The Xhosa people of Zimbabwe

By Thomas Sibanda

Xhosa people are predominantly found in the Mbembesi area near Bulawayo. Other Xhosa communities are found in Fort Rixon, Goromonzi (in Chief Rusike’s area), Msengezi, Makwiro, Chitomborwizi, Marirangwe, Chinhoyi and Gwatemba.

Xhosa is an official language in terms of section 6 of the constitution of Zimbabwe. The late Xhosa King from the Eastern Cape Zwelonke Sigcawu visited Zimbabwe in 2011 to connect with his people and advance their culture.

The Xhosa people are divided into several ethnicities with related yet distinct heritages. The main ethnicities are the amaGcaleka, amaRharhabe, amaHlubi, imiDange, imiDushane and amaNdlambe.

The Xhosa people of Zimbabwe arrived in Rhodesia in 1899 /1900 with Cecil John Rhodes. They came by train via Mafeking. They worked as drivers, cleaners, general hands etc. They were allocated land in Mbembesi near Bulawayo.

The Xhosas who settled in the rest of Rhodesia were working as professionals like nurses and teachers. Others were missionaries deployed by their churches to establish churches and missionary bases with schools and hospitals. In the process their communities grew.

Like the Sotho, the professional Xhosas bought farms in the Native Purchase Areas and established their communities. Sometimes little mention/credit is given to the South Africans who worked as teachers, nurses, missionaries etc training black Rhodesians in the process.

The late Zimbabwe liberation war heroine Ruth Lottie Nomonde Chinamano (nee Nyombolo) was of Xhosa origin. She was born in Cape Town, South Africa and was married to the late nationalist, Josiah Chinamano. She was a teacher in Rhodesia and a legislator in independent Zimbabwe.

In 2017, Dr. Hleze Kunju of Rhodes University published the first PhD to be written in isiXhosa It is based on his research on the language and culture of the Xhosa people of Zimbabwe: siXhosa ultimo lwabantu abangesonininzi eZimbabwe: Ukuphila nokulondolozwa kwaso.

For over a century, Xhosa people have been integrated into the Zimbabwean fabric. People like Macleod Tshawe, a senior traditional Xhosa community leader participated in the liberation war. At some point he was the driver for the late liberation icon Dumiso Dabengwa in Zambia.