by Peires, Jeff
Mhala then accused Gawler of planning to pay his favourites twice over. ‘Pay these men,’ he demanded for the second time, indicating his nominees. ‘I shall pay whom I please,’ retorted Gawler, flourishing an official paper at the chief. ‘Here are ten names. Read, Umhala, if you can! No! No one but myself, the Government, and the [councillor] that receives the money shall know about it. The money belongs to the Government and they may give it to whom they please.’
Gawler had won the first round. The next day, he followed up his victory by attempting to subvert two leading councillors.
I then told them the Government did not wish them to be entirely at Umhala’s mercy and had therefore sent the instructions. Umhala had insulted me while carrying out these, but I did not care, I shall stick to them. As long as Umhala received his own money that was all he had to trouble himself about. They were very cordial, and they were very glad and hoped they should be sent for sometime [to get a salary]. I replied if I send for one I shall not tell another of it and I will make no promises. I have seldom seen men so perfectly satisfied.12
Mhala came to call the next morning. Gawler refused to shake his hand and reprimanded him severely. It must have been galling for Mhala to be thus put down in his country by a young man rather less than half his age, a man who was not even born when he started to reign.13 But circumstances soon turned the tables on Gawler. Very shortly after the salary incident, a man named Gabinyana stole a gun from a Mfengu living in Mhala’s district.14 Gabinyana was a follower of Sigidi, a Gcaleka Xhosa chief in no way genealogically junior to Mhala but resident within the district in which the colonial authorities recognised Mhala as the sole responsible chief. Gawler made out a clear case for theft against Gabinyana, but neither the thief nor Sigidi his chief would appear in the magistrate’s court. Gawler then approached Mhala who said that ‘he did not see what he had to do with it’, but eventually gave his consent for a punitive expedition to be organised by the magistrate.
Gawler assembled some 80 men, including three of Mhala’s sons, a large but somewhat half-hearted party. What incentive might a Xhosa have to raid a fellow-Xhosa at the behest of a colonial magistrate? Major Gawler was soon to get his first lesson in practical Xhosa politics. At dawn on 18 April, Gawler’s party surprised Gabinyana’s homestead. Two of his men ran away but Gabinyana planted himself boldly in the doorway of his dwelling holding the stolen carbine in his hand and daring all 80 opponents to take him if they could. Gawler ordered his men to fire the dwelling but by this time his unwilling followers were completely beyond his control. Gawler’s personal servant tried to set the thatch alight, but it was too damp and would not burn. Finally, giving up on Gabinyana, Gawler ordered his party to seize the cattle. This was done, though in a state of complete confusion, the posse all milling around uncertain what to do and getting increasingly worried as the war cry resounded among Gabinyana’s neighbours.
Not without difficulty Gawler sent some of the men ahead with the cattle, while he struggled to get the rest of them into line. At this point, Gabinyana pulled the trigger, and the mere sound of the shot sent the rearguard fleeing in all directions. Another blast panicked the cattleguard, and the rout was completed by the whistling of Gabinyana’s followers, which stampeded the cattle so that Gawler’s party scattered in all directions pursued by the very beasts they were supposedly trying to capture. They ran for more than two kilometres without stopping, Mhala’s sons jumping off their horses to avoid recognition. The shots they fired in return only served to frighten the cattle into returning back to Gabinyana’s homestead. Gawler tried his best, swearing at his men in English and beating them with his cane, but his first attempt to enforce British justice had been comprehensively smashed by no more than one determined Xhosa.
Unwilling to risk another defeat, Gawler ordered Sigidi, Gabinyana’s chief, to pay a fine of 50 cattle and deliver up the thieves and their guns within six days ‘or take the consequences’. After Gawler’s debacle, Sigidi was not afraid to take the consequences and six days passed, 12 days, 18 days without any fine.15 The old British Kaffraria hands were openly critical of Gawler’s judgement. A fine of 50 cattle was too heavy, they said: Sigidi would gladly have paid a smaller fine to be rid of the incident. Gawler was told not to impose a fine unless he was certain either that it would be paid or that he was in a position to enforce it.16 As the Cattle-Killing approached, Gawler’s standing in Mhala’s country could hardly have been lower.
