In Zimbabwe there is often debate on whether the Karanga and Kalanga are different peoples. Here is my basis for concluding that they are actually one and the same thing.
Prior to 1929 missionaries were trying to invent writing systems for the regions they operated in. The writing systems were largely based on the 26 letter English alphabet, with different combinations of letters chosen for different syllables.
For example the Mogenster missionaries used bgo resulting in name spellings such as Zvobgo and Dangarembga. In the unified Shona agreed upon after 1930 this became Zvobwo and Dangarembwa but respective families did not change their name spellings.
Similarly Dadaya mission used Tj in names such as Tjolotjo (changed after independence to the Nguni spelling).
In 1929 missionaries hired Clement Martyn Doke, professor of Bantu languages at the University of the Witwatersrand to conduct a study and come up with a unified writing system. This was motivated by the need to try and print one bible version for the whole of Karanga speaking areas Mashonaland, Manicaland and Victoria Province. A version that did not have to take into account the different dialects of Karanga.
After Doke's paper was presented at a conference at Dadaya the missionaries settled upon a unified writing system for different Karanga dialects.
There was a huge debate on what to call the unified writing system, with contention between the names Karanga and Shona. The missionaries eventually settled upon the name Unified Shona. Later in the 1960s through the work of George Fortune the government of Southern Rhodesia modified the writing system slightly and called it Standard Shona.
However in 1930 a crucial decision was made that results in people in Mashonaland and Matabeleland thinking that they are different people when they are actually the very same people.
The missionaries decided that everyone in Matabeleland would be taught to read and write using the Nguni alphabet imported from South Africa (that is how Tjolotjo becomes Tsholotsho) which included groups that did not speak Ndebele at the time such as Venda, Tonga and yes the group now named Kalanga.
Everyone in the rest of the country would be taught using the new Unified Shona alphabet (including the Tsonga/Shangani group).
As you know the Nguni alphabet does not have R and the new unified 'Shona' alphabet did not have L.
Thus the name of an ethnic group was written differently by those Matabeleland in those in the rest of the country.
While those in Matabeleland were taught to write Kalanga, it meant exactly the same thing as Karanga which those in the rest of the country were being taught to write.
Now throw in European mainly British missionaries and officials who did not speak the local languages very well. They pronounced what they saw written down as they would in their own language.
Thus Kalanga instead of sounding "Kalanka" was given a soft G sound from English as in "being", "doing", etc.
Kalanga was not the only victim of such mispronunciation. Another notable example is Buhera which is actually Uhera or Vuhera. The neighbouring Botswana and its capital Gaborone are also examples of victims if Anglicized mispronunciation.
So the bottom line is Kalanga and Karanga are exactly the same thing written differently then pronounced differently due to Anglicization of the pronunciation.
