A homestead ( Xhosa: ''umzi'') in

southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number ...

is a cluster of several houses, typically occupied by a single extended family and often with an attached

kraal Kraal (also spelled ''craal'' or ''kraul'') is an Afrikaans and Dutch word, also used in South African English, for an enclosure for cattle or other livestock, located within a Southern African settlement or village surrounded by a fence of ...

. Such settlements are characteristic of

Nguni Nguni may refer to: *Nguni languages * Nguni cattle *Nguni people The Nguni people are a Bantu ethnic group from South Africa, with off-shoots in neighbouring countries in Southern Africa. Swazi (or Swati) people live in both South Africa and E ...

-speaking peoples. A house within a homestead is known as an ''indlu'', plural ''tindlu'' ( Swati) or ''izindlu'' ( Xhosa and Zulu).

See also