The Xhosa cattle-killing movement and famine begins…
April 1856 CE
When she returns, Nongqawuse tells her uncle and guardian Mhlakaza, a Xhosa spiritualist, that she had met the spirits of three of her ancestors.
She claims that the spirits had told her that the Xhosa people should destroy their crops and kill their cattle, the source of their wealth as well as food.
In return the spirits will sweep the British settlers into the sea.
The Xhosa people will be able to replenish the granaries, and fill the kraals with more beautiful and healthier cattle.
During this time many Xhosa herds are plagued with "lung sickness", possibly introduced by European cattle.
Mhlakaza does not believe her at first but when Nongqawuse describes one of the men, her uncle Mhalakaza, himself a diviner, recognizes the description as that of his dead brother, and becomes convinced she is telling the truth.
Mhlakaza repeats the prophecy to paramount chief Sarili kaHintsa.
Chief Sarili sends emissaries to investigate the claims: they do not actually meet the strangers, but return home convinced of the truth of the prophecies.
Sarili now sends two of his councillors to notify the chiefs under British jurisdiction that they must sacrifice their 'bewitched' cattle.
After Sarili orders his followers to obey the prophecy, the cattle-killing movement spreads to an unstoppable point.
The cattle-killing frenzy will affect not only the Gcaleka, Sarili's clan, but the whole of the Xhosa nation.
Historians estimate that the Gcaleka kill between three hundred thousand and four hundred thousand head of cattle.
Not all Xhosa people believe Nongawuse's prophecies.
A small minority, known as the amagogotya (stingy ones), refuse to slaughter and neglect their crops, and this refusal will be used by Nongqawuse to rationalize the failure of the prophecies over a period of fifteen months (April 1856–June 1857).
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