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Daily Maverick
14 hours ago
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
Nongqawuse was not the primary cause of the 1856 Cattle Killing — we are wrong to make her a scapegoat
I read with great interest the Daily Maverick article dated 6 June by Dr JJ Klaas and felt the need to make my personal observations with regards to the Cattle Killing of 1856-1857, based on my readings of the topic and visits to key locations in the Eastern Cape. A broad range of sources acknowledge that a devastating cattle disease arriving from Europe in Xhosa territories in the mid-1850s was a contributory factor in the mass slaughter of cattle by AmaXhosa and the subsequent undermining of their society. It was unlikely to have been the sole cause of tens of thousands of deaths of amaXhosa by starvation and mass displacement into the Cape Colony. It is likely that the slaughter of livestock was also heavily influenced by the interpretation of Nongqawuse's interaction with the ancestors, by her uncle and other senior leaders in AmaXhosa society. To this extent, the young prophetess (a seer) was a proximate, not the primary cause of this tragedy. We are wrong to blame 'that stupid girl', as she is so wrongly called by many. The real causes were many and sinister. After eight brutal wars against colonial powers, the murder of King Hintsa by British troops, drought, crop disease, cattle disease, persistent erosion of the leaders' dignity, AmaMfengu defection, European encroachment and an undermining of the chiefs' authority by magistrates and colonial governors, many echelons of AmaXhosa were under intolerable strain. Hope of ridding themselves of colonial tyranny would have been evaporating rapidly. Society and its senior leaders were extremely vulnerable. At a time of such intolerable and prolonged strain, notions of sacrifice for salvation from a seer and her supporters may well have fallen on receptive AmaXhosa ears. In fact, prophecies based on sacrifice for salvation or a new beginning, such as Nongqawuse's, were not new in this society. It wasn't an isolated event. We need to be mindful that slaughtering livestock to rid AmaXhosa of European encroachment had been a major theme of the distinguished prophets Makanda Nxele and Mlanjeni in previous decades. Similar prophecies based on livestock sacrifices to deliver better times for all were to continue in the region in future decades, most notably at times of huge societal stress. The notion that the cattle lung disease was deliberately introduced by Sir George Grey as a biological weapon to decimate AmaXhosa does not seem credible. Where's the evidence? Facilitating the importation and spread of cattle disease would have been extremely risky, running the risk of decimating the livestock of colonial settlers and undermining the local economy. Grey was consistently fastidious in controlling all affairs in the Cape. Nothing happened without his approval. Letting a cattle disease spread unpredictably is contrary to the nature of this highly ambitious colonial servant. He needed calm, stability and economic growth in his domain of control, not chaos and anarchy induced by cattle disease. That said, Grey did acknowledge and exploit the cattle killing movement after it had started. While initially concerned that it might start another war with AmaXhosa, he later stated how 'We can draw very great advantages from the situation'. This he did, providing starving AmaXhosa with food, only on the condition they worked in the Cape Colony where labour was scarce. We need to remember that the mass starvation and decimation of AmaXhosa society was not caused by the killing of cattle alone. Based on the spiritual interpretation of the young prophetess and her entourage, many AmaXhosa (the Believers) also followed the demand to destroy all their corn reserves and not to replant any crops the following season. So, many people lacked meat, dairy products and grains to eat. If corn hadn't been deliberately destroyed (as the prophecies demanded) and sowing had occurred the following season, is it likely that the mass starvation and undermining of Xhosa society would have been avoided, and a tragedy averted? Quite possibly. Whatever our interpretations of these events, we all need to be mindful of the colossal suffering resulting from this period of history. We must avoid translating gross suffering into cold, uncaring statistics. Never forget, it was a human tragedy of huge proportions. And lest we forget, many members of the public still blame much of this on Nongqawuse, a teenage orphan girl. I, for one, do not accept this simple explanation. On the occasions that I've stood at her graveside, I've always thought that she has been made a scapegoat for the actions and failings of many others. DM
Daily Maverick
02-06-2025
- General
- Daily Maverick
In search of Nongqawuse: unraveling the tragic legacy of a young Xhosa prophetess