1 For the Gawler family and John Cox Gawler’s early life, see CWN (1900).
2 For Gawler’s admiration of Eyre, see Gawler (1873), p.5. For his role in the battle of Berea, H Pearse, ‘The Kaffir and Basuto Campaigns of 1852 and 1853’, United Services Magazine, 17 (1898), pp.530-4. For looting by the 73rd Regiment, see Acc. 8402-5, National Army Museum, Diary of L Graham, 23 June 1852. For massacre and rape on Sotho, Acc. 8108-5, Diary of WJ St John, 23 Dec. 1852. For hanging corpses in trees, see Ch. 1, Note 76.
3 GH 8/27 Schedule 225 of 24 Nov. 1855; Witwatersrand University Library, Journal of R Wilmot, pp.207-8.
4 On the Ndlambe succession, see Peires (1981), pp.82-4; on Mhala, see also ‘Nzulu Lwazi,’ ‘Umhala A, Mbodla!’, Umteteli waBantu, 26 Sept. 1931; Appleyard (1971), p.52; Maclean, (1858), p.132.
5 ‘Nzulu Lwazi’, Umteteli, 26 Sept. 1931.
6 H. Smith (1901), Vol. 2, p.73.
7 Peires (1981), p.139.
8 GH 8/27 J Maclean-WF Liddle, 23 Nov. 1855.
9 Uncatalogued MS, Cory Library, Diary of Clerk to Colonel Maclean at Fort Murray, 19 Jan. 1856.
10 BK 81 J Gawler-J Maclean, 16 March 1857.
11 The entire account of Gawler’s confrontation with Mhala over pay is taken from Gawler’s extremely detailed letter to Maclean, in BK 81, 24 April 1856.
12 BK 81 J Gawler-J Maclean, 24 April 1856.
13 Mhala was born about 1800 and became chief of the Ndlambe in 1829. Gawler was born on 7 April 1830.
14 The Gabinyana affair is described in detail in BK 81 J Gawler-J Maclean, 19 April 1856. This occurred after the quarrel over pay, though the despatch is of an earlier date.
15 GH 8/28 J Gawler-Chief Commissioner, 13, 23 May 1856.
16 GH 8/28 Schedule 267, April 1856, marginal note by J Ayliff.
2. MHALA GETS A MESSAGE
Mhala’s people were initially cool to the news of Nongqawuse’s prophecies. ‘Oh go to the Bashee [River] they are killing plenty,’ Smith Mhala told Gawler in June 1856, ‘but this news is not quite strong enough for us to kill ours.’ ‘My father and mother are dead,’ said another, ‘and I shall wait until I see them among the Russians before I kill my cattle.’ Far from rushing off to slaughter their cattle, most of the ordinary Ndlambe Xhosa hastened to buy the cattle and goats that their believing Gcaleka neighbours were bringing for sale at rock-bottom prices.1
But there was at least one man among them whose heart yearned after a better world, and who grasped eagerly at every hope that Nongqawuse held out to him: Mhala, the chief. How great was the change which time had wrought in the bright young man of 30 years ago, whose outstanding qualities had led the councillors to nominate him old Ndlambe’s successor despite the lowliness of his birth! How great the change in that much-vaunted wisdom which had led Governor Smith to call Mhala ‘a man of superior intellect, and the only [Xhosa] who could judge cause and effect and future results’.2 Although no more than 60 years old, Mhala was feeling his age and the pains of lumbago. His increasingly uncertain grip on political affairs was visibly undermined by the growing vigour and self-confidence of Makinana and Smith, his capable and ambitious sons. Now, in the twilight of his long reign, Mhala found his liberty of action and his rights of patronage subject to the whim of his young British magistrate. For all his shrewdness and all his cunning, Mhal
a was a man whose vision of the future was blocked by a host of threatening and insuperable obstacles, and his mind naturally preferred to dwell on the past, when he was still in the prime of life, and his power and his freedom were quite unfettered. He was moreover, in SEK Mqhayi’s words, ‘a man who was humble to authority. There was nothing done at the Great Place, home of Sarhili which he did not follow after.’3
When, therefore, Mhala heard officially of the prophecies through Sarhili’s messenger Kinco (late June 1856), he sent a delegation headed by his favourite son Mtshatsheni to the Gxarha, where they saw Nongqawuse ‘talking’ to the new people in the magic bush. Even though they themselves saw nothing at all, the delegates were very impressed and Mtshatsheni slaughtered one of his cattle as soon as he reached home.4
But no matter how much Mhala may have wanted to believe in the Cattle-Killing, he had to proceed carefully. Makinana, his Great Son, said that he ‘would believe the reports when he saw his grandfather H’lambie and not till then; and that he would cut the throat of any fool in his kraal that commenced killing his cattle’. Smith, his Right-Hand Son, who openly referred to Xhosa diviners as frauds and who had himself survived a witchcraft accusation the previous year, likewise opposed the movement.5 Even more important to Mhala was the opposition of leading councillors such as old Gqirana, who had milked for him when he was a boy, and Ndayi, son of Tsora, whose praises have already been discussed.6 ‘They are men without whom Umhala cannot stir a finger,’ exulted Gawler. Several of them were already on his secret payroll. ‘There is no danger,’ they told the magistrate, ‘as the great ones are not with [Mhala].’7
