Venda people

The Venda are a Bantu- speaking ethnic group in Southern Africa, to about 700,000 people belong. It is with them a spin-off of the Shona, with whom they are related linguistically and culturally. There are also links to the Rozewi. Their language is Tshivenda.

The Venda live in the South African province of Limpopo - formerly part of the province of Transvaal - and in southern Zimbabwe. 1973-1979 there were in South Africa, the Homeland, 1979-1994 recognized only by South Africa Venda independent state. The VhaVenda, as they call themselves, were known in particular by the strong use of mineral resources such as copper and iron. They have also made ​​a name for himself as a basket-maker and wood-carver.

The Lake Funduzi in the "Holy Forest " may only be visited with a permit from the tourist office in Thohoyandou. According to popular belief the Venda the souls of their dead medicine men still live in the mountain area and in the Lake of the god of fertility is at home.

A characteristic musical instrument of the Venda is the one-string, painted with the arch trough zither tsijolo. It resembles the gawukha: s of the San and segankuru in Botswana, in contrast to the latter, however, has no separate resonator, but is amplified as a mouth bow with the mouth. Otherwise, the traditional large wooden boiler drum ngoma and the smaller thungwa occur, both played with a mallet, and the conical Murumba that is beaten with the hands. There are the pentatonic tuned pipe pipe anga and the heptatonic phala. They come to dance accompaniment always in groups before, because each pipe only produces a sound.