NONGQAWUSE: THE TRAGIC STORY OF THE XHOSA

CATTLE-KILLING
By 1820, Europeans who consisted of British settlers, French, Dutch and German
mercenaries had slowly gained the land they occupied in the Cape through a
series of wars against the native amaXhosa.
The terror of war they brought to the shores of natives, destroyed amaXhosas
food-storages; raided their cattle, butchered their kings, and took skulls of
murdered kings home to Britain as trophies for conquest.
The Cape of 1854 (eastern coastline) had a valley called Gxarha. This valley
became famous for a girl who had a vision of a new world for the future of her
people amaXhosa. Nongqawuse was her name; she had lost her parents to a
war waged by Harry Smiths war (1850- 1853) against King Sandile and his
prophet aid called Mlanjeni- The Riverman.
Nongqawuses vision came with an instruction to tell her uncle Mhlakaza (a
missionary aid convert and a Kings advisor) to relay to the Great King of
amaXhosa, Sarhili, that a time for a new world had come:
Kill all the cattle suffering from lung disease, destroy the infected crop, and
sacrifice the remaining healthy cattle to prepare for the end of the world and the
beginning of a new one, said the strange men Nongqawuse saw in her vision at
the valley.
Nongqawuses vision divided her nation into two opposing groups, the believers
and the unbelievers.
AmaGqobhoka believers had faith in a new world of bounty, two suns in
the sky, new men who will drive the settlers to the sea that Nongqawuse
prophesied about.
AmaGogotya stingy unbelievers, did not believe Nongqawuses prophesy.
When the prophesy of two suns, bounty, new men and extended
youthfulness did not come to pass, the two groups of amaGqobhoka and
amaGogotya blamed each another.
The group of stingy amaGogotya, mostly Mfengus, had turned coat at this time.
Having joined the British settlers, they fell out of step with Nongqawuses vision.
They did not cease cultivation of the land as vision required, and they ignored
the call for sacrificing. This refusal by amaGogotya to heed Nongqawuses
instructions brought on themselves the fury of amaGqobhoka the believers.
When attacked, these turn-coats ran to the British settlers for protection.
Christianity had been preached amongst amaXhosa since a missionary named
Johannes Van der Kemp settled at the Great House of the royal Xhosa clan
amaNgqika in 1799. Van der Kemp who had bought the freedom of his Khoi wife
from Dutch slavery, in the western Cape, blended well with amaXhosa. He was
known to enjoy walking bare feet, unlike his white counterparts. He is amongst
the first to teach resurrection of the dead to the natives.
At this time of missionary expansion Nongqawuses uncle, Mhlakaza, was a
missionary help. Before associating with Christianity and its new teachings of
resurrection, Mhlakaza was a seer (diviner) who came from a line of traditional
advisors to the King.
With much anxiety and interest, Sir George Grey, the governor of British colony
(west of the cape), watched the cattle killing events unfold. Grey was most afraid
of a possible revolt rumored by his spies that, King Sarhili was collaborating with
King Moshoeshoe against settler domination in the Cape.
Grey was troubled because he had just introduced a system of paying salaries to
chiefs and kings, on condition that they give up their roles as judges and
magistrates over matters of amaXhosa law and amaXhosa practice of justice.
The final prediction, of double sun rising on the morning of 16 February, 1857,
did not occur.
When attempts by the movement (of believers) that wanted to see the end of
settler domination, saw tens of thousands die and the might of amaXhosa
broken, Sir George Grey did not only breath a deep sigh of relief. He quickly
absorbed these remains of a broken people into cheap labor, driving the final nail
in the coffin of a proud and self-governing natives.
Traditionally amaXhosa have been close to their ancestors. There have been
many prophets even before Nongqawuse. The Riverman, Mlanjeni, is one such
prophet who gained his fame from the feat of surviving underwater for prolonged
periods and keeping alive by eating wild plants that resembled grass.
In the eighth frontier war, a war fought by combined forces of abaThembu,
amaXhosa and Khoi, prophet Mlanjeni promised to turn bullets of British
occupants into water. Mlanjenis words, turning bullets to water, carried on
tradition from prophet Makhanda ka Nxele who prophesied the same during the
fifth war that broke owing to cattle theft by Grahamstown settlers.

Written by: Rithuli Orleyn, Freelance Writer & Historian