by Peires, Jeff
What is curious is that this question of Nongqawuse’s grave is the only point on which my account has ever been strongly challenged by Xhosa-speakers. But it is after all a small matter in the total sum of dramatic events that made up the great cattle-killing. The dominant reaction of Xhosa-speakers to The Dead Will Arise and its arguments has been not rejection but indifference. This indifference bothered me, I have to admit, and it eventually gave rise to an article called ‘Suicide or Genocide? Xhosa Perceptions of the Nongqawuse Catastrophe.’31
It is not true that Sir George Grey hid in the reeds pretending to be a Xhosa ancestor. Nor is it true that his agents handed brown sugar around pretending it was a new sorghum. But it is true that the Xhosa themselves must bear a large share of the responsibility. It is true but it doesn’t matter. Because it is also true that the Xhosa were never defeated on the battlefield. And that a young girl under indirect Christian influence told them that the dead will arise if they killed their cattle. Above all, it is true that a foolish mistake was converted into a national catastrophe through the ruthless and implacable policies of Sir George Grey. These latter are the important truths, and all else is detail. The Xhosa don’t need white academics to give them a usable past. They already have one …
We [white academics] have tended to set our own agendas, to write our own kind of history (perhaps in accordance with overseas trends), and then to present it to the people in a simplified form. But writing people’s history is not so much a matter of simplification as a matter of relevance. It is not that there is no value in writing the most detailed history possible of Nongqawuse. Nor should we allow our interpretation of historical events to be influenced by fluctuating political circumstances, But we do, perhaps, need to define our priorities more in terms of the needs of the moment. South Africa … cannot afford the luxury of an irrelevant history.
This viewpoint caused a storm among my fellow academics. I was accused betraying my profession, pandering to political correctness and other terrible things. I was sure at the time that I was right. I tried to live up to my convictions by resigning my academic post and throwing myself into politics and government, leaving this book an orphan, as I pointed out at the beginning of this ‘afterword’. I still think I did the right thing as far as my personal integrity is concerned but, reacquainting myself with The Dead Will Arise after an absence of ten years, I must admit to feeling proud that the book has been able to stand on its own feet for so long. How much longer it continues to survive depends entirely on you.
1 Clifton C Crais, The Making of the Colonial Order: White Supremacy and Black Resistance in the Eastern Cape. 1770-1865 (Cambridge, 1992), p.2.
2 J Guy, ‘A Landmark, not a Breakthrough,’ South African Historical Journal, 25 (1991), p. 227.
3 LG 396 G Cyrus-R Southey, 4 Aug. 1856.
4 GH 23/26 G Grey-H Labouchere, 16 Aug. 1856.
5 Letter from Br. Kölbing, 28 Aug. 1857. Berichten uit de Heiden Wereld (1857), p.42. My own translation from the original Dutch. Dr Ross has also sent me an extract from another letter in the same volume, this one dated 18 December 1856 from Br. Hartmann of Goshen, stating that the prophet was ‘not, as was generally alleged at the beginning, a baptised convert of the English church’. There is an inconsistency in the dating of these two letters which makes it difficult to interpret the fact that the one contradicts the other.
6 Cape Parliamentary Paper G38 of 1858, ‘Deposition made by Nonquase, a Kafir Prophetess, in an Examination before the Chief Commissioner of British Kaffraria,’ Fort Murray, 9 April 1858. This appears in the bibliography to The Dead Will Arise, but I must admit that it is nowhere specifically discussed. It is very much a companion piece to Cape Parliamentary Paper G5 of 1858, ‘Papers indicating the Nature of the Plans formed by the Kafir Chiefs,’ which includes the depositions of Nkwintsha and Nonkosi, discussed at length in Ch. 7 (4).
7 WW Gqoba, ‘Isizatu Sokuxelwa Kwe Nkomo Ngo Nongqause,’ Isigidimi samaXosa, 1 March 1888 (Part I), 2 April 1888 (Part II). The text was abridged by Dr WB Rubusana in his Zemk’iinkomo Magwalandini (1906). The abridged text in Rubusana formed the basis for AC Jordan’s English translation, ‘The Tale of Nongqawuse,’ printed in Chapter 8 of Jordan (1973).
