The Africa Insight with DAVID

Xhosa, South Africa
Population ~8,000,000

The Xhosa ethnic group is one of the largest in South Africa, with their homelands in the southeast of the country, in the forested Eastern Cape Province. The Xhosa have South Africa’s second most spoken language, after Zulu. This language is used to maintain their strong oral tradition, full of stories of ancestral heroes, with the teachings of elders handed down through the generations by speech alone.

The idea of ubuntu (essentially humanity towards others) comes – at least in part – from the Xhosa, who have a strong concept of iziduko (clan). It is the iziduko that is central to Xhosa identity, more important even than ones’ name. When two strangers meet for the first time they share their iziduko ahead of their names.