Traveller and author Treive Nicholas reclaims the tragic story of the Gcaleka clan, by unpacking ancient amaXhosa heritage and offering a powerful re-examination of Nogqawuse in a harshly scarred history. A story of a young orphan girl and a catastrophic historic calamity… At the centre of this disturbing, ruinous tale is a young orphan girl whose intriguing spiritual prophecy 'captures' her community, tortured as they were, and ends in the horrific and painful mass starvation and death of thousands in her community, tragically nearly destroying them as a nation. The young prophetess, Nongqawuse, from the Gcaleka clan, does not die in this event. She is doomed to watch the killing of about 400,000 of her community's cattle she had called for as a sacrifice to the ancestors to save them against the colonists. She is then fated to witness the horrific and painful subsequent starvation of 40,000 of her people. Once this humanitarian fatality is over, Nongqawuse is rewarded by the harsh voice of history as the most disastrous calamity ever to have befallen her people. She is labelled the cause of their near annihilation and for centuries has been described as the evil reason behind their brokenness as a nation. What started out as a prophecy intended to save her people against the colonialist horror they faced turns into a self-induced horror for the once proud and mighty amaXhosa in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The profound impact of the event caused a cataclysmic shift in the trajectory of the history of South Africa, its consequences still visible and reverberating to this day. Author Treive Nicholas describes himself as a traveller 'who likes to retell stories'. In reading his book, this reviewer was moved from listening to his story to becoming a fellow traveller who saw this sad historic event in an entirely new light as he tackles the brave journey through Nongqawuse's life and times. Nicholas wanders through the horrific cattle-killing events of 1856 to 1857 in the beautiful Eastern Cape with mesmerising inquisitiveness. He paints the intriguing world of the indigenous amaXhosa, a proud, spiritual people haunted and hunted by the crusading colonialists who had beset their land out of greed, misplaced notions of superiority and egotistical lust for utter, despicable destruction and cruelty. He brings to life the fascinating key leaders of the amaXhosa, the amazing indigenous traditions, spirituality and connection to nature that governed their existence. He dwells on the historic contexts of the times, the colonial expansion, the brutality and inescapability of it, the decades of nine frontier wars fought by the Empire and the indescribable barbaric torture and killing of the amaXhosa leaders. Through this writer, readers travel to the beautiful spot where Nongqawuse met the ancestors who gave her the prophecy, to her grave on a farm where she worked as a domestic worker for the rest of her life. We meet extraordinary characters (some descendants of the very same colonialists) who know her story and care for her grave. We visit the tragic place where King Hintsa, the paramount king of the Xhosa people, was murdered so brutally by Sir Harry Smith and his men and to his grave where he rests as a symbol of Xhosa resistance and bravery. The book stirs in one profound questions about the meaning of girls and women in male-dominated societies, of the meaning of the loss of spiritually centred communities, of how humans make culprits and scapegoats of some, of the horrific pain some poor souls like Nongqawuse must bear in this life, of the beauty of the Eastern Cape and the importance of its history and the criticality of knowing this history. It's an old story from the 1700s, but it feels almost familiar. It speaks of the danger of desperate people doing desperate things in an attempt to survive. It speaks of revolutions gone wrong. I am still reeling from the facts about Harry Smith, hailed as an eternal hero in the UK, with his hands and body and head and hair soaked in the blood of thousands and thousands of people in Africa and India. What is it that we humans can make such heroes of people who prove in time to have been absolutely evil? The lesson is to fight the blindness infecting human groups who will tolerate the death and mutilation of people in huge numbers based on whatever reason they have convinced themselves of at the time. In Search of Nongqawuse is a gem. Nicholas is affected and changed by his pilgrimage, and in turn, changes the reader. He speaks with deep respect and does not allow ego, academic superiority or politics to bedevil his story. He is a traveller who fell in love with a story about a young orphan prophetess and tries to walk in her shoes, in her time and in her pain. I am richer for having read this book. The world is richer for Nicholas to have written it in the way he did. Which is why, in time, as I drive the beautiful Garden Route on holiday to the Eastern Cape, I might just turn onto a gravel route to seek out the sites he writes about. I will never stop wondering about Nongqawuse and the spirit of this orphaned amaXhosa girl and the profound existential questions her life gave birth to. DM
