ALL IS NOT XHOSA THAT SPEAKS SOUTH AFRICAN ISIXHOSA LANGUAGE, MR JACOB ZUMA!

South Africa: a multi-cultural society
And unless that someone is seriously looking for trouble
nobody at the expense of others shall unduly elevate one ethnic group
Be it President Nelson Mandela "Xhosa",
President Jacob Zuma's Zulu &Natal Indians
Or Even Julius Malema's Pedis
("when" Malema becomes President of South Africa)

artist's impression of true-
blooded holy Royal Xhosa
Pedigree:
Non-Racial and non Tribalist
19th Century Ruler
Prince Sandile ka Ngqika
kaMlawu kaRharhabe
kaPhalo ka Tshiwo
kaNgconde......
ALL THE WAY BACK TO
THE GREAT NAME
"TSHAWE"

"All is not gold that glitters". Right?  All is not ethnic Swazi that speaks Siswati in South Africa. Right? All is not Russian that speaks Russian in Soth Africa.  Right? All is not Swahili that speak Kiswahili in Soth Africa.  Right?

You will find a Msimang who is ethnic Zulu. Right?  Just as you can find another who is ethnic Sotho. Right? You will find a Phiri in South Africa who is ethnically a Congolese, right?  Just as you may find a Phiri Goodman who is ethnically Malawian, ex-Ngoni, ex-Zulu, right?

You will find a Hadebe in South Africa who is ethnic Swazi, right?  Just as you may find another Hadebe who here who is ethnic Zulu, right?  Inasmuch as you can find a Hadebe ("Radebe") who is ethnic Xhosa, right?  Just as all three abovementined Hadebes may tomorrow wake up and decide to qualify all of themselves as "ethnic Hlubi", right?

Am I so glad that so far we are on the same wave-length!

Now come let us tackle my current South Africa , particularly under Mr Jacob Zuma.

South Africa has well over nine official and non-official ethnic groups.  This tends to represent a vast opinion in terms of outlooks when a particular head of state comes from one grouping or another. Most of these differences in outlook are just another result of ignorance, because, remember: all of us are one tribe and one ethnic group deep inside, called HUMAN BEINGS!

Blogger is a voracious but deeply-analytical reader of South African history, and it has occured to me that sometimes when I argue my points around current Zumaphoid South Africa (so xenophobic, black-racialistic and so narrowly-Zumaphoid-Zulu-tribal that Phiri whose ancestors come from KZN is excluded from Zulu) my readership may not be on the same page with me.

Hence,I have resolved that some of the stuff I read in terms of South African history, I share with you here on my blog because, as you might know, to get a book you must chase it at the library BUT SOME BOOKS FIND YOU.  So did the book I am highlightng on this post... it found me!.

Therefore, today I present you with the history of AmaXhosa from the perspective of scintillating exerpts I picked from a great source of such history: "The House of Phalo, by J.B. Peires".

It was important for me to start with Xhosa history because as you might know, since the early 1940s (some 80 years ago) South Africa's ruling party, the great, dear and redoubtable African National Congress-ANC (with some of us having verified and verifiable ancestors who participated in its founding back in 1912) has been being ruled by so-called "the Xhosas", in all practical terms. Some people even believe (and they have my sympathies) that even 100%-Zulu Zuma's throne today is powered by a tribalism of his fellow Ngunis, the "Xhosa"  who has been ruling the ANC for the aforesaid over 70 years in all practical terms).

In that respect, you may want to recall that the entire 1940's were practically dominated by ANC President A.B. Xuma, the first "Xhosa", per Blogger's understanding to run the ANC.  In the same period there were other "Johnnys-come-lately" to the ANC like Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Peter Mda, Walter Sisulu, Lionel Majombozi, Robert Sobukwe... who found all other ethnic groups, particularly the Zulus, Pedis and Swazis who were in the forefront of the ANC founding long established in Johannesburg with black-lawyers' offices, a favourite pratice those days, scattered in the Golden City ([although Nelson Mandela will of course lie to us in his autobiography to falsely claim that "the first black lawyers office in Johannesburg was opened by the Xhosas in the 1940s"]).  In fact, the ANC, and for the very first time, was sent "awash" with Xhosa-speakers for the very first time in those 1940s.

Nelson Mandela
(in "Long Walk to Freedom")and one of his
classic political lies that have
down the ages caused Eastern-Cape
regionalism and so-called
Xhosa tribalism in South Africa
with overseniorized Xhosa officers terrorizing
even as of Zuma's 2012 non-Xhosa
South Africans under the false belief
that "Everything About The Ruling ANC
Was Initiated By Xhosa Speakers"
IN FACT, THE "1952 LAWYERS' OFFICE"
OPENED BY THE PICTURED GENTLEMAN
TOGETHER WITH HIS "FELLOW XHOSA" OLIVER TAMBO
IN JOHANNESBURG WAS DECADES
BEHIND OFFICES OPENED BY SEVERAL
OTHER BLACK LAWYERS IN JOHANNESBURG
INCLUSIVE OF THOSE OPENED BY ZULUS
PIXLEY SEME AND ANTON LEMBEDE!
"For that matter, Mandela frequnted Dr Pixley Seme's
Legal offices down President Street in Johannesburg
apparently for studies and biographically-unacknowledged
law articles in the 1940's"
(if Seme's daughter, Helen, is to be believed)

The source (if you ask Phiri) of a minefield
in hidden edicts and lies pro-Xhosa tribalism
(like the one shown in previous picture)
authored by someone who individually may
(with full constitutional rights be a Xhosa)
but ethnologically is a Tembu/Thembu
and as much an ethnological Xhosa
as both the son and grandson of Xhosa Holy King Phalo
(respectively, Rharhabe and Mlawu of the 18th Century)
were not murdered by Mandela's Tembu ancestors
with all the blood-filled wanton disregard to officership in royal blood
Come 2012, Mandela's relative disregards both Phiri's officership
and royal blood and gets ordered by Jacob Zuma to raid my home
in Centurion with 6 armed military police for the reason of standing
against the Zuma-protected Mandelasque Xhosa tribalism in South Africa!

The result of that ethnic deluge from the Eastern Cape was seen in the historical fact that no sooner was probably-Xhosa-speaking Xuma outsted towards the tail-end of the said decade, ONLY TWO NON-XHOSAS (Moroka and Luthuli with the second one of those mysteriously murdered to give yet another Xhosa-speaker the longest serving time as party president) in the rest of the 20th  century succeeded to become ANC Presidents WITH WEAK-KNEED JACOB ZUMA BEING THE FIRST (ALBEIT IN THIS 21ST CENTURY), AFTER ALL THOSE YEARS OF ANC DOMINATION BY ONE "TRIBE" WHEREAS THE FOUNDER OF THE ANC,ZULU-SPEAKING PIXLEY KA-ISAKA SEME WAS VOCIFEROUSLY ANTI-TRIBALISM AS HE WAS ANTI-RACISM.

The Hegemony of "Xhosa" in the helm of the ANC, is in reference to the rule of the Xhosa-speaking Mpondo, one Oliver Reginald Tambo (for Phiri, he ran exile camps just like another Xhosa Bantustan, with anybody who questioned Eastern-Cape regionalism being tortured to death for his trouble.

Then came the Tembu/Thembu, Nelson Mandela who, in any case, is one of the main peanuts of the 1940 pro-Eastern-Cape deluge into the ANC.  I cannot say anything about Nelson Mandela since maybe half of my blogs are discussing the man and a relative or two of his in Zuma's government employ for the purpose of terrorizing non-Xhosa-speakers employed by the same government.

After Nelson Mandela, the Nation pleaded that, Please Mr Mandela, allow a Venda-Tribe individual to run the ANC in order to break the spate of apparent "Xhosa" tribalism, BUT MANDELA SAID NO!!!

His blue-eyed boy a Xhosa-speaking Mfengu by the name of Thabo Mbeki became the president of the party to cement further what today is a 70-year-old "Xhosa-speaking tribalism and black racism even in South Africa's public sector")

This is what brought about the wave that saw the rise of Jacob Zuma (until of course, Jacob Zuma was, in my view put into the pocket of the self-same regionalists by means of the strange spy tapes that left him off the hook from explaining corruption allegations in front of a judge before becoming our State President.

The rest of this saga is history with the recent fall-out betwen Zuma-maker, Julius Malema and the court challenges by the Democratic Alliance on the admissibility of those tapes.  Suffice it so say that where I am concerned, I have found it apt to highlight the history of the Xhosa people so that we can understand why some of their leaders tend to be black-racialistic a.k.a. tribalistic IF INDEED IT IS THE XHOSAS WHO ARE BEHIND THIS TERRIBLE, ALMOST-CENTURY-LONG, EASTERN-CAPE REGIONALIM OVER OUR PRECIOUS ANC.

