The quagga — iqwafa in isiXhosa — looked like a zebra at the front and a plain brown horse at the back. It was hunted to extinction. The last one passed on in Amsterdam in 1883. But it left something behind: its name, or something close to it, inside the isiXhosa word for horse.
Ihashe means horse. For a long time, people thought the word came from English. Research into the isiXhosa lexicon now points to a Khoisan origin — likely from the word already used for the quagga. When Nguni-speaking people first encountered horses, they used the name they already knew for the closest animal. The horse arrived and took the word the quagga left behind.
This is how isiXhosa worked when it met something new: it borrowed from whoever introduced it. Those borrowed words are still in use today and carry the history of those meetings.
Mammals
- Inkomo — cattle or cow. The most central word in the whole economy and culture.
- Imvu — sheep. The original Bantu word.
- Igusha — sheep. Borrowed from Khoi. Both imvu and igusha are still used, side by side.
- Ihashe — horse. Likely from a Khoisan word for the quagga.
- Ibhokhwe — goat. From the Dutch word bok.
- I-ontyi — pig. From Dutch.
- Ihagu — pig. A local word. The Nguni did not keep pigs before European contact, so the animal entered the language from two directions at once.
- Inkamela — camel. From English.
- Inja — dog.
- Inkwili — Cape hunting dog.
- Inqawa — lynx or caracal.
- Imbodla — African wildcat.
- Imfene — baboon.
- Ingwe — leopard.
- Inyathi — Cape buffalo.
- Indlovu — elephant. Also the symbol of a chief. Eating elephant was seen by some as too close to eating the chief himself.
- Inqu — black wildebeest or gnu.
- Imbabala — bushbuck.
- Ibadi — springbuck.
- Imbila — dassie (rock hyrax).
- Impofu — eland. Named for its tawny colour.
- Inxala — rooi rhebok.
- Inzola — blesbok.
- Inyamakazi — large wild animals or antelope generally. Breaks down as "big meat."
- Indlulamithi — giraffe. Means "the one taller than the trees."
- Isilo — any wild animal considered unclean and not eaten.
Birds
- Intaka — bird (general term).
- Inkuku — domestic fowl or hen.
- Ukhozi — hawk or eagle.
- Ifubesi — spotted eagle owl.
- Inkonjane — swallow.
- Inkwababa — African rook.
- Isikhwenene — red-shouldered parrot.
- Ilowe — Egyptian goose.
- Intsikizi — ground hornbill.
- I-ungulo or i-xhalanga — vulture.
Reptiles, insects, and others
- Inyoka — snake (general term).
- Ingwenya — crocodile.
- Intulo — land iguana or lizard.
- Uxam — water monitor.
- Unwabu — chameleon. Named for its slow walk.
- Inyosi — bee.
- Imbovane — ant.
- Inkwane — a species of termite.
What was eaten and what was not
The San (AbaThwa) ate almost everything available: eland, quagga, elephant, land iguana, locusts, white ant eggs roasted over fire (called "Bushman rice"), and sometimes poisonous snakes with the head removed first. One specific San food was minced salamander, inqweme lentulo — eaten only by San hunters or, as the record puts it, "renowned hunters." The salamander has no comment on this distinction.
The Thembu and broader Xhosa-speaking groups had stricter rules. Fish was not traditionally eaten. The San would not give a child a jackal's heart, believing it would make them timid — instead they gave children leopard hearts to make them brave. Both cultures understood that what you eat shapes who you become. They just drew the lines differently.