The Shangane

Trackers, traders and travellers - The Shangane

The Shangane of South Africa's lowveld are well known as skilful trackers of game, but it was as traders that their ancestors first moved into this area in the 1700s. These ancestors are more correctly known as Tsonga and in the eighteenth century this cultural group occupied much of the coastal plain in what is now southern Mozambique. Besides sharing a language (Tsonga) and certain cultural characteristics, they were not a well-defined political entity and as a consequence were buffeted in the coming years by political upheaval to the south. Geographical relocation, the influences of other cultures (such as Zulu, Sotho, Swazi and Venda) and a change in daily activities had a significant effect on the people who in later years came to be known as the Shangane.

Shoshangane and the emergence of a new culture

Hardly a homogenous group, the Shangane of the present day South Africa occupy three distinct areas: the Ingwavuma district in northern KwaZulu-Natal, Gazankulu between the Sabi and Timbavati Rivers and the area around Giyani to the west of the Kruger Park north of Phalaborwa. All three groups display different cultural and linguistic traits that reflect their different regional histories and influences but all are nonetheless identifiably Shangane. The Tsonga of southern Mozambique were to a certain extent absorbed by the more powerful Ndwandwe clan under the chieftancy of Shoshangane. Shoshangane and his people had themselves fled Zululand and Shaka's army and brought their own organised ruthlessness to Mozambique in the 1820s, where they began to assimilate the Tsonga people into their ranks. Later, pressure from the Zulu nation, first in 1828 and then in 1833, forced Shoshangane and his followers further north into the south eastern corner of Zimbabwe from where he began to build an even stronger empire - Gaza - and eventually returned south causing floods of Tsonga refugees westwards into present day South Africa's Phalaborwa and Pafuri regions. Shoshangane's death in 1858 caused further ructions and the kingdom began to disintegrate, its demise hastened by pressure from the Portuguese who drove the surviving rebels and their leaders into exile in the old Transvaal Republic where a series of leaders ruled the descendants of the Gaza Kingdom into uncertain colonial times.

The new South Africa

The effects of Dutch settlers, the discovery of gold at Johannesburg, British rule and eventually apartheid South Africa, forced removals and the homeland system took its toll on the Shangane, but recent years have seen new developments. The Makuleke (early Tsonga/Shangane refugees) for instance have had their lands along the Levubu River in the northern Kruger National Park returned to them and their embracing of ecotourism is being reflected in other Shangane communities throughout the lowveld where the majority of staff in the national park and the private lodges on its borders come from this ethnic group. New institutions aimed at adding relevant modern skills - such as hotel hospitality and food service, nature guiding and lodge management - to ancient, traditional ones such as the tracking of big game, have sprung up in the lowveld and are seen by many as the future economic engine of the region.

D.I.S.C.O

Another quality for which the Shangane are well known is that of dancing, and music and dance do play an enormously important role in cultural identity and expression. Traditional aspects are obviously important, but even in modern times the Shangane continue to borrow from other cultures and influences and adapt their own styles. So much so in fact, that forms such as ‘Shangane disco' for many years dominated the local airwaves, and even today there are many prominent Shanganes in the popular ‘kwaito' music industry. These musical imperatives have affected even the CC Africa Lodge, Ngala, where the staff choir have released a CD of traditional and modern songs. James Hendry, current Head Ranger at the Lodge, is also featured on the CD and together with two Shangane men from the local community (Raymond Khosa and Adolf Morgets) is involved in an oral history project.

Culture in the lowveld around Ngala and Londolozi is unquestionably that of the Shangane and visitors to these lodges, where some of the country's best trackers are employed, have ample opportunity to visit local communities or even ‘cultural villages' where traditional life is displayed for visitors.

-Chris Roche-

Posted: Other by CC Africa, Date: 21 November 2006