God-willing, I will do history highlights of all the ethnic groups of South AFrica before I die (Aren't I so glad I am not Tanzanian, because there I would have to highlight WELL OVER 100 TRIBAL HISTORY!!!! LOL!!!

PRESETNATION OF "THE HOUSE OF PHALO"

Phalo (pronounced as if there were no "h" aftter the "P", pretty much like you pronouce "Phiri", except for the vowels) was an 18th Century Xhosa King; and the "The House of Phalo" is basically reference material about Xhosa history.

It is a book that reveals primarily the CULTURAL LIE that "everybody who comes from the Eastern Cape and speaks IsiXhosa IS THEREFORE A XHOSA".  From this  book, you realize that, in strict cultural terms, Oliver Tambo would not have been classified "Xhosa", nor Nelson Mandela himself HAD IT NOT BEEN THAT PEOPLE LIKE NELSON MANDELA INVENTED THIS "XHOSAFICATION OF EVERYBODY FROM THE EASTERN CAPE".  This Mandelasque ruse, will come out on another post where we investigate excerpts from his instructive autobiographical work, "Long Walk to Freedom".

All that for now suffices for the current excerpts of "The House of Phalo" is the historical fact that Mandela's Tembus and Oliver Tambo's Mpondos, despite speaking the Xhosa Language, ARE ETHNOLOGICALLY EXCLUDED FROM BEING 'XHOSA'. Put another way, a Phiri speaking and writing English does not necessarily make himm an ethnic English South African.

There is a constitutional proviso and caveat that one must watch out for when discussing these sensitive matters, especially as too many artificial multi-millionaires and rulers have already been made by Mr Nelson Mandela, riding, albeit falsely on identifying themselves as 'Xhosa' when they were not.  CONSTITUTIONALLY SPEAKING, ANY INDIVIDUAL SOUTH AFRICAN HAS A RIGHT (SAY "GOODMAN MANYANYA PHIRI WAKES UP TOMORROW AND GOES TO HOME AFFAIRS IDENTIFYING HIMSELF AS AN AFRIKAANER")  TO IDENTIFY WITH ANY ETHNIC GROUP HE OR SHE CHOOSES TO ASSOCIATE WITH"

An Afrikaans Speaker and a Siswati-Speaker: both South Africans of
inconsequential identification.
But the constitution of the Republic of South Africa
(the clauses around "Freedom of Association")
allow the Afrikaans speaker to wake up the following day
(and officially and very much completely with Home Affairs blessings)
to identify herself as "Ethnic-Swazi South African"
and Vice versa.
Yet there is no right to either of the two to pontificate from their
individual freedom's expereinces
"THEREFORE, ALL AFRIKAANERS ARE SWAZI" OR
"THEREFORE ALL SWAZIS ARE AFRIKAANERS"

That being said, it is still not the prerogative of Swazi-speaking, ethnic-Malawian Goodman Manyanya Phiri to start writing autobiographical books declaring "ALL SWAZI-SPEAKING, ETHNIC-MALAWIANS ARE AFRIKAANERS".  But that is what our big friend did, and very successfully so because, as state president, he had the resources to materialize his un-historical idea. And in short, THAT IS WHY WE ARE SADDLED TODAY IN SOUTH AFRICA WITH RAMPANT TRIBALISM UNDER JACOB ZUMA, DETERMING WHO MUST BE SUBJECTED TO DISCIPLINARY HEARINGS OF OUR GREAT ORGANIZATION (SAY, PEDI JULIUS MALEMA) AND WHO MUST NOT (SAY A NGUNI ZUMA WHO MAY BE FOUND TO BE CHASING TOO MUCH SKIRT OR A NGUNI MTHEMBU WHO MAY BE FOUND TO BE TOO MUCH ON THE BOTTLE)

Jacob Zuma, current leader of the ANC with only Grade-4
formal schooling that with all opportunities he had in both
Robben Island and exile (where he occupied privileged positions)
plainly refused to improve.even to a Grade 12!
Is Zuma ready enough to understand and unravel South Africa's
current Black racism (in the name of "Xhosa" tribalism authored by Mandela)?
Or Zuma truly believes that Nelson Mandela is an Angel?
Blogger thinks there is a danger of more violence and abuse of
military police power and other security forces to suppress dissenters
if Zuma is allowed for another day or so to run the ANC.
He must just be  served with a summary recall like his fellow-Nguni:
Thabo Mbeki, some six years ago!
Both of them wallow in some belief of ethnic superiority, it would seem!

If you want to remain ignorant about what is happening in 2012 to both the ANC and her official opposition, the Democratic Alliance, please  ignore this book (The House of Phalo) at your own peril.

I read it recently and found very interesting paragraphs which I tried to transcribe from a bad photocopy the library did for me.  I have not as yet checked if it is available online, and honestly I do not care.

What I care about are the excerpts I read, re-read and finally bring to you here on my blog.  But since there is too much background stuff you need to know in order to  follow my choices, I have markedly paraphrased a lot in terms of people's names.

You will be able to tell my paraphrase by means of the brackets "[]".

I have also used my own enumeration for the paragraphs for ease of future reference.  If I'm not sure whether I transcribed the word correctly, it will be followed or preceded by a question mark.

Other stuff you may find dissimilar to the book, please put it to human error on my part.  But otherwise do please enjoy the great work of Historian J. B. Peires

THE HOUSE OF PHALO, J.B. PEIRES “A HISTORY OF THE Xhosa PEOPLE IN THE DAYS OF THEIR INDEPENDENT”  Ravan Press, Johannesburg.  First published by Ravan Press (Pty) Ltd.  409-416 Dunwell, 35 Jorissen Street, Johannesburg 2001, South Africa.  First Impression 1981 Copyright J.B. Peires 1981.  Design: The Graphic Equlizer ISBN 0 86975 214 6

1. "This book is a history of the Xhosa people in the days of their independence.  Despite its importance, there has been only one previous book on this subject, John Henderson Soga’s The South Eastern Bantu published more than 50 years ago.
   
   
   
   
2. "Although The South-Eastern Bantu still demands attention and respect, Soga did not have access to the secret documents and private papers of persons living before 1850, and he possessed only a limited selection of printed books.  Many of these were biased and prejudiced.. for example with regard to the so-called Bantu migrations.. and their effect on The South-Eastern Bantu was almost entirely negative.  And so, great work though it undoubtedly is, the only existing history of the Xhosa suffers from serious flaws of omission and inaccuracy.
   
   
   
   
3. The House of Phalo is an attempt to write a complete and comprehensive account of Xhosa history.  This is not to say that it is final or definitive, and I fully expect that many people who read this book will be dissatisfied with all or part of it.  Some are going to say, this is not what we heard from our fathers.  Others, perhaps, will say, this is not what we learnt in school.  There is nothing strange in this.  Just as no two people visiting a foreign country will form exactly the same opinion of it, so each person who approaches the past finds different aspects of it significant.  No history book can recreate the past as it actually was: it can only record the impressions of a particular observer, and what an observer sees depends to a considerable extent on what sort of person he is.
   
   
   
   
4. This book is no exception.  The section on chiefship would have been different if it had been written by someone who believed in the royalty of the blood; the section on Ntsikana would have been different if it had been written by someone who believed in....
   
   
   
   
   PAGE ONE Land and people
5. "....Xhosaland is most easily, if somewhat simplistically, conceived as comprising four adjacent belts running parallel to te coast.  The northernmost of these, between the great mountains of the  interior plateau such as the Drakensberg and a secondary tier of smaller ranges further south, was never permanently settled by the Xhosa.
   