Faced by this opposition, Mhala adopted a public position of apparent neutrality, ‘saying it [the Cattle-Killing] was a foolish thing that he should not trouble his head about’. Warned by his fellow believer Maqoma to act with discretion lest the government find out, Mhala opened his campaign in favour of the Cattle-Killing by attempting to promote believers – ‘a number of young second-rate counsellors, ambitious of distinction and ready to take their chance in forwarding any of the current nonsense’ – at the expense of the established, mostly unbelieving councillors.8 He brought five of these to Gawler, asking quietly yet decidedly that these should be paid since they were his councillors. Gawler told him to take them away and walked off, leaving the chief speechless with anger and frustration. Mhala sent the magistrate a message, saying he did not like him and would ask for his removal, but Gawler remained unmoved, retorting that far from learning his lesson, Mhala was getting worse. The chief had no option but to back down once again.
Gawler’s little victories did nothing to increase his influence. Unable to challenge their magistrate openly, the Xhosa responded to his arbitrary behaviour by killing their cattle against his wishes. When Gawler and his interpreter approached a homestead where the believers were feasting on slaughtered cattle, the Xhosa deliberately slaughtered more cattle in their presence, defiantly rejecting their arguments to the contrary. There was nothing that either Gawler or the leading councillors could do to curb the mounting enthusiasm for cattle-killing which spread like wildfire among the Ndlambe. ‘Within the last few days,’ wrote Gawler towards the end of August, ‘the lower orders have taken to cattle-killing … I am not yet aware of any influential person having yet commenced.’9
After a great deal of hesitation, Mhala appears to have concluded that since the Cattle-Killing could not be hidden indefinitely from the colonial authorities, it would be best to have it out in the open as soon as possible. For this reason, he officially notified Governor Grey of the message he received from Sarhili towards the end of September, and he even invited Gawler to be present at the public reception of Sarhili’s messenger, Sixaxa. Gawler’s lengthy account leaves no doubt that the meeting was staged especially for his benefit. Sixaxa, ‘an old man with cross eyes’, said very little, simply restating the orders to kill, and none of the assembled crowd said very much, either. Gawler, backed by Ndayi, urged them not to kill their cattle, but his speech was received in silence. Mhala had gained his point: the government could not accuse him of hiding anything, neither could it prevent the people from killing cattle which were, after all, their own private property. Sixaxa stayed on at Mhala’s Great Place long after the public meeting and doubtless communicated all of Sarhili’s wishes in a suitably private manner.10
Mhala now recovered something of his old zest and energy. He was prepared to admit out of deference to the sceptics that the prophecies should not be acted upon without some kind of tangible proof, and a delegation headed by three of his sons, Smith, Mtshatsheni and Gemptu, was despatched to the Gxarha. Mhala did not conceal his hope that they would return with a positive report. He was sufficiently confident, even before they returned, to send official messages to the unbelieving Ndlambe chiefs, Siwani, Toyise and Dyani Tshatshu, informing them of Sarhili’s orders and instructing them to kill their cattle. Finally, and most significantly, he secretly ordered his people not to cultivate their fields in the coming season and threatened to confiscate the property of any who disobeyed. Aside, he said to a councillor that if there was any objection from the government, they could just go and pick away at the hills, pretending to cultivate but not putting any seed into the ground.11
All Mhala’s old lassitude had vanished. ‘He has brightened up wonderfully lately,’ wrote the missionary, Greenstock. Even Magistrate Gawler reported that Mhala’s ‘former dull and frequently sullen and uncivil demeanour towards me has lately changed – he is now very civil, high-spirited and witty’. So certain was Mhala of the truth of the prophecies that he sent Chief Commissioner Maclean himself a message, urging him not to prejudge the Cattle-Killing, but ‘to listen to me and not to be too hasty in telling the people to plough or to stop them killing their cattle’.12
