Hlubi People
AmaHlubi

AmaHlubi AmaNgelengele
Total population
724,100[1] estimated 2025
Regions with significant populations
South Africa, Lesotho
Languages
IsiHlubi (near Extinction) IsiXhosa, Sesotho, IsiZulu
Religion
African Traditional Religion, Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Zulu, Swati, Southern Ndebele, Northern Ndebele and Phuthi

The Hlubi people or AmaHlubi are an Embo ethnic group native to Southern Africa, with the majority of population found in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa.^[2]

The AmaHlubi speak a dialect closely related to the Swati language, one of the Tekela languages in the Nguni branch of the Bantu language family.

The Hlubi (AmaHlubi) dialect is endangered and most Hlubi speakers are elderly and illiterate. There are attempts by Hlubi intellectuals to revive the language and make it the thirteenth recognized language in South Africa.^[3]

• Hlubi Kings
• Matiwane

• Henry Masila Ndawo (1939). Iziduko zama-Hlubi. Lovedale Press.
• Henry Masila Ndawo (1945). Ibali lama Hlubi. Lovedale Press. hdl:10962/47224.
• Andrew Hayden Manson. The Hlubi and the Ngwena Clan in a colonial society, 1848–1877. s.n. Retrieved 31 July 2011.
• Alfred T. Bryant (1965). Olden times in Zululand and Natal: containing earlier political history of the Eastern-Nguni clans. C. Struik.
• John Henderson Soga (1930). The south-eastern Bantu: (Abe-Nguni, Aba-Mbo, Ama-Lala-Nguni ). The Witwatersrand university press.
• John Britten Wright; Andrew Manson (1983). The Hlubi Kingdom in Zululand-Natal: a history. Ladysmith Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-620-06178-0.
• John William Colenso (1875). Langalibalele and the AmaHlubi Kingdom: being remarks upon the official record of the trials of the King, his sons and Induna, and other members of the AmaHlubi Nation. tribe.
• Paul Maylam (1986). A history of the African people of South Africa: from the early Iron Age to the 1970s. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-37511-9.