Dimbanyika

Dimbanyika is the founding king of the Vhavenḓa south of the Limpopo, the leader who brought the Singo across the Vhembe river and settled in the Nzhelele valley, from where he began to subdue the peoples already in the land and to bind them into a single nation ruled from the great stone capital of Dzata. Venda tradition tells that his end came while hunting, when he was trapped and died within a cave at Tshiendeulu, a place that afterwards became sacred to his house. He was succeeded by his son Bele, and it is through his sons Bele and Dyambeu that the later royal genealogy runs, though the traditions vary in the order they assign to the earliest kings.

Children

• Bele
• Dyambeu

Domains

• kingship
• conquest

Powers

• cross the Vhembe (Limpopo) into the south
• found the Venda kingdom at Dzata

Relations

• child: BeleN. J. van Warmelo (ed.), Contributions towards Venda History (1932). (primary)
• child: DyambeuN. J. van Warmelo (ed.), Contributions towards Venda History (1932). (primary)

Sources

• Dimbanyika is remembered as the first VhaVenḓa king south of the Limpopo, who crossed the Vhembe, settled the Nzhelele valley, and began welding the local clans into the Venda nation.: N. J. van Warmelo (ed.), Contributions towards Venda History, Religion and Tribal Ritual (1932). (primary)
• Tradition holds that Dimbanyika died sealed in a cave at Tshiendeulu while hunting, and was succeeded by his son Bele.: N. J. van Warmelo (ed.), Contributions towards Venda History (1932). (primary)