THE Kalanga Language and Culture Development Association (KLCDA) has dismissed any association of the BaKalanga people with the Ndebele or Mthwakazi kingdom.
KLCDA said this in response to recent remarks made by cultural stakeholders at an international event.
KLCDA, which claims to be the duly constituted body mandated to promote the TjiKalanga language and BuKalanga culture, vehemently dismissed the claims.
The association was responding to remarks made in a video during the King Mzilikazi Day commemorations in the United Kingdom by Mthuthuki Hikwa.
“The KLCDA ... dismisses with the contempt it deserves the reckless and misleading utterances made by Mthuthuki Hikwa in a video where he supposedly made official remarks at the King Mzilikazi Day commemorations in the United Kingdom,” the statement read.
Hikwa claimed that BaKalanga were associated with the Mthwakazi Kingdom during the King Mzilikazi commemorations.
KLCDA, however, said Hikwa held no traditional leadership role or formal position within the Hikwa chieftaincy and had no mandate to speak on behalf of the BaKalanga nation.
“We are not part of the Ndebele or Mthwakazi, nor do we submit to any Ndebele chiefs or kings,” the statement read.
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“As BaKalanga, it is our principled position that we do not subscribe to monarchs or any kind.”
KLCDA emphasised that while they are open to cross-cultural engagements with other ethnic groups in Zimbabwe, such interaction should be founded on self-respect, mutual respect and dignity never on subservience.
They firmly declared that their autonomy and dignity as a people are non-negotiable.
Historically, reports indicate that the Kalanga people originate from the North-east Africa region, specifically the Sudan-Egypt-Ethiopia area.
Like many Bantu groups, they migrated southwards over centuries, finally settling in the region now known as southern Africa, long before the establishment of the Ndebele kingdom.
