The Hlubi people or AmaHlubi are an
Nguni ethnic group native to
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 o ...
, with the majority of population found in
KwaZulu-Natal
KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is loca ...
and
Eastern Cape
The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha.
The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...
provinces of
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...
.
List of AmaHlubi kings
Origins
The Hlubi, similar to other current Southern African nations, originate from Central Africa. They moved as part of the eMbo people’s southern migration. More specifically, they are said to originate from the people known as the Shubi. The Shubi can still be found today in Congo and some parts of Rwanda and Tanzania.
Language
The AmaHlubi speak a dialect closely related to the Ama
Swati language
The Swazi or siSwati language is a Bantu language of the Nguni group spoken in Eswatini and South Africa by the Swati people. The number of speakers is estimated to be in the region of 2.4 million. The language is taught in Eswatini and s ...
, one of the
Tekela languages in the
Nguni branch of the
Bantu language family
The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are a large family of languages spoken by the Bantu people of Central, Southern, Eastern africa and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages.
The to ...
.
The Hlubi (AmaHlubi) dialect is endangered and most Hlubi speakers are elderly and illiterate. There are attempts by Hlubi intellectuals to revive the language and make it one of the eleven recognised languages in South Africa.
See also
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Matiwane
Matiwane (died c.1830, uMgungundlovu), son of Masumpa, was the chief of an independent Nguni-speaking tribe, the amaNgwane, a people named after Matiwane's ancestor Ngwane. The amaNgwane lived at the headwaters of the White Umfolozi, in what is ...
References
Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hlubi people
Bantu peoples
Bantu-speaking peoples of South Africa
Monarchies of South Africa