Скачать или смотреть Major Cultural Practices of the Venda

The Venda tribe dates as far back as the 8th century, when King Shiriyadenga was the first king of Venda and Mapungubwe. The first Venda settlement in the Soutpansberg was led by the legendary chief, Thoho-ya-Ndou, popularly known as Head of the Elephant. Their language called Tshivenda or Luvenda, became a distinct Bantu dialect in the 16th century. Its vocabulary is similar to that of Sesotho, however, it has some similarities with the Shona dialects. Tshivenda is currently one of the 11 official languages in South Africa, with at least 650,000 of its speakers living in the Limpopo Province. There are some others living in other parts of South Africa, as well as Zimbabwe. Marriage in the Venda tribe is quite liberal. Some of the Venda people practice cross-cousin marital unions. If a woman doesn't like a man she's engaged to, she can break the union, with his consent. The Venda community also permits polygamy, so a man can marry as many wives as he can take care of. A number of Venda chiefs have more than one wife. It is also common to find older men marry younger ladies.