   
   
   
6. "Apart from being especially cold in winter, it is covered almost exclusively by sourveld, which does not normally provide good year-round pasturage.  The Xhosa used it occasionally for summer grazing, but for the most part they were content to leave it to the weaker Thembu nation and to surviving bands of San hunters who had nowhere else to go.
7. "The overwhelming majority of Xhosa lived in the highlands, the slopes of the smaller mountains such as the Winterberg and the  Amatola, where innumerable streams and rivulets drain into the  great rivers of Xhosaland, the Fish, the Keiskama, the Buffalo and the Kei.
8. "These river basins contain the richest and deepest soils, and the mixed pasturage, Valley Bushveld, is composed of both sweetveld and sourveld.  This region also gets the highest rainfall, averaging 800 to 1 200 millimetres per year with some places such as Pirie in the Amatola getting as much as 2000 millimetres.
9. "The highlands eventually level out into a flatter and more open belt of Eastern Province Thornveld which provides poor grazing and little wood.  The region is moreover badly watered owing to low rainfall and the lack of even small streams.
10. "Around 50 kilometres from the sea, the uplands drop sharply into the coastal lowlands, where the tertiary limestone outcrops permit somewhat better grazing.  A spate of smaller rivers ---Kowie, Bira, Tsholomnqa, Kwelera, Qora, Nqababara and others—rise in the escarpment caused by the abrupt descent to the coast, thus creating a strip which is  well-watered, but rugged in the extreme.
11. "It was the water not the land which determined the pattern of human settlement.  Arc a?  areas with many rivers and streams could accommodate many people and many different communities; a large land area drained by a single river was likely to be occupied by a single community only.
12. "Ideally, each chiefdom had its own river and each subchiefdom had its own tributary.  The hinterland was no more than the appendage of the river, an undefined reservoir of pasturage and hunting-ground to which different communities had overlapping claims.  But there was no latitude for doubt in the matter of access to water.  Only the people of the  community and their cattle had the right to drink the water of their own particular stream.
13. "Thus nearly all Xhosa place-names are the names of rivers, with a very few exceptions for mountains and lakes.
14. "It is difficult to estimate how many people occupied this vast area.  As one [...] pointed out, since the Xhosa were ‘themselves unacquainted with their population, it is impossible for a stranger to know it’.
15. "In 1800, the missionary Van der Kemp calculated an adult male population of 38400 by counting the number of homesteads he passed between the centre of Xhosaland and the sea, guessing that the areas observed was equal to one eighth of the country, and assuming that it carried an average share of the population.  Van der Kemp would probably have attained a higher average if he had travelled to the  mountains instead of to the sea, but, surprisingly, his contemporaries agreed that his figures were too high.
    
    
    
    
    WHY THE PARAGRAPHS ABOVE WERE FOR BLOGGER A PARTICULARLY FASCINATNG READ.
    
    
    
    It may well be this semi-nomadic life of a Xhosa whose shadow was not too infrequently chased by the Tembu and the Khoi, in terms of grazing land, that the Tembu Mr Mandela makes this outrageously false statement that the Xhosa and the Tembu are one and for that matter, "since the sixteenth century".
    
    CHAPTER TWO, PAGE 17 (“FOUNDATION OF THE XHOSA KINGDOM”
16. The story of Tshawe cannot be dated.  Archaeology has told us nothing definite yet.
17. "Attempts have been made to date the genealogy by an estimate of the average number of years per reign, but these cannot be accepted because the genealogy is certainly faulty and the length of the average reign varies greatly according to the chiefly lineage chosen.
18. "The earliest documentary sources are the shipwreck narratives of the sixteenth century, which suggest  small-scale political organizations but are too vague  and unreliable to be of any value.
19. "The first substantial account of Xhosaland was by the survivors of the Stavenisse, wrecked in 1686.
20. "George Theal indentified a minor chief mentioned therein as the Xhosa king, Togu, a mistake which went unnoticed for more than seventy years.
21. "In fact, the first definite date we have 1736, by which time [His Majesty Xhosa  King Phalo and Father to Kings Gcaleka and Rharhabe] was ruling the Xhosa.
22. "In seeking to date the reign of Tshawe, we can do no better than to work backwards from the reign of [His Majesty Xhosa  King Phalo and Father to Kings Gcaleka and Rharhabe].
23. "Since [His Majesty King Phalo], a mature adult in 1736, was a posthumous child, we can place the death of his father, Tshiwo, no later than 1715.  Both Tshiwo and Tshiwo’s father, Ngconde, were rulers of some distinction, and it does not seem unreasonable to estimate their reigns at twenty years apiece, which would take the reign of Ngconde back to 1675.
24. "This in itself is sheer speculation, but the names further back on the genealogy present difficulties which are even greater.  We know nothing about Togu, Sikomo and Ngcwangu apart from their names.
25. "It is possible that a number of names have been forgotten, but it is also possible that Togu, Sikomo and Ngcwangu are not different people but praise-names of the same person.
26. "It seems therefore safe to say that the story of Tshawe is set some time before 1675, but rash to say anything more than that.  Nor do we know where the repeated clash between the followers of Cira and Tshawe is supposed to have taken place....
    
    
    
    
    PAGE 18, CHAPTER 2, FOUNDATION OF THE Xhosa KINGDOM, THE SUCCESSORS OF TSHAWE
27. Tshawe, Ngcwangu, Sikomo, Togu, Ngconde, Tshiwo, Phalo (and illustration)
28. "The creation of the major political groupings of the southern Nguni areas, the Xhosa, the Tembu, the Mpondo and the Mpondomise, resulted from the rise of particular descent groups, respectively the Tshawe, Hala, Nyawuza and Majola, to a position of dominance over their localities.
29. "The extension of their power was a slow process, beginning long before the more dramatic creation of the Zulu state in northern Nguniland and continuing right up to the Colonial conquest.
30. "Gradually, the small autonomous clans found themselves sucked into one or other of their more powerful neighbours.  The Ngqosini, for example, were either Sotho or Khoi in origin.  They were subjugated by the Xhosa after a fierce resistance, switched their allegiance to the Tembu king, and finally returned to being Xhosa again.
31. "There were minor cultural differences among the larger polities, but clansmen who crossed national boundaries found it easy to adopt the  fashions of their new home.
32. "Thus the Ngqosini took to red ochre when they came to live among the Xhosa, and the Zangwa (originally Mpondo) stopped scarifying their faces and started circumcising their children on their arrival in Xhosaland in the  nineteenth century.
33. "The clan composition of each polity thus fluctuated over time, a reminder that the Xhosa should not be seen as the descendants of a single eponymous ancestor named Xhosa, but as the subjects of the royal Tshawe clan.
34. "The view that the Xhosa nation is heterogeneous in origin, rather than a genetically defined Tribe clearly distinct from its neighbours, and that it expanded and incorporated rather than migrated, has important implications with regard to the old problem of the western boundary of Xhosaland.
35. "European colonists, keenly aware that they were intruders in the southern tip of Africa and that they had dispossessed the indigenous Khoisan inhabitants, were anxious to prove that the Xhosa had  done much the same thing.
36. "Moodie, who proved to his own satisfaction that the Caffres were east of the Keiskama in 1775, felt that this showed that the Xhosa had as little right as the colonists to the country west of the river since both invaders had displaced the original Khoi residents.
37. "This argument fails to consider what became of the Khoi who were defeated by the  Xhosa.  The Gona, Dama and Hoengiqua were not expelled from their ancient homes or relegated to a condition of hereditary servitude on the basis of their skin colour  they became Xhosa with the full rights of any other Xhosa.  The limits of Xhosadom were not ethnic or geographic, but political: all persons or groups who accepted the rule of the Tshawe thereby became Xhosa.
    
    
    
    
    
    Page 30, chapter 3, “Chiefs and commoners”
38. "Every year the junior chiefs reaffirmed their loyalty to the king in the first-fruits ceremony, in which each of them awaited the  kings word before tasting the harvest.
39. "Junior chiefs were also supposed to send him messengers to keep him informed of important events, to consult him and to ask his permission.
40. "He then sent them orders imiyalelo, although he could not expect to be obeyed if he was too arbitrary, or lacked the power to enforce his will where necessary.
41. "The extent to which the king controlled his subordinates at any given time depended on circumstances and his own personality, but he was constantly a factor in Xhosa politics, and could be defied but never ignored.
42. "It should be  remembered that absolute domination was no part of the Xhosa political ethic.  The power of any chief was limited by what his subordinates were prepared to accept.
43. "Moreover, the kingship possessed symbolic and emotional associations which transcended its narrow political functions.  The king was ‘the very personification of government’ and the  symbol of national unity.
44. "Even the great split which occurred after [His Majesty Xhosa  King Rharhabe, Branch Founder, Challenger-to-Brother-and-Heir-Gcaleka, And Arch-Enemy of Mandela's Tembu Ancestors] crossed the Kei, this did not entirely divide the Xhosa nation, for , as we will see, the Gcaleka kings continued to assert their superiority over all the Xhosa chiefs.
45. "Chiefship, said Chief Botomane, 'was allocated from this great side of Phalo and  Hintsa and Gcaleka.  It cannot stand without them, because it originated with them'.
46. "Apart from [His Majesty  King Ngqika, Legendary-Warrior-Xhosa-King-Rharhabe-Grandson: Precocious-Strategy-And-Tactics-Genius-Who-In-His-Teens-Militarily-Conquered-Altogether-European-Settlers-Fellow-Rharhabe-Rivals-And-Gcalekas-All-Put-Together], none of the Rharhabe chiefs ever challenged this claim.
47. "They continued to consult the [Gcaleka] king in peace and in war.
48. "Mhala sent his great son, Makinanana , to Sarhili, ‘to grow up at the Great Place, and learn the  art of chieftainship there.’
49. "The shooting and mutilation of [His Majesty Xhosa  King Hintsa, Legendary Grandson to Gcaleka] in 1835 was a national calamity, even to those who had rejected his order to participate in the war.
50. "Long after the creation of British Kaffraria had brought the Rharhabe chiefs under  direct Colonial rule they continued to look to the king across the Kei.
51. "It was [His Majesty  King Sandile, Legendary-Rharhabe-Xhosa-King-Ngqika-Heir-Challenged- by-Brothers-Who-Mistook-His-Physical-Defects-For-Corresponding-Intellectual-Wants]’s loyalty which eventually drove him to fight and die in the Last Frontier War.
52. “'How can I sit still when Rhili fights?  If Rhili fights and bursts and is overpowered, then I too am nothing.  No longer will I  be a chief.  Where Rhili dies, there will I die, and where he wakes, there will I wake.'
    
