Review: Vivien Horler

In Search of Nongqawuse, by Treive Nicholas (Kwela)

It has taken a Cornishman to shine a new light on Nongqawuse and the Great Cattle Killing of 1856/57, the ghastly story of how the amaXhosa people decimated their own nation amid a cauldron of indigenous and Christian beliefs, racial hatred, war and a horrific level of mutual distrust.

As a young man about 40 years ago, Treive Nicholas spent some time teaching English in the Eastern Cape, and fell in love with the place and the people.

This ignited a lifelong interest in the area, and he spent years researching the local history. And then, reading Noel Mostert’s magisterial 1 300-page Frontiers: The epic of South Africa’s creation and the tragedy of the Xhosa people, he came across a reference to a historical horror he had never heard of.

He had already read most of the book, expecting a conclusion of “a familiar tale of gradual colonial encroachment”, when the narrative “suddenly segued into the most unbelievable tale of hallucination, bad faith, mass delusion”.

At the centre of it all was Nongqawuse, about 15 years old who, one day at a pool near the mouth of the Gxara River on the Wild Coast, was approached by two figures whom she took to be ancestral spirits.

They told her the amaXhosa needed to make the sacrifice of killing all their cattle, destroying their maize and refraining from witchcraft. Once this was achieved, the ancestors would emerge from the waters and drive all the hated white settlers into the sea.

Once this had been done, the people would be rewarded with new crops and herds of healthy cattle. The traditional Xhosa way of life would return.

Unbelievable as it seems, and for a variety of disputed reasons, Nongqawuse was believed and the great cattle killing began. It had, as might be expected, the opposite effect of what the girl had predicted: more than 40 000 head of cattle were slaughtered, and more than 40 000 amaXhosa people starved to death.

Another 150 000 were forced off their lands by starvation, seeking refuge among neighbouring tribes or in jobs in white-owned enterprises.

Nicholas was appalled. What could have persuaded a nation to score such a ghastly own-goal?

There are many theories. Nicholas decided to return to the Eastern Cape a couple of times to explore them and come up with an explanation that satisfied him.

When I picked up this volume I was nervous – was it going to be another well-meaning Brit trying to mansplain our history?

I was slightly reassured by a foreword by the Xhosa writer Hombakazi Mercy Nqandeka. To start with she clearly shared my misgivings, writing of “a weariness that stemmed from seeing African stories often mishandled by Western writers approaching them from a skewed, entitled and culturally insensitive perspective….

“Moreover, within Xhosa culture, Nongqawuse’s tale is seldom discussed, as it is buried beneath layers of multi-faceted trauma, shame and famine.”

But she discovered Nicholas’s take was different.

During his two journeys, and with help and advice from locals as well as members of the Border Historical Society, Nicholas was able to visit the site of Nongqawuse’s vision as well as her grave, and that of Hintsa, the Xhosa paramount chief who was killed during the Eighth Frontier War by soldiers reporting to Sir Harry Smith – 20 years before the cattle killing

Nicholas has little good to say about his countrymen of the time. To achieve their goal of controlling the indigenous people of South Africa for the benefit of the Empire, “the invaders were willing to use mass starvation, scorched earth tactics, the latest ballistics and munitions, the Bible, duplicity, murder, humiliation, alcohol, deceit, hanging, deportation, enforced labour, imprisonment and social engineering”.

He adds: “This list is only indicative, not exhaustive.”

How did Nongqawuse persuade her countrymen to act on her prophecies? She was just a young girl. But, tellingly, she was the niece and ward of Mhalakaza, adviser to King Sarhili, heir to Hintsa.

After the disaster, Nongqawuse was arrested near Cathcart and questioned by Colonel John Maclean, commissioner of the then British Kaffraria.

She told him she believed her prophecy, but blamed its spread on her powerful uncle.

There are different theories as to what lay behind the acceptance of the prophecies. Had the whole thing been cynically instigated by the British authorities and the Cape governor to finally triumph over the enemy?

Had the prophecy failed because while thousands believed it and acted on it, some did not, which meant the desired result it could not be achieved?

Had the senior amaXhosa chiefs used the prophesies and the subsequent killing to push the people into going to war against the colonialists? This is reportedly what Grey believed.

Nicholas thinks the depredations of the colonialists in the Eastern Cape, and the outrage at the killing of Hintsa were behind his son Sarhili’s acceptance of Nongqawuse’s vision.

Nicholas accuses Cape Governor Sir George Grey of having being guilty of various charges relating to the cattle killing. In his words, it proved far more effective at reducing the amaXhosa population, breaking their culture and undermining their chiefs’ authority than any colonial military offence could have.

While not going so far as accusing Grey of instigating the killing, Bicholas quotes the governor saying: “We can draw very great permanent advantages from the circumstance, which may be made a major stepping stone for the country.”

And Grey exploited the outcome, undermining a relief fund set up by compassionate whites in some frontier towns, promoting instead his food-for-labour scheme which would give help only to those who signed up to work on municipal projects around the Cape.

What is clear is that the colonialists and their ever-expanding frontiers, Xhosa grief and outrage over losing their lands and way of life as well as their leaders such as Hintsa, drought and cattle disease, and a profound belief in the agency of the ancestors, spurred this terrible tragedy.

Most South Africans will have heard of the cattle killing, but have little knowledge of it. Various books have been written about it, not least Zakes Mda’s novel The Heart of Redness, but this careful, respectful –  and often chatty –  investigation is thoroughly worth reading.