There is a small but significant Xhosa-speaking Mfengu community in Zimbabwe , and their language, isiXhosa, is recognised as a national language. The Xhosa people are divided into several tribes with related yet distinct heritages.
In addition, there are other tribes found near or among the Xhosa people such as abaThembu , amaBhaca , abakoBhosha and amaQwathi that are distinct and separate tribes which have adopted the isiXhosa language and the Xhosa way of life. The name "Xhosa" comes from that of a legendary leader and King called uXhosa.
There is also a fringe theory that, in fact the King's name which has since been lost among the people was not Xhosa, but that "xhosa" was a name given to him by the San and which means "fierce" or "angry" in Khoisan languages. The Xhosa people refer to themselves as the amaXhosa , and to their language as isiXhosa. Presently approximately 8 million Xhosa are distributed across the country, and the Xhosa language is South Africa's second-most-populous home language, after the Zulu language , to which Xhosa is closely related.
The pre apartheid system of Bantustans denied the Xhosa South African citizenship, but enabled them to have self-governing "homelands" namely; Transkei and Ciskei , now both a part of the Eastern Cape Province where most Xhosa remain. As of [update] the majority of Xhosa speakers, approximately 5. The Xhosa are part of the South African Nguni migration which slowly moved south from the region around the Great Lakes.
Xhosa people were already well established by the time of the Dutch arrival in the midth century, and occupied much of eastern South Africa from around the Port Elizabeth area to lands inhabited by Zulu-speakers south of the modern city of Durban. The Xhosa and white settlers first encountered one another around Somerset East in the early 18th century. In the late 18th century Afrikaner trekboers migrating outwards from Cape Town came into conflict with Xhosa pastoralists around the Great Fish River region of the Eastern Cape.