8 GH 8/35 Schedule 69, Examination of the Kaffir prophetess ‘Nonquase’ before Major Gawler, 27 April 1858.
9 BK 14 Statement … by Umjuza, 24 Feb. 1858
10 The genre was largely established by N Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millenium (London, 1957).
11 P Worsley, The Trumpet Shall Sound: A Study of ‘Cargo’ Cults in Melanesia, 2nd ed, (London, 1970).
12 GS Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi: the Mystical Messiah (Princeton, 1973); F Michael, The Taiping Rebellion (Seattle, 1966). The prophet/organiser duality is also evident in many of the cargo movements as well. See, for example, Worsley, Ch. 3.
13 Berlin Missionsberichte (1858), p.39. The following texts come from: BK 81 J Gawler-J Maclean, 30 Aug. 1856; BK 82 H Lucas-J Maclean, 14 Feb. 1857; GH 8/31 C Brownlee-J Maclean, 4 Jan. 1857.
14 Guy, ‘Landmark’. See also Guy’s article on ‘Gender oppression in southern Africa’s pre-capitalist societies’ in Women and Gender in Southern Africa to 1945 ed. Cherryl Walker (Cape Town, 1990).
15 For the marriage ceremonies, see JH Soga, The Ama-Xosa: Life and Customs (Lovedale, [1930], Ch. XI; A Kropf and R Godfrey, A Kafir-English Dictionary, 2nd ed. (Lovedale, 1915), p.222; L Alberti, Account of the Xhosa in 1807 (1810; trans. W Fehr, Cape Town 1968), Ch. XV.
16 Helen Bradford, ‘Women, Gender and Colonialism: Rethinking the History of the British Cape Colony and its Frontier Zones, c 1806-70,’ Journal of African History, 37 (1996).
17 She states for example that ‘The space accorded to analysing women’s participation in the movement occupies only two of the 338 pages.’ I could equally well argue that almost all the 338 pages are devoted to narrative rather than analysis, and that of the 119 lines devoted to analysing ‘Kin, Age and Gender’ (pp.194-8), 68 lines are devoted to gender thereby shortchanging kin and age. Again, at footnote 97, she engages me in a ludicrous orthographic quibble, the purpose of which I presume is to show that my understanding of the Xhosa language is somehow defective.
18 All Xhosa translations are in accordance with the first edition of Albert Kropf, A Kaffir-English Dictionary (Lovedale, 1899).
19 South African Historical Journal 25 (1991); J Lewis, ‘An Economic History of the Ciskei 1848-1900,’ (Ph.D, University of Cape Town, 1984).
20 TJ Stapleton, Maqoma: Xhosa Resistance to Colonial Advance (Johannesburg, 1994), Ch.6; TJ Stapleton, ‘”They no longer care for their chiefs”: Another look at the Xhosa Cattle-killing of 1856-7,’ International Journal of African Historical Studies, 24 (1991); TJ Stapleton, ‘Reluctant Slaughter: Rethinking Maqoma’s role in the Xhosa Cattle-killing (1853-1857)’, International Journal of African Historical Studies, 26 (1993).
21 The quotation is from Dan Wylie, ‘Language and Assassination: Cultural Negations in White Writers’ Portrayal of Shaka and the Zulu’ in The Mfecane Aftermath, ed. C Hamilton (Johannesburg, 1995). See also C Hamilton, Terrific Majesty: The Powers of Shaka Zulu and the Limits of Historical Invention (Cape Town, 1998).
22 Crais, op cit; A Ashforth, ‘The Xhosa Cattle Killing and the Politics of Memory,’ Sociological Forum, 6 (1991).
23 P Lawrence, Road Belong Cargo (Manchester, 1964); L Festinger, HW Riecken and S Schachter, When Prophecy Fails (Minnesota, 1956); EE Evans-Pritchard, Witchcraft, Miracles and Magic among the Azande (Oxford, 1937).
24 For a more detailed discussion of Crais’s analysis, see JB Peires, ‘Pinning the Tail on the Donkey,’ South African Historical Journal, 28 (1993).
