Kalanga people

The native language of the baKalanga has two varieties: 1) TjiKalanga, or simply Kalanga, in western Zimbabwe, 2) Ikalanga in northeastern Botswana. Together with the Nambya language, these varieties form the western branch of the shona group (Guthrie S.10) that also includes Central Shona.[2] Kalanga-speakers once numbered over 1,700,000, though they are now much reduced, often speaking Ndebele or Central Shona languages in Zimbabwe, Tswana in Botswana, and other local languages of the surrounding peoples of southern Africa.[2]

The BaKalanga are one of the largest ethnolinguistic groups in Botswana. The 1946 census indicated that there were 32,777 (40% of the numerically largest district) BaKalanga in the Bamangwato (Central) District.[3]

Kalanga knives with wooden sheaths; wooden pillows. From a 1910 ethnographical work.

According to Huffman (2008), the original Bakalanga people descended from Leopard's Kopje farmers.[4] These people occupied areas covering parts of north eastern Botswana, western and southern Zimbabwe, adjacent parts of South Africa and Mozambique by around AD 100. They traded in ivory, furs and feathers with the Indian Ocean coast for goods such as glass beads and cotton clothes.[5] The majority of these prehistoric Bakalanga villages have been discovered in Botswana and Zimbabwe in areas close to major rivers and were usually built on terraced hilltops with stone walls built around them.[6]

The Kalanga are linked to such early African States as Mapungubgwe, Khami, and the Rozvi Empire. The early Bakalanga people living in the Shashe-Limpopo basin monopolised trade due to their access to the Indian Ocean coast. By around AD 1220 a new and more powerful kingdom developed around Mapungubgwe Hill, near Botswana's border with South Africa. Some of the early Bakalanga people living in the lower Shashe-Limpopo valley probably moved towards or became part of this newly formed kingdom. But studies of climatic data from the area suggest that a disastrous drought soon struck Mapungubgwe, and the Shashe-Limpopo region was uninhabited between A.D 1300 and 1420, forcing the ordinary population to scatter. Mapungubgwe had become a ghost town by AD 1290. Its golden era lasted no more than 50 years culminating in the rise of Great Zimbabwe.

Later, in the 15th century, the centre of power moved back west, from Great Zimbabwe to Khami/Nkami and in the 17th century to Danan'ombe (Dlodlo). The moves were accompanied by changes of the dominance from one clan to another. In the 17th century, the rozvi established southern BaKalanga became a powerful competitor, controlling most of the mining areas. The Rozvi even repelled Portuguese colonists from some of their inland posts.

History goes to show that a huge number of BaKalanga people moved south in search of greener pastures while another section of the people stayed in the Northern areas. The group that moved South of the Limpopo River to their VhaVenda cousins are now called BaKgalaka or BaLobedu and occupy the areas in the immediate southern areas of the VhuVenda areas.BaLobedu and/or BaKgalaka up to this day still stay in areas adjacent to their cousins found in both Botswana and Zimbabwe. Such areas include the areas around Lephalale(South Africa) as well as Bobirwa and Matsiloje areas in today's Botswana, also in Beitbridge area in Zimbabwe.

In south-western Zimbabwe (now Matabeleland) and adjacent parts of present-day Botswana, Kalanga states survived for more than another century. The fall of the Kingdom of Butua came as a result of a series of invasions, beginning with the Bangwato Kgosi Kgari's ill-fated incursion of around 1828 and culminating in the onslaught of Mzilikazi's Amandebele.

Finally, the Zimbabwe plateau and Lowveld as well as Botswana basin were subdued to British rule by Cecil Rhodes.

The Kalanga people are known for their rain-making abilities through their Supreme Being Mwali/Ngwali. These abilities have always been a part of the BaKalanga people history as well as all those other related groups. The rain-making has always been the duty of the Hosanna's or AmaWosana (the high priests in Mwali/Ngwali's church). The traditional attire of the Kalanga/BaKalanga people clearly shows the importance of rain to BaKalanga. They put on black skirts which represent dark clouds heavy with rain, and the white shirts to represent rain droplets. This is the attire worn when they go and plead for rain at Njelele shrine in Zimbabwe, which is the headquarters for the Hosanna's of Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

• David N. Beach: The Shona and Zimbabwe 900–1850. Heinemann, London 1980 und Mambo Press, Gwelo 1980, ISBN 0-435-94505-X
• Catharina Van Waarden: Butua and the end of an era: The effect of the collapse of the Kalanga State on ordinary citizens. An analysis of behaviour under stress. 2012. Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 82. Oxford: Archaeopress.

• Kalanga Language and Cultural Development Association