Ancestral Voices Collection

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891 writings by indigenous South Africans collected in seven different languages.
A national treasure that provides information about South Africa’s culture and history.
Written between 1930 and 1950 (isiNdebele and Siswati were not written languages at the time) these writings provide information on the rich heritage, culture and history of the majority of South Africa’s people.

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Discover the rich culture and history of South Africa for yourself.

891 Writings

There are seven indigenous languages in this vast collection of texts written between 1930 and 1950.

A National Treasure

These writings are among the nation’s treasures, and are now made publicly available.
Importance
Our work in preparing them for future generations and their importance to the current generation of southern Africans prompted SA Heritage to make them available even before the new orthography transcriptions and English translations are finished and published.
How far back do these writings take us?
The author of a Sesotho sa Leboa work in 1939 tells us he wrote it after an interview with the oldest man in his community, then estimated to be 80 years old. So, the elderly man was born in about 1850 and, if his grandfather was still alive, would surely have been told stories of his people that went back to the late 1700’s!

A Xitsonga author NJ Mabale, writing in 1942 and living in present-day North-Eastern Limpopo, says he was born in Masia village during the reign of Jiwawa – also Jawawa or Joao Albasini – a man of Portuguese descent. Albasini died in 1886. As well as covering history of the local Vatsonga and Vhavenda, he tells us he worked on the Robinson mine in Johannesburg when it was still a small village. From there, he went to Kimberley where he worked on the diamond mines and was paid an amount of two pounds a week.

Structure of the writings
The majority of writings are handwritten and were then typewritten at the time of writing. SA Heritage Publishers is in the process of transcribing these into word and then translating them into English to ensure they can be accessed by the majority of South Africans. Only half of the original works have been scanned so this campaign will be a long-term exercise.
Help us secure the future together
Join as a member and participate in the process of securing the future of our past by checking that the handwritten manuscripts have been fully and accurately typed and help find the descendants of the many authors.
What subjects are covered?
We have only read a fraction of the works but, judging by what has been read and the titles of all the works in the collection, there is no doubt we will find a wealth of forgotten information in these works.

We have already discovered what we believe is the first writing about the Bhambatha rebellion by a Shezi clan-member, whose relatives participated in the battle of Mome Gorge.

We have found information on the Mfathla Ndebele, an amaNdebele group previously unknown to us, who, it appears, after initial confrontations with the clan into whose area they moved, married into them – the Bakgatla ba Lentswe – and versioned the name into isiZulu. The first writing tells us they are descended from a “Letsula (AmaZulu) King called Mazwe who ruled before Chaka and Mzilikazi”. Following conflict with his brother he moved with his followers to live amongst the Basotho. Future generations would move to present day Gauteng, North West and Limpopo. A further 59 writings in Setswana on the Mfathla Ndebele and Bakgatla await translation.

The amaHumusha is another group previously unknown to us that has come to light in the works of Frederick Vilakazi. They lived in the area of Ladysmith in KwaZulu Natal, and by their own account they are the descendants of freed slaves from the colonies who then married into local amaZulu clans.

These writings cover agriculture, village and hut construction, traditional medicine, divination, cosmological understandings of the people, history, folktales, traditional law, cultural activities and much more relating to a large number of southern Africa’s ancestral people.

What we discovered
  • 891 handwritten and typed Historical and Cultural Writings in Seven Official Indigenous Languages. At the time, Siswati and isiNdebele were not written languages.
  • 13 writings in isiXhosa, 140 in isiZulu, 29 in Sesotho, 476 in Sesotho sa Leboa, 157 in Setswana, 35 in Tshivenda and 41 in Xitsonga.
  • 187 different authors committed to record the story of their people for future generations of South Africans. You, the reader, are a part of one of those generations.
  • Written between 1930 and 1950, these writings cover an estimated 15 000 to 20 000 A4 pages. The works range in extent from one page to well over a hundred.
  • Most of the authors were born in the late 18OO’s. If their grandparents were still alive at the time of their birth, they would have heard, first-hand, stories about their people going back to the late 1700’s!
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