| Xhosas | ||
|---|---|---|
| Total population: | 2001: 7.9 million est. | |
| Significant populations in: | Eastern Cape: 5.4 million, Western Cape: 1.1 million, Gauteng: 0.7 million, Free State: 0.25 million, Kwazulu-Natal: 0.22 million (2001 est. ) | |
| Language: | Xhosa, many also speak English or Afrikaans. | |
| Religion: | Animist, Christian | |
| Related ethnic groups: | Bantu, Nguni, Basotho, Zulu, Khoisan | |
The Xhosa people are a group of peoples of Bantu origins living in south-east South Africa.
The Xhosa people split in the eighteenth century as the result of a succession dispute between chiefs. The two branches of the group are known as the Gcaleka and the Rharhabe or Ngqika. The name Xhosa is also often used to refer to anyone from a number of different Xhosa-speaking ethnic groups that includes the Pondo and Thembu, neighbours of the Xhosa people, and the Mfengu people, who are descendants of scattered clans who were displaced during the Mfecane of the early nineteenth century.
Although nowadays around 8 million Xhosa people are distributed across the country, the population is concentrated in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Under the pre-1994 South African system of bantustans, they were allocated to Transkei or Ciskei, now both a part of Eastern Cape.
The Xhosa and white settlers first encountered one another around Somerset West in the early 1700s. In the late 1700s Afrikaner trekboers migrating outwards from Cape Town came into conflict with Xhosa pastoralists around the Great Fish River region of the Eastern Cape. Following more than 20 years of intermittent conflict, in 1811 to 1812 the Xhosas were forced east by British colonial forces in what was known as the Third Frontier War.
In the years following, many Xhosa-speaking clans were pushed west by expansion of the Zulus, as the northern Nguni put pressure on the southern Nguni as part of the historical process known as the Mfecane, or "scattering". Xhosa unity and ability to resist colonial expansion was weakened by the famines and political divisions that followed the cattle-killing delusion of 1856 (see Nongqawuse).
The "X" in the word "Xhosa" is a Click consonant: it is pronounced with a sideways click of the teeth - the same noise some people make when urging on a horse.
S.E.K. Mqhayi
| Ethnic Groups of South Africa | |
| Afrikaner | Anglo-African | Asians | Bushmen | Cape Malay | Coloured | Griqua | Ndebele | Sotho | Tsonga | Swazi | Tswana | Venda | Xhosa | Zulu |