1 Acc 793, J Gawler-J Maclean, 30 June 1856; BK 1 J Gawler-J Maclean, 28 July 1856.
2 H Smith (1901), Vol. 2, p.83.
3 ‘Nzulu Lwazi’ in Umteteli, 26 Sept. 1931; Acc 793 J Gawler-R Graham, 11 April 1865.
4 CH 8/29 Information communicated to the Chief Commissioner, 1 July 1856; BK 81 J Gawler-J Maclean, 7 Oct. 1856; Acc 793 J Gawler-J Maclean, 25 July 1856. For a fuller description of what the delegation saw, see Chapter 3/3 above.
5 Acc 793 J Gawler-J Maclean, 2 Aug. 1856; Cory Library, RJ Mullins diary, 21 June 1855; GH 8/49 J Gawler-J Maclean, 5 Nov. 1856.
6 BK 140 J Maclean-CJ Boyle, 20 Jan. 1856; for full Ndayi praise poem, see above, Chapter 5/4, pp.177-8.
7 GH 18/6 J Gawler-J Maclean, 15 Aug. 1856.
8 BK 70 C Brownlee-J Maclean, 9 Aug. 1856; GH 8/29 J Gawler-J Maclean, 14 Aug. 1856.
9 BK 81 J Gawler-J Maclean, 30 Aug. 1856; Cory Interviews, Cory Library, Interview with WRD Fynn, 16 April 1913.
10 BK 81 J Gawler-J Maclean, 1 Oct. 1856.
11 BK 70 C Brownlee-J Maclean, 19 Oct. 1856; BK 81 J Gawler-J Maclean, 7, 14 Oct. 1856; BK 89 R Fielding-J Maclean, 14 Oct. 1856; BK 140 Information communicated 8 Oct. 1856; GH 20/2/1 John Ayliff jnr-J Maclean, 11 Oct. 1856.
12 Microfilm 172/2, Reel 8, Cory Library, W Greenstock-USPG, Nov. 1856; BK 81 J Gawler-J Maclean, 14 Oct. 1856; Acc 793 J Gawler-J Maclean, 29 Oct. 1856.
3. BULUNGWA PLOUGHS
Only one man had the courage to cultivate in spite of Mhala’s interdict. This was his nephew Bulungwa, described by Gawler as ‘courageous and straightforward though a great beggar and over-ambitious’.1 His Xhosa neighbours also thought Bulungwa over-ambitious, and they rightly suspected him of acting as a colonial informer. As a member of the royal clan, he was fully a chief in his own right, and he had allowed many Mfengu to settle on his lands around the Gxulu river. On 11 October, about a week after Mhala had issued the ban, Bulungwa gave his people the word to cultivate.2
It was whispered among the people that Bulungwa should be kil
led because ‘he was always with the English and thought to make himself great by not killing his cattle and continuing ploughing in spite of Umhala’. Towards the end of October, Mhala sent for a Xhosa doctor to discover who had made himself and Makinana sick. As Bulungwa was sitting in the dwelling of a fellow unbeliever, the doctor looked in on them meaningfully. The other unbeliever killed an ox that very day and stopped digging up his garden, but Bulungwa refused to take the hint.3
In the early afternoon of 28 October, Magistrate Gawler was disturbed by a shout and, looking out of his makeshift office, saw a posse of men rushing from Mhala’s Great Place towards Bulungwa’s homestead. He scrambled out and joined the runners, asking innocently where they were going and what they wanted, although he knew very well that they were off to seize Bulungwa as a witch. Mhala’s son Ghoghoshe, who led the party, looked sourly at Gawler, but nobody interfered with him, nor did they slacken their pace.
The Doctor, stark naked, ran in front occasionally smelling round a bush or in the grass, or stopping and looking wildly round and sniffing the breeze. With the exception of a few such lulls we kept up a pretty smart pace, and when he stopped to smell we chanted loud to encourage him in his laudable search but while at full speed, an occasional yell or whistle sufficed to keep his spirits up.4