South Africa is a melting pot of Bantu speaking groups that combined their efforts to make their nation what it is today. Here are the five biggest and most influential of such tribes:
1. Zulu
The Zulu people make up the biggest ethnic group in South Africa, with a population estimated at 10 to 11 million. Majority of this group is presently living in the KaZulu-Natal province, while smaller numbers can be found in Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. Moreover more info about Africa are here.
2. Xhosa
The Xhosas are another South African ethnic group living in the southeastern side of the country, gradually moving towards the central southern and southern parts of the country over the last two hundred years. These people are split into a number of tribes with similar yet unique heritages. The main groups are Mpondomise, Xesibe, Thembu, Bomvana and Mpondo. In addition, the Mfengu and Bhaca have been using the Xhosa language. The tribe's name is derived from a legendary leader known as uXhosa. There are legends that say Xhosa means "angry" or "fierce" in a certain San language. The Xhosa people call themselves amaXhosa and their language isiXhosa.
3. Sotho (Basotho or Basuto)
The Sotho people come from an ancestry that has lived in southern African since around the 1500s. They came from the successful mediation of Moshoeshoe I who united warring Sotho clans, which had distributed themselves around southern Africa during the early 1900s. Most Sotho people nowadays are found in South Africa since the Orange Free State area used to be part of Moshoeshoe's nation, which is now known as Lesotho. More information at http://answersafrica.com.
4. Tswana
The language of the Tswanas is under the Bantu group of Niger-Congo languages. Ethnic Tswana compose about 80% of Botswana's population. In the 1900s, Batswana was commonly spelled and pronounced as Bechuana. Eventually, Europeans called the Tswana-inhabited area "Bechuanaland." In the Tswana language though, the name of Tswana country is Botswana. If you need more facts, you can visit http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/south-africa/.
5. Pedi
Pedi, which can be used interchangeably with Bapedi, Marota, Bamaroteng, Northern Sotho and Basotho in its most general sense, is a cultural or linguistic term that once referred to groups of people who lived in South Africa's Limpopo Province, and spoke various Sotho dialects. More recently, "Pedi" has been replaced by "Northern Sotho," reflecting the weak connectivity of the groups. In the most specific sense, Pedi is more of a political entity than a linguistic or cultural one. This group was composed of people who lived in a Maroteng dynasty-controlled area during the 18th and 19th centuries.