    
    
    Chapter 3, page 42, “Chiefs and Commoners”, “Outsiders”
53. "People who lived entirely outside the  range of Xhosa social relations were entirely outside the moral community; hostility was natural, and there was a general expectation that the strongest would prevail.
54. "Told of a clash between emigrant Xhosa and the  Tswana, [His Majesty  King Ngqika, Legendary-Warrior-Xhosa-King-Rharhabe-Grandson: Precocious-Strategy-And-Tactics-Genius-Who-In-His-Teens-Militarily-Conquered-Altogether-European-Settlers-Fellow-Rharhabe-Rivals-And-Gcalekas-All-Put-Together] commented that it was no harm to murder the Briquas?; that they had fought with the Caffres and that the Caffres had got the better of them’.
55. "This state of hostility towards strangers was neither inevitable nor indefinite since it was always possible to reduce social distance.
56. "For the Xhosa, this was most satisfactorily done by the  incorporation of the alien group into the Xhosa nation where it would become bound and protected by Xhosa law and customs.  Nations that were not incorporated could, however, establish kinship links though marriage.
57. “'The chiefs [M1] of the [His Majesty Xhosa King Gcaleka, Branch Founder and Rightful Heir to Phalo Throne, and The Diviner King Whose Clairvoyance Threatened to Destroy the Xhosa Nation] married the daughters of the Sotho and the daughters of the Thembu and the daughters of the Mpondo, and sent our own daughters there.  You ask why we do that we do that so that we should not quarrel, that we should not fight.  Thos great chiefs of nations would say, this is my nephew, the son of our girl, and they would not kill him.  That was the way they ended the fighting between them.'
58. "Conversely, to reject a marriage alliance was a deliberate political affront.  Consider the reception by [His Majesty Xhosa  King Sarhili, Son-To-The-Hintsa-Martyred-By-British-Colonists] of an embassy from his old enemy Faku:
59. “'Fako’s message to Rili was this: “Rili I have sent you my daughter.  I wish to form an alliance with someone.  I am alone, exposed to the wolves”
60. "'On our arrival at Rili’s great place we were left outside till late when an old woman put us in an outhouse.  Rili was away.
61. "'The next morning we were hungry and we took one of our oxen and killed it in Rili’s kraal.  Rili’s men came in the kraal, seized the leg of the meat and threw it outside the kraal and beat us with sticks...
62. "'We then went into the hut and a man came to us from Rili to tell us to go away home, that Rili did not want a Fingo wife, would not have Fako’s daughter, Rili wanted no Fetkani wife, and to be off.'
63. "In most recorded Xhosa royal marriages[M2] , the Great Wife was a Tembu, from the nation with which the Xhosa were most often in contact.
64. "In [His Majesty Xhosa  King Phalo and Father to Kings Gcaleka and Rharhabe]’s time, however, the Mpondo ranked above the Thembu.  Hintsa, who was at odds with  both Tembu and Mpondo, took the daughter of his Bomvana ally for his Great Wife.
65. "The most effective manner of establishing friendly relations, apart from marriage, was through the exchange of gifts. Chiefs expected gifts from colonial officials, and slaughter oxen and  gave them elephant tusks as presents.
66. "These were not considered as commercial transactions, but as signs of respect and friendship.
67. "[His Majesty  King Ngqika, Legendary-Warrior-Xhosa-King-Rharhabe-Grandson: Precocious-Strategy-And-Tactics-Genius-Who-In-His-Teens-Militarily-Conquered-Altogether-European-Settlers-Fellow-Rharhabe-Rivals-And-Gcalekas-All-Put-Together] was offended by the  first gifts he received from the British authorities at the Cape?, because he considered them trifles and  an insult to his dignity.
68. "Colonel Henry Somerset’s lavishness with presents and hospitality was greatly appreciated and remembered long afterwards.
69. "Gift exchange was complicated by its implications with regard to rank.
70. "Xhosa commoners offered colonists counter-gifts and labour in return for ‘presents’ whereas chiefs expected tribute.
71. "On visiting Grahamstown Chief Mdushane refused to give a shopkeeper anything in return for his gifts, although he made it quite clear that he would not have refused his equal, the Landdrost."
    
