Nwalungu

Nwalungu lies in the wooded country of the Limpopo river basin, near routes leading from the interior towards the southeastern African coast. Tsonga-speaking communities in the wider region cultivated crops and maintained connections across river valleys. Among them, the name Nwalungu referred to people of the north, distinguished from other related groups by their speech and locality.

In the early nineteenth century, the rise of Soshangane's Gaza kingdom brought war and displacement to the lands between the Nkomati and Limpopo rivers. People fleeing these conflicts travelled west along routes beside the Olifants and Limpopo-Levubu rivers, seeking better-watered country beyond the lowveld and its often unhealthy climate. Those same routes linked inland communities with the coastal world of trade and exchange.