25 GM Theal, Compendium of South African History and Geography, 3rd ed (1877).
26 See note 17 above.
27 These comments are grounded on the records of the Lovedale Press, the only outlet for Xhosa-language writing over many decades. See JB Peires, ‘The Lovedale Press: Literature for the Bantu Revisited,’ History in Africa, 6 (1979). I had the honour of knowing Mr RGS Makalima, who helped me translate several of the oral traditions I collected in 1975. However, he would neither confirm nor deny the rumours in circulation concerning himself.
28 NC Tisani, ‘Peires, Pathbreaker,’ South African Historical Journal, 25 (1991).
29 Nosipho Majeke’s, The Role of the Missionaries in Conquest was first published in 1952. It was reprinted by APDUSA (Cumberwood, 1986) with a short biography of Dora Taylor, and a helpful discussion of the circumstances under which the book was written.
30 There is a summary of Jolobe’s epic poem in GT Sirayi, ‘The African perspective of the 1856/1857 cattle-killing movement,’ South African Journal of African Languages, XI (1991). Dr Sirayi approaches the question from the perspective of African creative artists rather than the events themselves.
31 Radical History Review, 46/7 (1990).
Maps
Picture Section
Left: Nongqawuse, the chief prophetess of the cattle-killing, with (right), Nonkosi, the 11-year-old prophetess of the Mpongo river. This authentic photograph was taken while the prophetesses were held captive in King William's Town after the failure of the prophecies. They were dressed for the occasion by Mrs Gawler, the wife of their interrogator.
Mhlakaza, Nongqawuse's uncle, played a key role in the cattle-killing movement, but no picture of him has survived. Before the cattle-killing, however, Mhlakaza was known as Wilhelm Goliath, a Christian convert and personal servant to Archdeacon Merriman of Grahamstown. This picture shows the Xhosa dwelling where Mhlakaza lived, in the garden of the Archdeacon's Grahamstown house.
Sarhili (1909-1893), King of all the Xhosa, including the Xhosa of British Kaffraria. Sarhili's stong support of Nongqawuse's prophecies drove the cattle-killing movement forward in spite of every doubt and disappointment.
Sir Harry Smith, British war hero and Governor of the Cape (1847-1852). Defeated by the Xhosa during the War of Mlanjeni, he was recalled in disgrace.
Sir George Cathcart replaced Sir Harry Smith as Governor of the Cape (1852-4). He was disliked by his soldiers for his aloof attitude and dilatory tactics, but his strategy of attrition served the Xhosa into surrender.
The Xhosa made full use of their natural environment to counteract the superior firepower of the British forces. This painting by Thomas Baines shows the 2nd or Queens Regiment surrounded by Chief Siyolo in the Fish River bush, November 1851. The British lost sixty men in this engagement, their worst loss of life in any action of the war.
Sandile (1820-1878). Chief of the Ngqika Xhosa and senior chief in British Kaffraria. He hesitated and equivocated, but eventully joined in the cattle-killing.
Mhala (c. 1800-1875). Chief of the Ndlambe Xhosa. He strongly supported the cattle-killing from the beginning because he believed that '...My father would appear, and my mother would appear, and I should not be old.'
Fadana, the leader of the Thembu believers. A former regent of the Thembu Kingdom (1830-1840), Fadana raised an army of believers to seize cattle from the unbelievers and the white settlers.
Phatho (c. 1795-1869), Chief of the Gqkunukhwebe Xhosa. Phatho had lost 96 per cent of his cattle through lungsickness before the cattle-killing even began. Another strong believer, the strategic location of his territory in the immediate hinterland of East London, made him a prime target for Governor Grey.
Anta, brother to Sandile, fought strongly against the Colony in all the Frontier Wars but rejected the prophecies of Nongqawuse. His chiefdom, high in the Windvogelberg mountain, was free of lungsickness and served as a rallying-point for the unbelievers.
Kama, brother to Phatho, was a convinced Christian. He resisted the cattle-killing to the best of his ability, but was harshly treated by the colonial authorities in the aftermath.
Toyise, cousin to Sandile and Mhala. He co-operated with the colonial authorities in all of the Frontier Wars. He was the last chief in British Kaffraria to put a suspected witch to death, but he nevertheless rejected the cattle-killing process.