    
    Chapter 4, From Phalo to Ngqikar] (1700-1820), The Rise of the AmaRharhabe
72. "West of the Kei, [His Majesty Xhosa  King Rharhabe, Branch Founder, Challenger-to-Brother-and-Heir-Gcaleka, And Arch-Enemy of Mandela's Tembu Ancestors] spearheaded the Xhosa  drive against the Khoi and the San.
73. "Chieftainness Hoho was forced to cede her land in exchange for tobacco, dagga and dogs.  Rharhabe was also the terror of the San, killing even their small children and burning down their dwellings.
74. "His advance was, however, opposed by the imiDange, who regarded themselves as Phalo’s leading lieutenants in the east.
75. “'Mdange refused to be under Rharhabe, saying “I don’t know this man.  This is not my chief.  My chief is [His Majesty Xhosa  King Phalo and Father to Kings Gcaleka and Rharhabe], because [His Majesty Xhosa  King Phalo and Father to Kings Gcaleka and Rharhabe] is born of Tshiwo, my elder brother, so I don’t know this man, and I am not going to be under him.'
76. "On the other hand, his superiority was recognized by the Gwali, old enemies of the imiDange.
77. "The Ntinde, formerly allies of the Gwali and  still on bad terms with [His Majesty Xhosa  King Phalo and Father to Kings Gcaleka and Rharhabe] in 1752, probably recognised him too.
78. "The other important chiefs in the west of [His Majesty Xhosa  King Phalo and Father to Kings Gcaleka and Rharhabe]’s kingdom were the Gqunukwebe (the followers of Kwane, whom Tshiwo had appointed as chief) and the Mbalu (the followers of Langa, brother of Gcaleka and Rharhabe).
79. "Neither of them was subject to Rharhabe.  Rharhabe took advantage of his brother’s early death (1778) to attack Kawuta, Gcaleka’s son and successor.
80. "So feared was he that a reported five to six hundred guards stood watch over the  new king every night.  In the end, however,  Rharhabe  was driven off to the north, where his restless energies were diverted to the  complicated internal politics of their Tembu neighbours.
81. "Both  Rharhabe  and his Great Son, Mlawu, died in battle against the Tembu.
82. “'Today[M3] ,' they cried, 'we have caught an old dog that has long destroyed our nation'.
83. "Rharhabe’s reputation stands high among his people, and it is therefore worth pointing out that great and ferocious a warrior as he was, his life ended on a note of defeat.  It was  Rharhabe ’s son, Ndlambe, who was the real architect of [His Majesty Xhosa  King Rharhabe, Branch Founder, Challenger-to-Brother-and-Heir-Gcaleka, And Arch-Enemy of Mandela's Tembu Ancestors] greatness[M4] .
84. [His Royal Highness  Regent Prince Ndlambe, Warrior-Xhosa-King-Rharhabe-Son-And-Uncle-to-Ngqika] could not rule the amaRharhabe in his own name, since his deceased elder brother , [His Royal Highness Xhosa Prince Mlawu, Warrior- Son-to-Branch-Founder-King-Rharhabe, Father-to-Legendary-King-Ngqika, Also-Perisher-Alongside-Father-Rharhabe-In-Battle-Against-Arch-Enemy:Mandela's Pro-British-Colonizer-Tembu-Royal-Ancestors], had fathered two sons : Ntimbo, supported by the majority of the councillors, and Ngqika, supported by [His Royal Highness  Regent Prince Ndlambe, Warrior-Xhosa-King-Rharhabe-Son-And-Uncle-to-Ngqika] and his party.
85. "Both groups sought the  support of..[His Majesty Xhosa King Kawuta, Son to Gcaleka, but Father to Legendary Hintsa].  Ndlambe secured it, and ruled thereafter as regent for the young Ngqika.
86. "The power of [His Royal Highness  Regent Prince Ndlambe, Warrior-Xhosa-King-Rharhabe-Son-And-Uncle-to-Ngqika]  was increased in the west at the expense of the other Xhosa chiefdoms.
87. "The imiDange were the first to go.
88. "Rharhabe had driven them  across the Fish, killing their chief,  Mahote.
89. "In their retreat, they intruded on the territory of the  Bowers of Agter Bruintjies Hoogte, who attacked them,  together with the Gwali and the Ntinde who also happened to be west of the Fish, in what came to be known as the First Frontier War (1779-1781).
90. "Mahote’s son, Jalamba, fell by a stratagem: he and some followers were shot picking up pieces of tobacco which had been strewn before them, apparently as a present.
91. "Jalamba’s son, 'Dlodlu', was killed two years later, and the chiefship of the imiDange fell on the feckless Bangela, under whose rule the imiDange disintegrated.
92. "Langa, chief of the Mbalu, pursued an independent cause, but fought more often with  Ndlambe  than against him.   Ndlambe’s chief rivals were the Gqunukwebe under Tshaka and his son, Chungwa.
93. "Ndlambe defeated them three times, driving them deeper and deeper into the Colony, but they were able to recover from every defeat by recruiting Khoi from west of the Fish.
94. "Ndlambe needed allies and, following the example of his father, sought them among the Boers of the Cape Colony.
95. In 1780, [His Majesty Xhosa  King Rharhabe, Branch Founder, Challenger-to-Brother-and-Heir-Gcaleka, And Arch-Enemy of Mandela's Tembu Ancestors] had proposed an alliance between himself and the colony.  In return for Boer assistance against the imiDange, whom he represented as rebel subjects, [His Majesty Xhosa  King Rharhabe, Branch Founder, Challenger-to-Brother-and-Heir-Gcaleka, And Arch-Enemy of Mandela's Tembu Ancestors] offered 'friendship and peace upon a permanent footing'.
96. "Local strongman Adriaan van Jaarsveld responded positively, but for some unknown reason, [His Majesty Xhosa  King Rharhabe, Branch Founder, Challenger-to-Brother-and-Heir-Gcaleka, And Arch-Enemy of Mandela's Tembu Ancestors] was unable to keep the appointment.
97. "After at least two years soliciting, [His Royal Highness  Regent Prince Ndlambe, Warrior-Xhosa-King-Rharhabe-Son-And-Uncle-to-Ngqika] found a Boer ally in Barend Lindeque, a lieutenant in the Boer militia.
98. "They conducted a joint raid, but then the small Boer party lost their nerve and withdrew.  Provoked by Boer intervention in their domestic politics, the Xhosa west of the Fish decided to teach them a lesson and drove them back beyond the Zwartkops River.
99. "This forced the Colonial authorities into action, and they sent out a strong commando (Second Frontier War 1793).
100. "The hostile Xhosa attempted to retreat to Kawuta and safety, but [His Royal Highness  Regent Prince Ndlambe, Warrior-Xhosa-King-Rharhabe-Son-And-Uncle-to-Ngqika] cut them off at the Tshomnqa River and defeated them crushingly, killing Tshaka and capturing Langa.
101. "Ndlambe  offered to surrender Langa to the Landdrost of Graaff-Reinet who declined the offer, leaving the old chief to die in captivity.
102. "Chungwa, Tshaka’s son, reached Kawuta, but shortly thereafter returned to 'his' country west of the Fish.
103. "As a result of this success,  Ndlambe  had become far and away the most powerful Xhosa chief in the west, but he was unable to build upon his triumph for shortly thereafter (1795), Ngqika, who owed him his chiefship, unexpectedly rebelled.
104. "According to the [His Majesty  King Ngqika, Legendary-Warrior-Xhosa-King-Rharhabe-Grandson: Precocious-Strategy-And-Tactics-Genius-Who-In-His-Teens-Militarily-Conquered-Altogether-European-Settlers-Fellow-Rharhabe-Rivals-And-Gcalekas-All-Put-Together],  Ndlambe  refused to surrender the regency.
105. "According to the  Ndlambe , Ngqika launched a premeditated and unjustifiable attack after he had already been installed as chief.
106. "The two versions are not incompatible; Ndlambe may have installed Nqika as chief, but he continued to exercise the real power himself.
107. "Ngqika chafed at this restraint and decided to put a final end to the power of his uncle.
108. "Ndlambe appealed in vain to the Tembu and to his old allies, the colony, but obtained help only from the Gcaleka regent ([His Majesty Xhosa King Kawuta, Son to Gcaleka, but Father to Legendary Hintsa] had died in 1794).
109. "Once again  Ngqika was successful.  The Gcaleka were chased right across the Kei to the Jujura River in the present district of Willowvale, where peace was made.
110. "From this time on, the king's Great Place was always situated east of the  Kei.  The exact terms of the peace are unknown, but shortly thereafter [His Majesty  King Ngqika, Legendary-Warrior-Xhosa-King-Rharhabe-Grandson: Precocious-Strategy-And-Tactics-Genius-Who-In-His-Teens-Militarily-Conquered-Altogether-European-Settlers-Fellow-Rharhabe-Rivals-And-Gcalekas-All-Put-Together] began to represent himself as king of all the Xhosa.
111. "He made a costly slip, however, when the young king [His Majesty Xhosa  King Hintsa, Legendary Grandson to Gcaleka] succeeded in escaping from captivity.
112. "Ndlambe was taken prisoner, and remained at Ngqika’s Great Place, allowed his wives and some cattle, but stripped of his power.
113. "Mnyaluza,  Ndlambe’s brother and chief lieutenant, crossed the Fish where he plagued Boer and Xhosa impartially.
114. Ngqika was only 17 or eighteen.  Gifted with considerable intelligence and with the imposing presence that bespoke a great chief, he was ambitious and seems to have aimed at centralising the Xhosa under his leadership...
     
     
     
     
     PAGE 53, THE XHOSA AND THE COLONISTS (1775-1812)
115. "Friction is endemic in frontier situations, and neither Xhosa nor colonists were wholly innocent or wholly culpable.  The Boers feared the weight of Xhosa numbers and resented being pestered for presents or seeing their favourite pastures occupied by Xhosa herds.
116. "On the other hand, the Xhosa had reason to complain of Boers who abused them physically, abducted their children, threatened them with firearms, and forced them to barter cattle for goods which they did not want.
117. "Underlying specific grievances such as these was the clash of two pastoral peoples for land and cattle.
118. "As we have seen, the political system of the Xhosa was geared towards indefinite expansion.  Every bull had the right of his own enclosure, every chief had the right to his own territory.  It was the fate of other people...San, Khoi, Tembu... to give way before the Xhosa and to accept their place in the Xhosa scheme of things.
119. "First contacts with Europeans did little to diminish the aggressive self-confidence of most Xhosa.
120. "They did not envy the Caucasoid features and Christian religion of which the Boers were so proud.
121. "They presumed Europeans wore peculiar clothes because they had feeble and sickly bodies.
122. "They were surprised at many things white people did, but never think the white men are more wise or skilful than themselves, for they suppose they could do all that the white men do if they chose.
123. "Initial respect for guns and horses soon gave way to a shrewd appreciation of their ineffectiveness in dense bush.
124. "Consequently, the Xhosa saw no reason why Xhosa and European should not merge into a single society rather after the pattern of Xhosa and Khoi.
125. "They sought to include the colony within their economic, political and social networks.  They traded with the Boers as they did with other nations.
126. "Poor Xhosa wishing to acquire cattle worked for rich Boers as they would have done for rich Xhosa.
     
     
     
     
     THE TRIUMPH OF NGQIKA (1800-1819)
127. "At the beginning of 1800  Ngqika was at the height of his power.  The regent, now in retreat across the Kei, was weak and not yet fully in control of even the eastern chiefdoms.
128. "Ndlambe  was under his jurisdiction.
129. "The power of the imiDange and the Mbalu was broken, and many of their chiefs had submitted to him.
130. "Chungwa kept at a distance, but sent in tribute.
131. "Ngqika even dabbled in Tembu politics. Strong as he was internally, he could afford to consider Buys's plan for the invasion of the colony.  But as his  power seeped from him and the number and strength of his enemies grew, he was increasingly drawn into an alliance with the colony.
132. "He soon realised what it was they wanted to hear, and told them willingly but untruthfully that he opposed cattle-raids and was prepared to forgive his revolted subjects.
133. "His main object was to secure concrete military assistance as  Ndlambe  had done earlier.
134. "The chiefs west of the Fish, headed by  Ndlambe, Mnyaluza and Chungwa, were in a weaker position, both numerically and strategically.
135. "They knew quite well that the colony regarded the Fish as its boundary, and many of them had taken advantage of the Third Frontier War to make up their herds [through unfair means that exacerbated the conflict with the colonists].
136. "They were therefore quite ready to believe that the  colony was ready to help  Ngqika  against them, a fact which  Ngqika  exploited.
137. "Moreover, they were divided among themselves.  In their eagerness to remain at peace with the colony, Ndlambe and
138. Chungwa exerted themselves to repress cattle-raiding and even returned some deserted slaves and Khoi servants.
139. "They began to barter with the Boers and to exchange their labour for cattle.
140. "In 1805, Ngqika  poised himself for a decisive attack on  Ndlambe, calling on the colony and some Tembu for assistance.
     
