Person umThembu Language isiXhosa | People abaThembu Country Thembuland | |
The Thembu people are one of the handful of nations and population groups that speak Xhosa in South Africa.
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The most internationally famous Thembu person was Nelson Mandela, whose father was a reigning nobleman from a junior branch of the Madiba clan of kings. Walter Sisulu was also of Thembu descent from his mother's side.
Name
In Xhosa, the name is abaThembu, aba- being a common prefix for peoples. The land in which they lived was historically known as Thembuland.
In the 19th century, the Thembu were frequently known as the "Tamboekie" or "Tambookie" people. This name was originally the Khoisan term specifically for the Thembu followers of Chief Maphasa who moved into the area west of the Great Kei River in the 1820s. Europeans however, who were often not aware of the distinction, used the term as a synonym for "Thembu" for much of the 19th century.
History
Prior to the British conquest and incorporation of their territory, called "Tembuland" in the 19th century, the Thembu had an independent kingdom. The clan name of the Thembu kings is Madiba. Recent kings, including Sabata Jonguhlanga Dalindyebo, have used the surname of Dalindyebo, from the name of a 19th-century king.
After conquest, the Thembu were administered by the government of the Cape Colony as one of the Transkeian Territories, which with the exception of a few missionaries and white traders, were treated as lands reserved for African occupation. Other peoples in the territories who had formerly had independent kingdoms included the Gcaleka branch of the Xhosa, the Mpondo (who split into two kingdoms late in the 19th century), the Bhaca and the Xesibe. Under apartheid the Transkei was turned into a bantustan. In the ethnic theory underpinning apartheid, the Transkei was regarded as the "homeland" of the Xhosa people. As a result, the Thembu people are often misidentified as being Xhosa.
King
Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo, son of Sabata Jonguhlanga Dalindyebo, has reigned as Thembu king since May 1989; his praise name is Zwelibanzi. Sabata deposed Kaiser Matanzima, whom the Apartheid government had installed and who advocated against South African liberation movements. In December 2009 King Buyelekhaya was convicted of offences including culpable homicide, kidnapping, arson and assault. In response he proposed secession from South Africa and later demanded that the government pay Dalindyebo R 900 million and the tribe a further R 80 billion in compensation for the humiliation caused by the criminal trial.
Dalindyebo was imprisoned in December 2015, has since been customarily dethroned, and is expected to be administratively dethroned in the near future.