What do Ndebele believe in?
Ancestral spirits are important in Ndebele religious life, and offerings and sacrifices are made to the ancestors for protection, good health, and happiness. Ancestral spirits come back to the world in the form of dreams, illnesses, and sometimes snakes. The Ndebele also believe in the use of magic.
How many Ndebeles are there in Zimbabwe?
20,000 Ndebele
Ndebele Kingdom Mzilikazi chose a new headquarters on the western edge of the central plateau of modern-day Zimbabwe, leading some 20,000 Ndebele, descendants of the Nguni and Sotho of South Africa.
What is a Ndebele culture?

The Ndebele are ancient offshoots of the main Nguni-speaking peoples and began migrations to the Transvaal region in the 17th century. Ndebele. Ndebele women posing before a traditional painted dwelling at a cultural village, Loopspruit, Gauteng, South Africa.
What do the Ndebele Colours mean?
There are five main colours represented: red and dark red, yellow to gold, a sky blue, green, and sometimes pink. The colours give an intensified symbolic meaning to the Ndebele. They can mean status or power of the home’s owners, offer prayer, announce a marriage in the home, or can represent a current protest.
What are Ndebele surnames?
Ndebeles are a nation, not a tribe and within this nation there are common surnames like Khumalo, Nxumalo, Ncube, Sibanda, Moyo, Ndlovu, Mkhwananzi, Bhebhe, Dlodlo,Dube, Nkala, Nkomo, Tshuma, Mvundla, Ndebele, Khuphe, Nkiwane, Sibindi, Nyathi, Mpofu, Hlabangane, Siziba, Ngwenya, Mathuthu etc.”

What clothes do Ndebele wear?
The main element of Ndebele women’s wear is an apron. Girls wear small beaded aprons, while older girls wear isiphephetu, a beaded apron given to them by their mothers, and isigolwani which are thick beaded hoops worn around their necks, arms, legs and waist.
What do Ndebele girls wear?
What is good morning in Ndebele?
Useful phrases in Northern Ndebele
English | Sindebele (Northern Ndebele) |
---|---|
Good morning (Morning greeting) | Livukile |
Good afternoon (Afternoon greeting) | Litshonile |
Good evening (Evening greeting) | Litshonile |
Good night | Lilale kuhle |