Emakhandeni
Named after the Amakhanda, one of the great divisions of the Ndebele state; the locative form means 'at the place of the Amakhanda'.
eMakhandeni is a locative: “at the place of the Amakhanda.” The Amakhanda were one of the great divisions of the Ndebele state in the days of Mzilikazi and Lobengula, and the suburb carries their name.
Three tellings
- The oldest explanation gives Emakhandeni as “the isiNdebele name for Fort Rixon, which was the area where the regiment, aMakhanda were located.”
- The Herald (Mabikwa, 2024) says the name comes from one of four founding villages, or divisions, of King Mzilikazi’s time.
- A 1958 account in NADA by H. F. Child, a former Native Commissioner, describes the Ndebele state as organised in four districts: Amhlope, Amnyama, Amakanda and Iqapa.
The second and third agree remarkably well: four divisions, one of them the Amakhanda. We are less sure of the first. No other source we have found gives eMakhandeni as the Ndebele name for Fort Rixon, so it is set down here as it was first written, unconfirmed.
What we don’t know yet
Do you know the Fort Rixon connection? Or how your family came to live in Emakhandeni? We’d like to hear.
Sources
- Bulawayo’s suburb names, A to M
- F. Q. Mabikwa, ‘Tracing the roots: How Bulawayo’s townships reflect city’s rich Ndebele heritage’, The Herald, 2 November 2024
- H. F. Child, ‘Family and Tribal Structure; Status of Women’, NADA No. 35 (1958), pp. 65–70
- ‘Suburbs, street names origin explained’, The Herald (Zimbabwe)
Do you know more about this? Corrections, photographs and your own account are all welcome, and a correction is published on the page with the date it was made. Send something in.