Embo (Nguni ancestry)
Nguni ancestral group
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Embo (also AbaMbo, Abambu, Mbo, Mbos, AmaMbo, Abasembu, Amabambo or eMbo[1]) refers to an ancestral grouping and historical ethnic identity of early Nguni-speaking peoples who settled in Southern Africa during the Bantu expansion.[2][3]
Background
Early European accounts from the 17th and 18th centuries refer to peoples identified as the Abambo along the southeastern coast of Southern Africa.[4]
In historical literature, the term Embo also refers to narrower Nguni groupings, such as the Embo-Nguni and sub-groups such as the Embo-Dlamini, which formed the modern Swazi people.[2] The group was active in the Maputaland-Lubombo region from the early modern period.[2]
They were distinguished by their cattle-based economy, crop farming and coastal trade. Historically, the Bantu-speaking people of the southern part of Africa came from the Katanga direction and continued to expand to the south along the east coast of Africa.[5][6]