccording to oral tradition, the modern Xhosa Kingdom was founded somewhere before the 15th century by Tshawe (whom the royal clan of the Xhosas is named after) who overthrew his brother Cirha (assisted by his brother Jwarha) with the help of the amaNgwevu clan of the amaMpondomise Kingdom. This community is based on a diaspora that moved up from the Cape in South Africa upon the establishment of Rhodesia with Cecil Rhodes. There is a small but significant Xhosa-speaking ( Mfengu) community in Zimbabwe, and their language, isiXhosa, is recognised as an official national language. Īs of 2003, the majority of Xhosa speakers, approximately 5.3 million, lived in the Eastern Cape, followed by the Western Cape (approximately 1 million), Gauteng (971,045), the Free State (546,192), KwaZulu-Natal (219,826), North West (214,461), Mpumalanga (46,553), the Northern Cape (51,228), and Limpopo (14,225). Many Xhosa live in Cape Town ( eKapa in Xhosa), East London ( eMonti), and Gqeberha ( e-Bhayi). The pre-1994 apartheid system of Bantustans suspended the Xhosa South African citizenship, but assigned them to have self-governing 'homelands' (native reserves), namely Transkei and Ciskei, now both a part of the Eastern Cape Province where most Xhosa remain. Presently, over nine million Xhosa-speaking people are distributed across the country, and the Xhosa language is Southern Africa's most populous languages. They are the second largest ethnic group in Southern Africa and are native speakers of the IsiXhosa language. The Xhosa people, or Xhosa-speaking people ( / ˈ k ɔː s ə/ KAW-sə, / ˈ k oʊ s ə/ KOH-sə Xhosa pronunciation: ( listen)) are a Nguni ethnic group whose traditional homeland is primarily the Cape Provinces of South Africa. Traditional African religions, Christianity Xhosa graduates at Zonnebloem College in 1860, Cape Town, Cape Colony

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