Dyani Tshatshu of the small amaNtinde chiefdom, was a Christian chief who had visited Britain in 1835 at the request of the missionaries. He was disliked by the colonial authorities, but he too opposed the cattle-killing.
Sir George Grey, Governor of the Cape (1854-61). Brilliant and paranoid, Grey's humanitarian rhetoric concealed a ruthless imperialism. He destroyed the Xhosa in the Eastern Cape, just as he had previously destroyed the Maori of New Zealand.
Sir Harry Smith, British war hero and Governor of the Cape (1847-1852). Defeated by the Xhosa during the War of Mlanjeni, he was recalled in disgrace.
Lieutenant-Colonel William Eyre, 73rd Regiment, the architect of the colonial military victory during the War of Mlanjeni.
Charles Brownlee (1821-1890). Ngqika Commissioner. The most liberal of the colonial officials and a fluent Xhosa-speaker, Brownlee tried and failed to protect the unbelievers against the believers on the one hand and his own government on the other.
Sir Walter Currie, Commander of the Frontier Armed and Mounted Police. He led the armies that drove the starving believers out of their country to make way for white settlement
Major John Cox Gawler. Magistrate with Mhala. He encouraged the unbelievers to revolt against their chief, and organised them into a police force which terrorised the believers after the failure of the prophecies. Gawler captured the prophetesses Nongqawuse and Nonkosi, and acted as prosecuter in the trials of the Xhosa chiefs.
Colonel Fredrick Reeve, Magistrate with Kama. Like Gawler, a product of Colonel Eyre's 73rd Regiment, Reeve distinguished himself by the efficiency with which he forced the starving believers into labour service with the white farmers.
Xhosa chiefs imprisoned on Roben Island in 1858. Maqoma and his wife Katye are at bottom right.
Left to right: Maqoma, Siyolo and Xhoxho on their release from Robben Island in 1869. Defiant to the last, Maqoma was rearrested in 1871 and sent back to the Island where he died a lonely death in 1873. Siyolo and Xhoxho took up arms for the last time in the Ninth Frontier War (1877-8). Both of them died in battle.
Select Bibliography
Select Bibliography
1. Primary Sources
A. Cape Archives, Cape Town
Acc 611/7 Southey Papers.
Acc 793 Letterbook of Major Gawler.
BK 14 President, Criminal Court Commission, British Kaffraria, 1856-60.
BK 69-71 Gaika Commissioner (Brownlee).
BK 81 Magistrate with Umhala (Gawler).
BK 82 Magistrate with Macomo (Lucas).
BK 83 Magistrate with Pato (Vigne).
BK 85 Magistrate with Anta (Robertson).
BK 86 Magistrate with Kama (Reeve).
BK 89 Secret Information.
BK 100 Health (Fitzgerald).
BK 373 Letters dispatched to the High Commissioner.
CO 2949-2952 Tambookie Agent (J Warner).
GH 8/16-43 Dispatches received from Chief Commissioner, British Kaffraria.
GH 8/48-50 Unofficial Correspondence, Maclean-Grey.
GH 19/8 Chiefs Sandilli, Kreli, Pato etc.
GH 20/2/1 Papers relative to British Kaffraria, 1853-8.
GH 23/26-7 Letters dispatched to Colonial Office, London.
GH 30/4-5 Letters dispatched by High Commissioner.
B. Cory Library, Grahamstown
Sir George Cory Interviews.
John Ross Papers.
&
nbsp; MIC 172/2 United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (microfilm).
MS 7113 RJ Mullins Diary.
MS 575-588 Miscellaneous Letters relating to 8th Frontier War.
MS 15 899 Methodist Church Records.
MS 16 713 Grahamstown Diocese Archives.
PR 3664 EG Sihele Ibali labaTembu.
PR 3624 J Fitzgerald Letterbook.
PR 3563 H Halse Autobiography.
C. South African Library, Cape Town
MSB 139 Cumming Papers.
Grey Collection.
D. Great Britain
Bramston, TR Diary. Greenjackets Regimental Museum, Winchester.
Elwes, VDC Letters. Lincolnshire Archives, Lincoln.
Fisher, J Letters. Greenjackets Regimental Museum, Winchester.