Ndau people

The Ndau is an ethnic group which inhabits the Zambezi valley, in central Mozambique all the way to the coast, and eastern Zimbabwe, south of Chipinge and Chimanimani.

The ancestors of the Ndau were warriors from Mozambique who intermarried with the local population, constituted ethnically and linguistically by Manika, Barwe, Tewe (in the Manika province) and Ndau, which itself includes several sub-groups (in the southern part of the Sofala province). The local population in Zimbabwe prior to the arrival of the Gaza Nguni are said to have come primarily from Mbire, near contemporary Hwedza.

Only in a large sense of the term is Ndau considered as part of the Shona language family. In a strict sense of the term the Ndau language is mainly spoken in the following southern districts of the Sofala province: Machanga, Chibabava, Machaze (Danda), Buzi and in Nhamatanda, Dondo and Beira (Bangwe). It is also partly spoken in Mambone (Inhambane province) and Mossurize. They also speak Portuguese in Mozambique and English in Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwe, Ndau is mainly spoken in Chipinge and Chimanimani districts.There are also major surnames of Ndau clan e.g. Sithole, Maposa, Hlathtswayo, Tinarwo, Gwenzi and Madeiwa

Along the railway line between Beira and Zimbabwe the Sena language, originally only spoken in the Zambezi valley, has become a kind of lingua franca.

As of 1997, it was estimated that there were 581,000 speakers of Ndau in Mozambique. There are many Ndau clans residing in South Africa. The village called Mbozi, currently known as Govhu at Malamulele, is composed entirely of Ndau clans such as Sithole, Miyambo, Simango, Moyana, and Mashaba.

Ndau is also one of the languages used in churches in Beira. Its spread is attributed to the spreading of the Zulu peoples, who were sent by Shaka to conquer the country.

Renamo, the Mozambican National Resistance Movement, draws support from the Ndau in the Sofala province of Mozambique (to where its leader Dhlakama belong, as well as the Catholic archbishop of Beira), in part due to their poor socio-economic conditions and their so far too weak inclusion in foreign financial investments and socio-economic developmental programs of the governing party.

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