Tembe Kingdom
Tembe Kingdom Tembe Kingdom | |
|---|---|
| c. 1554–late 1800s | |
| Status | Chiefdom |
| Capital | Manguzi / Tembe area |
| Common languages | Swazi, Nguni dialects |
| Religion | Traditional African religion |
| Government | Monarchy |
| Historical era | Precolonial Africa |
• Established | c. 1554 |
• Colonial incorporation | late 1800s |
| Currency | Cattle and trade goods |
| Today part of | South Africa, Mozambique |
The Tembe Kingdom was a precolonial chiefly domain centred on Delagoa Bay (now Maputo Bay) on the southeast African coast, occupying coastal areas of southern Mozambique and parts of northeastern KwaZulu Natal in South Africa, particularly within the region today known as Maputaland, and lying to the east of the inland territory of present-day Eswatini.
Its territory included the Kosi Bay and Manguzi areas and also extended inland towards the lower reaches of the Lubombo Mountains. The Maputaland-Lubombo region formed part of a broader landscape of interacting Nguni-speaking chiefdoms before colonial boundary formation. The legacy of the Tembe Kingdom persists today through the Tembe Tribal Authority, which represents the continuation of the kingdom’s chiefly lineage within South Africa’s modern traditional leadership system. The history of the Tembe shows that they existed from the 16th century, with Tembe serving as the first recorded leader in the 1500s.