Xhosa people
Ethnic group in South Africa / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Xhosa people, or Xhosa-speaking people (/ˈkɔːsə/ KAW-sə, /ˈkoʊsə/ KOH-sə;[2][3][4] Xhosa pronunciation: [kǁʰɔ́ːsa] ⓘ) are a Bantu ethnic group native to South Africa. They are the second largest ethnic group in Southern Africa and are native speakers of the IsiXhosa language.
Total population | |
---|---|
9,660,004 | |
Regions with significant populations | |
South Africa | 9,415,004 ~ (2022 estimate)
Eastern Cape: 5,102,053 |
Zimbabwe | 200,000[1] |
Botswana | 12,000 |
Namibia | 10,000 |
Lesotho | 23,000 |
Languages | |
IsiXhosa IsiZulu, Sesotho, English, Afrikaans | |
Religion | |
uThixo, Qamata, Christianity | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Southern Ndebele, Zulu, Hlubi, Swati, and Northern Ndebele, Griqua, Khoisan, San people, Khoekhoe, Phuthi people, /Xam |
Xhosa | |
---|---|
Person | UmXhosa |
People | AmaXhosa |
Language | IsiXhosa |
Country | KwaXhosa |
Presently, over nine million Xhosa-speaking people are distributed across the country, although their traditional homeland is primarily the Cape Provinces of South Africa. , and the Xhosa language is one of Southern Africa's most populous languages. The pre-1994 apartheid system of Bantustans suspended the Xhosa South African citizenship, but assigned them to have self-governing "homelands" (native reserves), namely; Transkei and Ciskei, now both a part of the Eastern Cape Province where most Xhosa remain. Many Xhosa live in Cape Town (eKapa in Xhosa), East London (eMonti), and Gqeberha (e-Bhayi).
As of 2003,[update] the majority of Xhosa speakers, approximately 5.3 million, lived in the Eastern Cape, followed by the Western Cape (approximately 1 million), Gauteng (971,045), the Free State (546,192), KwaZulu-Natal (219,826), North West (214,461), Mpumalanga (46,553), the Northern Cape (51,228), and Limpopo (14,225).[5]
There is a small but significant Xhosa-speaking (Mfengu) community in Zimbabwe, and their language, isiXhosa, is recognised as an official national language. This community is based on a diaspora that moved up from the Cape in South Africa upon the establishment of Rhodesia with Cecil Rhodes.[clarification needed][6]