The Lemba of Southern Africa

history

According to Lemba lore, the Lemba have always occupied a special role in Southern African, particularly Vendan culture. The Lemba claim that they met the Venda during the time of Great Zimbabwe, an impressive civilization that flourished between 1240 and 1450 in a tremendous stone city built on a Zimbabwean plateau. The Venda respected and feared the Lemba because the Venda thought them to be sorcerers who could change form at will to masquerade as leopards or to disappear into the wind. The Lemba also had lighter skin than the Venda, so the Venda often called them valungu, which means "white men," "spirits of the dead," even "gods." (Even today, occasionally Venda will kill Lemba artisans because they fear that they are possessed.) The Lemba assert that they were with the Venda when they came south from Great Zimbabwe to the Soutpansberg Mountains where they now both reside, carrying with them the ngoma lungundu, a sacred drum that was supposedly filled with magic objects. They then claimed to have served as the generals of the Venda army when the Venda fought the British at the turn of the 20^th century. 

Researchers like Orientalist Tudor Parfitt have validated some of the Lemba claims. The Lemba were, in fact, once the extension of the Royal Vendan court. Historically, the Lemba were medicine men and musicians, iron workers and artisans. When Europeans opened diamond mines in Vendaland they chose the Lemba to work there. The Lemba therefore had access to money and, when they decided to fight against their Europeans bosses, guns. Even after the Venda lost the war, the lighter skin and legendary magical powers of the Lemba set them apart from most Venda

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