This page is about the Ndau ethnic group and language of Africa (S 15a according to Guthrie's classification). Ndau is also an alternate name for Pendau, an Indonesian language

Indonesian language

Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....

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The Ndau is an ethnic group

Ethnic group

An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...

 which inhabits the Zambezi valley, in central Mozambique

Mozambique

Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...

 all the way to the coast, and eastern Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...

, south of Chipinge and Chimanimani.

The ancestors of the Ndau were warriors from Swaziland

Swaziland

Swaziland, officially the Kingdom of Swaziland , and sometimes called Ngwane or Swatini, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, bordered to the north, south and west by South Africa, and to the east by Mozambique...

 who intermarried with the local population, constituted ethnically and linguistically by Manika

Manika

Manika is a 1986 socio-mythological Oriya-language Indian feature film directed by R.Asrar. The film depicts the legendary story of one of the devotee of Lord Jagannath, Manika the milk maid. -Plot:...

, Barwe, Tewe (in the Manika

Manika

Manika is a 1986 socio-mythological Oriya-language Indian feature film directed by R.Asrar. The film depicts the legendary story of one of the devotee of Lord Jagannath, Manika the milk maid. -Plot:...

 province) and Ndau, which itself includes several sub-groups (in the southern part of the Sofala

Sofala

Sofala, at present known as Nova Sofala, used to be the chief seaport of the Monomotapa Kingdom, whose capital was at Mount Fura. It is located on the Sofala Bank in Sofala Province of Mozambique.-History:...

 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

Shona language

Shona is a Bantu language, native to the Shona people of Zimbabwe and southern Zambia; the term is also used to identify peoples who speak one of the Shona language dialects: Zezuru, Karanga, Manyika, Ndau and Korekore...

 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

Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

 in Mozambique and English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 in Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwe, Ndau is mainly spoken in Chipinge and Chimanimani districts.

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.

Demographics

As of 1997, it was estimated that there were 581,000 speakers of Ndau in Mozambique.

Ndau is also one of the languages used in churches in Beira

Beira, Mozambique

Beira is the second largest city in Mozambique. It lies in the central region of the country in Sofala Province, where the Pungue River meets the Indian Ocean. Beira had a population of 412,588 in 1997, which grew to an estimated 546,000 in 2006...

.

Politics

Renamo, the Mozambican National Resistance Movement, draws support from the Ndau in the Sofala

Sofala

Sofala, at present known as Nova Sofala, used to be the chief seaport of the Monomotapa Kingdom, whose capital was at Mount Fura. It is located on the Sofala Bank in Sofala Province of Mozambique.-History:...

 province of Mozambique (to where its leader Dhlakama belong, as well as the Catholic archbishop fo 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.

The first president of ZANU in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...

 prior to independence was Ndabaningi Sithole

Ndabaningi Sithole

Ndabaningi Sithole founded the Zimbabwe African National Union, a militant organization that opposed the government of Rhodesia, in July 1963. A member of the Ndau ethnic group, he also worked as a Methodist minister. He spent 10 years in prison after the government banned ZANU...

, from near Mt. Selinda. Once Robert Mugabe

Robert Mugabe

Robert Gabriel Mugabe is the President of Zimbabwe. As one of the leaders of the liberation movement against white-minority rule, he was elected into power in 1980...

 came to power, Sithole formed his own party, ZANU-Ndonga that continues to garner widespread support among the Ndau community. Because of Sithole's contentious relationship with Mugabe, the Ndau population of Zimbabwe has never fully supported Mugabe's rule.
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