     
     
     CHAPTER 4, FROM PHALO TO NGQIKA (1700-1820), 
     AMALINDE
141. "The Gcaleka had gradually recovered from their internal divisions, from Kawuta's weakness, and from their defeat by  Ngqika in 1795.
142. "Around 1805, Bhurhu, the Right-hand son of Kawuta, declared, ‘Let the people of different customs come together, and the houses of the Great Place stand close.’
143. "The resistance of dissidents led by Chief Nxito of the Tshayelo was overcome.
144. "Bhurhu did not attempt to assert his own autonomy, but threw his weight behind Kawuta’s Great Son, [His Majesty Xhosa  King Hintsa, Legendary Grandson to Gcaleka], easily the most impressive figure in the whole history of the descendants of Tshawe.
145. "Two quotations will have to suffice as some indication of his political style.
146. "The first comes from his speech to his heir, at the latter’s circumcision:
     
     
     
147. "'Now hear! Love your cattle,  my people love me because I love my cattle, therefore you must love your cattle, as I have done...if you have cattle, poor men will not pass by your place, no he will stop with you..you must respect the rich only... you must not despise the poor...see the reason why I have so many cattle.  I love my cattle and my people love me.  A man that is a coward, when he gives you council, you must hear that man, he will give you wise council.  A bad man by his council will  bring you into trouble... Take care of pride, when you go into the field to look at the cattle, and you see a piece of firewood, take it up, and carry it home and make fire..When a councillor asks you for  cattle, give him some, though your cattle are pretty, because through this thing, your people will love you.'
148. "Available records indicate that [His Majesty Xhosa  King Hintsa, Legendary Grandson to Gcaleka] was at the same time a ruthless hounder of the rich and a generous benefactor of the poor.
149. "This is not really paradoxical: it was the only way to be both wealthy and popular. Hintsa’s mode of proceeding and the care which he took to preserve the outer niceties is admirably illustrated by the following:
150. "'In Hinza’s territory, a Kaffir, whose possessions excited envy and dislike, was accused of keeping a witch, which though confined during the day, roamed about the country at night, and destroyed the cattle.  On this plea he was seized and deprived of everything , half of the cattle being taken by Hinza, while the other half were distributed among the  councillors..The missionary... said, ‘You have plenty of cattle, why did you ruin the poor man?’ when the chief turned to him with a peculiar smile, which marked that he was not deceived, and with a tone of mock seriousness said, ‘Yes, but it is a shocking thing you know, to keep a witch wolf.
151. "Further progress was made when Nqoko, Chief of the amaMbede died, and  Hintsa was able to back one of his sons, Mguntu, against the other, Kalashe.
152. "The autonomy of the powerful Ngqosini clan was destroyed by the massacre of seventeen unsuspecting Ngqosini councillors on a hunting expedition, and the degradation of their Chief to the position of headman under  Hintsa’s right-Hand son, Ncapayi.
153. "Thus by degrees the Great House re-established its control over the Xhosa chiefdoms east of the Kei, and Bhurhu re-occupied Gcaleka's old  territory west of the Kei.
154. "Hintsa now began to consider extending his authority over the westernmost chiefdoms, and the troubles of the Rharhabes seemed to invite intervention.  Nor was he hard put to choose between Ndlambe, his father’s old ally, and Ngqika, whom he had good reason to believe had nearly murdered him.
155. "Ndlambe was recognised as Chief of the Rharhabe (‘he was  Hintsa’s eyes’) whereas  Ngqika was not recognised at all (‘he was there but he never reigned’).
156. "Hintsa is reported to have led the allied armies against Ngqika in person at the battle of Amalinde.  Events soon precipitated a crisis.
157. "A Colonial commando seized the cattle of the minor chiefs, under the impression that they were supporters of Ndlambe.   They demanded that Ngqika join in an attack to recover them.  He attempted to get the cattle back by negotiations, but in the meantime many of the imiDange joined  Ndlambe’s war doctor, Nxele.
158. "Ngqika demanded that Ndlambe hand Nxele over to him.  Ndlambe refused, saying that Hintsa alone was king and that Ngqika was just a Chief like himself (and therefore could not give him orders).
159. "Ngqika answered ‘haughtily’, ‘I too am  a king!’  but he knew too well the basis on which his kingship now rested and sent urgent appeals to the Colony for its promised aid.
160. "Ndlambe forced the issue by seizing the cattle of one of Ngqika’s sub-chiefs, and Ngqika’s councillors compelled the reluctant Chief to attack.
161. "At the great battle of Amalinde (October 1818), Ngqika’s forces were overwhelmed.
162. "Ndlambe and his followers sent an urgent message to the colony ‘declaring they were anxious to remain at peace with the colony, but at the same time refusing to submit to Ngqika, whom they had conquered.
163. "The appeal was ignored by the colonial authorities, who believed that Ngqika was being punished because he had tried to repress cattle-raiding.
164. "The Fifth Frontier War (December 1818) commenced when Colonel Brereton attacked Ndlambe (December 1818), and took 23000 cattle.
165. "The Xhosa swept into the colony, attacking Grahamstown in broad daylight (22 April 1819).  Inevitably, British firepower was victorious, and by October the  Xhosa had been defeated.  Ngqika’s ascendance over Ndlambe and Hintsa was now established... but at a cost to himself that he could hardly have anticipated.
     
     
     
     
     CHAPTER SIX, NGQIKA’S PEACE TO MAQOMA’S WAR (1820-1833), PAGE 81
166. "A military patrol was sent out after a group of Xhosa who had stolen some horses. Tyhali, Ngqika’s son and right-hand man was called in and ‘traced’ the spoor till it was lost.  He then pointed out the Ntsusa as the culprits, complaining that they were the  ‘terror of the country’ and the resort of all Xhosa  ‘who fell under the displeasure of the chiefs’ (that is Ngqika and his subordinates).
167. As a result a commando was sent out against the Ntsusa.  The device of accusing his enemies of depredations in order to instigate the Colony to send a commando against them was also tried against Nqeno.  When [His Royal Highness Warrior Chief Maqoma, Legendary-Rharhabe-Xhosa-King-Ngqika-Son  and rival to Sandile] roused Colonial anger by raiding certain Tembu, Ngqika urged the colony to allow him no opportunity to make amends[M5] :
168. Gaika has strongly urged to go at once to MacComo, without waiting to see   whether he returns the Tambookie cattle and attack him ,  fire upon him and his people, and take his cattle, and then after that to reason with him.
169. Ngqika was even able to  use his status as friend of the English to  threaten Hintsa with commandos.
     
     
     
     PAGE 82, CHAPTER 6, NGQIKA PEACE TO MAQOMA’S WAR (1820-1835)
170. "Part of  Ngqika’s income went into attracting talented young men to his Great Place.  Their function was military rather than economic, and they were termed not abasengi basekomkhkhulu (milkers of the Great Place) but amasoldati, after the Dutch word for soldier.
171. "Whatever was not distributed to his followers was spent on brandy.
172. "He purchased it, danced for it, sold his wives for it, begged for it, and ultimately died of it.  He would do nothing unless he was paid for it, and he even took to receiving his presents in private in order to avoid sharing them with his councillors.
173. "His great good looks had not deserted him, and at fifty he still looked thirty but in the last years of his life he was a despised drunkard who had lost the love and respect of his people.
174. The de facto ruler of  Ngqika’s people in his last degraded years was Tyhali, the son of a concubine.
175. Described as a man who combined great shrewdness with ‘the look of the utmost simplicity’, Tyhali aspired through his close association with his father to attain a position far above that to which his birth entitled him, and was a strong contender for the regency.
176. His rivalry with [His Royal Highness Warrior Chief Maqoma, Legendary-Rharhabe-Xhosa-King-Ngqika-Son  and rival to Sandile] obscured and probably protected Ngqika’s disliked Tembu Great wife, Sutu, and her lame son, Sandile, who resided together with two other younger sons, Anta and  Matwa, at Burnshill mission.
177. "Ravaged by liquor and tuberculosis, Ngqika died in a welter of blood and witchcraft accusations (1829).  While he danced himself into a state of collapse, his sons struggled for the succession.  It was indeed a macabre end to a reign which had commenced so auspiciously.
178. "The Ndlambe were deeply divided among themselves.  It appears that Ndlambe’s heir was killed in his wars against the colony.  In the Chief’s old age, many of his powers were exercised by Mdushane who was now reconciled with his father.
179. "Mdushane kept Ngqika in check, running an illegal trade to circumvent the latter’s hold on the Fort Wilshire fairs and shielding the Gqunukwebe from his ambitions.  But when Mdushane died (May 1829) shortly after Ndlambe (February 1828), the chiefdom disintegrated.
180. "Mdushane had quarrelled both with his Great Wife for giving him the venereal disease that was killing him, and with her son.  An assembly of the Ndlambe was held which proclaimed Mdushane’s son, Qasana, Chief of all the Ndlambe.
181. Qasana was placed under Mdushane’s brother  Mqhayi, a staunch supporter of peace with the colony and of the Wesleyan mission at .. Mount Coke.  However, Mhala, another son of Ndlambe, had secured the support of the eastern Ndlambe, after disposing of yet another contender, Dyani, through a witchcraft accusation.
182. The  situation was further complicated by a split between Mqhayi and  Qasana, when the latter chose the belligerent side in the 1834-1835 war.  Thus Ndlambe's people became divided among the  amaNdlambe of Mhala , the imiQhayi  (those western amaNdlambe who followed Mqhayi in supporting the colony), and Qasana’s imiDushane (which subsequently divided yet again).
183. "On the  other hand, the Ndlambe faction was strengthened by the accession of the amaNtsausa , now led by Gasela, son of Nukwa.  These abandoned Ngqika and took up...alliance with Mhala, and with the approval of Hintsa.
     
