Xhosa people

The Xhosa people ( , ; Xhosa pronunciation:) are an ethnic group in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and Lesotho. They are the second largest ethnic group in South Africa and are native speakers of the isiXhosa language.

The Xhosa people are descendants of Nguni clans who settled in the southeastern part of Southern Africa displacing the original inhabitants, the Khoisan. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Xhosa people have inhabited the area since the 7th century.

Presently, over ten million Xhosa-speaking people are distributed across Southern Africa. In 1994 the self-governing bantustans of Transkei and Ciskei were incorporated into South Africa, becoming the Eastern Cape province.

As of 2003, the majority of Xhosa speakers, approximately 19.8 million, lived in the Eastern Cape, followed by the Western Cape (approximately 1 million), Gauteng (971,045), the Free State (546,192), KwaZulu-Natal (219,826), North West (214,461), Mpumalanga (46,553), the Northern Cape (51,228), and Limpopo (14,225).

There is a small but significant Xhosa-speaking (Mfengu) community in Zimbabwe, and their language, isiXhosa, is recognized as an official national language. This community was brought by Cecil John Rhodes for cheap labour in Rhodesian mines in early 20th century.