Kalanga people

rdf:langString Kalanga people

rdf:langString BaKalanga

rdf:langString Kalanga woman in Botswana

rdf:langString BaKalanga

rdf:langString Ndebele, TjiKalanga, Shona languages ,TshiVenda language

rdf:langString Northern Ndebele, Shona, and other Southern Bantu peoples

rdf:langString The Kalanga or Bakalanga are a southern Bantu ethnic group mainly inhabiting Matebeleland in Zimbabwe, northeastern Botswana and Limpopo Province in South Africa. They are historically related to the Nambya, Karanga, Bapedi and Venda. Current day BaKalanga people are descendants of the Leopard Kopje’s people who greatly influenced civilization in the Southern sphere of the African continent. BaKalanga history shows and tells us that they are the builders of the Mapungubwe Empire which was Southern Africa’s first uniform Kingdom. From Mapungubwe they were also part of the Kingdom of Great Zimbabwe (Nzimabwe,or Nzi we Mabwe-TjiKalanga language). Upon the fall of the Great Zimbabwe Kingdom they went on to build the Khami ruins found in today’s Matebeleland Province in Zimbabwe and lastly proceeded on to occupy the Domboshaba (Botswana) and Njelele (Zimbabwe) shrines. Kalanga people also believe in rainmaking rites like their BaLobedu and VhaVenda counterparts as will be discussed below. The BaKalanga of Botswana are the second largest ethnic group in the country as well as the language being the second most spoken in the country, and only the most spoken in the Northern part of the country. The TjiKalanga language of Zimbabwe is the third most spoken language in the country, however being recognized as a Western Shona branch of the Shona group of languages and is also used in News Broadcasts, both Television as well as Radio Stations.