     
     
     
     XHOSA RELATIONS WITH THE EAST
184. "The Xhosa’s nearest eastern neighbours were the Tembu.  Like the Xhosa, the Tembu  were composed of a number of clans which had accepted the leadership of a royal clan.  The Tembu royal clan, the Hala, had not however succeeded in imposing their control on the local level to anything approaching the extent attained by the Tshawe among the Xhosa. Some clans were entirely subordinate to the Hala, but others such as the Vundle, Gcina, Qwathi and others maintained their chiefship and their territorial integrity.
185. "The Xhosa had fished in the troubled politics of their Tembu neighbours since the time of Tato (c. 1760).  Tembu chiefs were reluctant to take Xhosa wives because the Xhosa used the relationship to intervene in Tembu affairs.
186. "The reign of Ndaba (c. 1775-c. 1800) was especially disastrous.  He was forced to flee from his own subjects, taking refuge first with Gcaleka then with Rharhabe.
187. Eventually he fled Rharhabe in fear of his life, sparking off a series of wars which did not end with Rharhabe's death (1782).
188. In 1788 one of the few foreigners to visit the  Tembu reported that the Xhosa devastated Tembu homes, stole their cattle, and dragged them off to do heavy service.
189. Hintsa claimed some authority over the Tembu and enticed the Ntshilibe clan away from their allegiance to the Tembu king.
190. "The Nqabe, an autonomous clan in Tembu territory, also seem to have been tributary to the Xhosa.  Ngqika was son-in-law to Tshatshu, a Hala Chief junior in rank but almost superior in power to the Tembu [M6] king, and had pretensions to authority in tembuland through his mother, also a Tembu.
191. "[His Majesty Tembu King Ngubencuka and Great Grandfather to Nelson Mandela], King of the Tembu (c. 1800-1830), brought some stability to his kingdom by defeating his subordinates and then reconciling them by making concessions with regard to tribute.
192. "The Thembu resurgence did nothing to improve relations with the Xhosa who disputed possession of the territory around the sources of the Kei....East of the Thembu were the Mpondo.
193. "The Nyawuza, royal clan of the Mpondo, were continually engaged in attempting to establish their domination over powerful local clans such as the Tshezi and the Khonjwayo, who had themselves succeeded in subordinating a number of smaller clans
194. .....In 1827, the Ngwane chief, Matiwane, fearful of Mzilikazi and restless under Moshoeshoe, moved south over the Orange....Matiwane’s intentions were not fully understood for Shaka [ka Senzangakona Zulu, the world-renowned conqueror and national unifier] was then at the height of his power and sending...messages to [AbaThembu King and Mandela’s great-grandfather]Ngubengcuka...demanding...submission.  [He] refused, mobilized [his] forces and asked the [British]Colony for help…
195. "....W.B. Dundas, the Landdrost of Albany, was sent ahead with a small detachment…while Somerset, the Commandant of the Frontier, followed with an army.
196. "As he proceeded, Dundas observed the destruction caused by the war between the Mpondo-Bhaca and Xhosa-Bomvana alliances, and the ravages caused by a Zulu attack on the Mpondo.
197. "When he arrived at Ngubengcuka Great Place and found the Ngwane in the neighborhood, he mistakenly concluded that these were Zulu regiments and that they had caused the damage he had witnessed.
198. "His small party attacked an unsuspecting Ngwane division and drove it back".
199. "He then returned, thinking he had repulsed the Zulu.  When the Ngwane attacked the Thembu to recover the cattle lost through Dundas, Ngubengcuka sent a message to the Colonial army saying the Zulu had returned....The Colonial army attacked the Ngwane at dawn and routed them with artillery (Battle of Mbholompo, 27 August 1828).  The…Thembu…and the British [Phiri’s emphasis] gathered a good booty of women, children and cattle....Hintsa [the Xhosa king] had not taken the initiative in attacking the Ngwane and certainly had no reason to feel threatened.
200. Shortly after Mbholompo,...Hintsa’s Bomvana allies attacked two of Ngubengcuka subordinates, and the Thembu moved further north, virtually abandoning the coast.  War was prevented by the missionaries and the veiled threat of colonial intervention.
201. Ngubengcuka died in 1830, leaving Vadana regent for his minor heir, Mtirara.
202. There were then three main political groupings amongst the southern Nguni.  In the west were the Xhosa, who allied with the Bomvana and close to the Tshatshu Thembu.
203. "In the east were the Mpondo allied with the Bhaca.  In the middle were the weak and isolated Thembu, increasingly looking towards the Colony as their only salvation.
204. "Matiwane’s prestige, already strained by previous defeats, did not survive Mbholompo, and many of his followers stayed among the Tembu and the Xhosa where they swelled the ranks of other refugees to form the people known collectively as Mfengu (from the verb ukumfenguza, “to wander about seeking service”).
205. "The most important of these peoples were the Bele (in South Africa spelt ‘Bhele’ and praise-named “Mbele” or “Mbhele”), the Hlubi, the Zizi and the Ntlangwini.
206. "Their subsequent relationship with the Xhosa has inevitably distorted accounts of their initial reception, but the Xhosa tradition relating to it seems to sum up the situation.
207. "According to the tradition, the Xhosa gave the Mfengu food, but the food was on the Xhosa side of the fire and the  Mfengu had to pass their hands through the flames in order to  reach it.
208. "Like the Gona and the Tembu, the Mfengu had to pass through a period of servitude and social inferiority in order to lose their previous identity and emerge full Xhosa (page 88).[M7]
209. "The Mfengu  were initially well received by the Xhosa chiefs, who always welcomed the accession of new followers.
210. "When Hintsa discovered that the Bele [(in South Africa spelt ‘Bhele’ and praise-named “Mbele” or “Mbhele”)]  had hidden their chief, Mabandla, he pointed out ‘that he was not in the habit of killing people who sought refuge in his country’.
211. "He singled out Njokweni, a noted diviner, for special favour.  The young chiefs, Matomela and Mhlambiso, ate food from the same dish as his son, Rhili.
212. "Mfengu chiefs sat on his council and participated in all important discussions.  Mfengu who arrived destitute and without cattle were distributed among Hintsa’s people in the usual manner of busa clients.
213. "Hintsa told his people to take good care of the Mfengu and he offered them redress in his courts, but he warned them that in the last resort they had to fend for themselves: “Were you not men in your own country?  Were there no forests with sticks on the Tugela?  These Xhosa have bodies just the same as you.  When they hit you, hit them back[M8].”
214. The Mfengu were not as isolated and leaderless as the Khoi had been, and were not prepared to forego their national identity.  The  availability of iron hoes in their homeland had accustomed them to agriculture, and they became assiduous cultivators.
215. "They cultivated tobacco for sale, and went into the colony-interior trade on their own account.
216. "They acquired cattle over and above the natural increase which was normal for busa clients., and they hid them in forests and gulleys, out of sight of their employers.
217. "Meanwhile, ordinary Xhosa, suddenly elevated in status by their acquisition of clients, indulged in the prerogatives of the rich and extracted what they could from the Mfengu.  But the Mfengu were less willing to bear tributes and exactions such as upundlo when these were demanded of them by aliens.
218. "They turned towards the only alternative source of power available to them.. the Cape Colony, represented in Hintsa’s country by the mission station at Butterworth.
219. "The missionary Ayliff refused to hand over a Mfengu who had roused Hintsa’s anger, although he was demanded by the king in person.
220. "This incident was widely reported among the Mfengu.  Moreover, the Great Word offered more than material salvation to the Mfengu.  The old had led them to a life of wandering  and misery; the new one seemed to offer them peace and prosperity.
     
