East London (Oos-Londen) Eastern Cape South Africa
Related Events
Active Filters
Refine Results
Showing 3 events out of 3 total
Afrikaner trekboers migrating outwards from Cape Town in the late eighteenth century had come into conflict with Xhosa pastoralists around the Great Fish River region of the Eastern Cape.
The Xhosas, after more than twenty years of intermittent conflict, are forced east by British colonial forces in the Fourth Xhosa War from 1811 to 1812.
The Xhosas, after more than twenty years of intermittent conflict, are forced east by British colonial forces in the Fourth Xhosa War from 1811 to 1812.
The British Government had decided in February 1852 that Sir Harry Smith's inept rule has been responsible for much of the violence between the settlers and the Xhosa, and orders him replaced by George Cathcart, who had taken charge in March.
For six months, Cathcart had ordered scourings of the countryside for rebels.
Sandile and the other chiefs surrender in February 1853, and the Eighth Cape Frontier war, the bitterest and most brutal in the series of Xhosa wars, ends in the complete subjugation of the Ciskei Xhosa.
The Xhosa cattle-killing movement and famine begins in Cape Colony in April 1856, when fifteen-year old Xhosa prophet Nongqawuse and her friend Nombanda, who is between the ages of eight and ten, go to scare birds from her uncle's crops in the fields by the sea at the Gxara River mouth in the present day Wild Coast region of South Africa.
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).
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).