     
     
     
     CHAPTER 6, NGQIKA’S PEACE TO MAQOMA’S WAR (1820-1833)
221. "The Xhosa knew that the whites despised them and they resented it.
222. "They acknowledged that European technology was superior to their own, but felt that as individuals they were equal to any colonist they had met.
223. "This resentment was particularly acute in the case of the chiefs.  They were conscious of the difference between themselves and the common ‘black people’ and set great store by it.
224. "They expected the whites to respect these difference too.
225. "Ngqika once broke off a negotiation because a group of Boers asked him to return some cattle, and told Landdrost Alberti that he was prepared to deal with him as an equal but would not allow himself to be messed on by dogs.
226. "Ndlambe and Mdushane expected tribute from the colonists.
227. "In practice, the chiefs were prepared to accept leading colonial officials as their equals, but Ngqika probably expressed a general feeling when he told the Landdrost of Graaff-Reinet that the latter was his inferior because he was not born a chief.
228. "On their side, the colonists felt that all whites were superior to all Xhosa, and even Phillips, one of the more liberal of the  settlers, thought Ngqika’s remark about the Landdrost of Graaff-Reinet was a piece of ‘impudence’.
229. "Consequently, the chiefs were persistently subjected to indignities.
230. "When they were to Fort Wilshire, they were often kept waiting, subjected to insults by junior officers, or lodged in premises which they felt suitable only for commoners.
231. "They liked Colonel Somerset because he ‘always treated them like chiefs’, gave them presents, accommodated them in his house and invited them to his balls.
232. "Although at least three chiefs tried, none of them was ever able to marry a white woman.
233. "They also resented the fact that they were not trusted to come and go as they pleased.
234. "Maqoma once told a meeting of Kat River Khoi:
235. “'I see no Englishman in the Kat River, there are none in Grahamstown, and where are they?  I have got them all in Caffreland, with their wives and children, living in safety and enjoying every protection, and yet I am accounted a rascal and a vagabond,  and am obliged to come here by stealth
236. "Hours later he was removed from a tea-party with the Reverend Read, by a sergeant who added the crowning humiliations of offering him liquor in front of the missionary.
237. "Not only the dignity of the chiefs, but their very existence was endangered.   In traditional warfare, the life of a chief was regarded as sacrosanct.  The colonists had no such inhibitions.  Chungwa was shot dead while sick.  Ndlambe was hunted, as he bitterly remarked, like a springbok.  An attempt was made to seize Ngqika’s person.  Ngeno’s son was shot around 1825.  In 1830 a commando shot Sigcawu, Ndlambe’s brother, and seized ‘Magugu’, another chief.  The news caused great indignation through Xhosaland.
238. "At this distance, [eighty or ninety miles] from the scene of action, the most exaggerated and romantic stories obtain full credence…The king himself  [Hintsa], upon whom reports of an inflammable nature are daily pouring is of course greatly unhinged, and moves about with suspicious caution…The circumstances of a chief having been taken captive seemed to arouse the ire of the nation, and everyone became enraged while speaking about it.
239. "Compensation, which might have made all the difference to Xhosa feelings, was never offered.
240. "Thus it was that the wounding of Tyhali’s brother, Xhoxho, who was defiantly pasturing the chief’s cattle in forbidden territory, provoked the War of 1834-1835.
241. "Pro-colonial writers have made much of the slightness of the wound, and taken it as evidence that the attack on the colony was premeditated, but there can be little doubt that the indignation was genuine.  Xhoxho was wounded in the head; in intention, he was dead.  The reaction of the people was spontaneous.
242. "Every caffre who saw Xhoxho’s wound went back to his hut, took his assegai, and shield, and set out to fight, and said ‘It is

END OF A BEAUTIFUL AND COURAGEOUS STORY PER MY EXCERPTS FROM A GREAT SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY SOURCE

---

 [M1]This is where Mr Mandela deliberately gets part of his foothold to confound Xhosa national identity.  But of course his other reason for putting all (Sotho and Thembu) under the umbrella of the Xhosa is for the purpose of justifying why now for the past 60 years when Mandela’s influence was biggest in the ANC no non-Nguni has been allowed to be ANC president, with most of the time such people being Xhosa-speakers: “If a Xhosa-speaker like Thabo Mbeki, Mr Nelson Mandela, Mr Oliver Tambo, don’t you groups of Sotho-speakers worry since, in the Xhosa heading the ANC, you are having your fellow-tribesman”.  Of course this is absolute rubbish

 [M2]Marriages, once again, are featuring as a possible source of confusion for nelson.

 [M3]This comment to be transferred to Mandela’s comment about who the Xhosa are, where Mandela counts on [His Majesty Xhosa  King Gcaleka, Branch Founder and Rightful Heir to Phalo Throne, and The Diviner King Whose Clairvoyance Threatened to Destroy the Xhosa Nation] to the exclusion of [His Majesty Xhosa  King Rharhabe, Branch Founder, Challenger-to-Brother-and-Heir-Gcaleka, And Arch-Enemy of Mandela's Tembu Ancestors] and Phiri must say: “Mr Nelson Mandela has to understand that the essential [His Majesty Xhosa  King Rharhabe, Branch Founder, Challenger-to-Brother-and-Heir-Gcaleka, And Arch-Enemy of Mandela's Tembu Ancestors] branch of the Xhosa nation did not die with Mandela’s own Tembu killing of [His Majesty Xhosa  King Rharhabe, Branch Founder, Challenger-to-Brother-and-Heir-Gcaleka, And Arch-Enemy of Mandela's Tembu Ancestors] and son, Mlawu; for Mlawu had a son called Ngqika who continued to contribute to an element in the greatness of the Xhosa nation that the propaganda of Long Walk To Freedom cannot obliterate” THE POWER OF CROSS REFERENCE SHOULD BE IN ORDER HERE.

 [M4]Phiri’s comment to Mandela: “Yes, indeed, [His Majesty Xhosa  King Rharhabe, Branch Founder, Challenger-to-Brother-and-Heir-Gcaleka, And Arch-Enemy of Mandela's Tembu Ancestors] is junior to [His Majesty Xhosa  King Gcaleka, Branch Founder and Rightful Heir to Phalo Throne, and The Diviner King Whose Clairvoyance Threatened to Destroy the Xhosa Nation], but that is no licence for skipping the former as part of Xhosa nationality. In fact, the most exciting part of Xhosa national history lies with the junior [His Majesty Xhosa  King Rharhabe, Branch Founder, Challenger-to-Brother-and-Heir-Gcaleka, And Arch-Enemy of Mandela's Tembu Ancestors] whom Xhosa history tells us he and descendants never forgot their juniority”

 [M5][His Royal Highness Warrior Chief Maqoma, Legendary-Rharhabe-Xhosa-King-Ngqika-Son  and rival to Sandile]’s rebellion against [His Majesty  King Sandile, Legendary-Rharhabe-Xhosa-King-Ngqika-Heir-Challenged- by-Brothers-Who-Mistook-His-Physical-Defects-For-Corresponding-Intellectuals-Wamts] started earlier, it would seem from this: it started with the father and very much during the reign of his very own father, Ngqika.

 [M6]These international marriages are possibly part of the excuses Mandela has for claiming oneness between ethnic Xhosa and ethnic Tembu South African (even though as of today they are ONLY LINGUISTICALLY the same, with the development of Xhosa language vis-a-vis Tembu language).  But intermarriage with the Xhosa happens with the Zulus, the Swazi and many other nationalities of southern Africa...so it is no excuse.

 [M7]This part supports Mr Nelson Mandela that “Tembu are Xhosa”.  It does not change a much in the righteousness of my fight except to say I probably have an enemy now bigger than the Tembu... it is the entire so-called Xhosa Nation with its many heads.  Anyway, this goes a long way towards explaining why Xhosa have ignored Mandela’s misrepresentation of their history!

 [M8]It is interesting to see just how much Hintsa was into Mfengus, [His Majesty Zulu King and National Founder Shaka ka Senzangakona]’s reactionaries.  Makes one wonder: did Hintsa have some secret score to settle with the Zulus?  Based on what? (mind you, this is the self-same Hintsa who stood together with British puppet [His Majesty Tembu King Ngubencuka and Great Grandfather to Nelson Mandela] to oppose “threats” of Shaka Zulu’s attack.