Makhanda the great warrior By: S’khumbuzo Qwabe Remember and celbrate the courage, valour and tenacity of Makhanda uNxele on christmas day. Blood, tears and sweat was the price we paid for resisting colonialism. Next year marks twenty years of democracy and just over 200 years since the great warrior, Makhanda also known as Makana or Nxele died while trying to escape from Robben Island. Makhanda was one of the most extraordinary warriors in the history of AmaXhosa in particular and South Africans in general. As a young boy, Makhanda showed signs of being a highly intelligent person. It is said, he was a solitary, mysterious child, often wandering off by himself for extended periods. That could have been the result of losing his father at a tender age Now that we are to vote for the fifth time in the general elections, let us reflect and weigh-up the value of our vote. To borrow from comrade Ayanda Dlodlo, “This vote lies at the centre of our participatory democracy, which was won through the blood, sweat and tears of the millions of our people, with the peoples liberation movement, the ANC, being in the forefront of the struggle, but of course assisted by the fraternal forces from across the African continent and beyond. The fact that we will be holding the fifth national election since the advent of democracy is consistent with, and conforms to, the ANCs commitment to universal suffrage as part of entrenching democracy and a culture of human rights in the land of Makana, Zondo, Tambo, Sisulu, Mbeki, Ngoyi, Slovo and many other stalwarts of our liberation”. The People’s movement, the African National Congress, as an elected representative of the toiling masses of our beloved country, together with them, have set the tone for progressive change and sustainable freedom to accomplish the noble objective of a better life for all. South Africa has changed for the better since 1994. As Democratic Alliance and other reactionary organisation continue to try to discredit our revolutionary movement, one cannot help but quote from the research paper that was sourced from the writers below on Makhanda and the struggle of our people to defend our country from aggressors and colonisers who as the apartheid regime has done; knew nothing except to kill, maim and destroy our people and the land. “He (Makhanda) became fascinated with the religion of the colonists, and after his circumcision went to Grahamstown and stayed at the home of the pious Chaplain of the Cape Regiment, Mr van der Lingen, who was very impressed by the young man. It is said that he never asked or expressed a wish for presents, but seemed very attentive to hear what Mr van der Lingen was most anxious to communicate. Makana went to Xhosaland filled with Christian rectitude, and preached that the people should reject witchcraft and bloodshed. In April 1816 he even saw fit to upbraid Ndlambe himself for his polygamy, but in time the two became very close, with Makana a staunch supporter of Ndlambe. Gradually his theology underwent a significant change, and he came to see and believe that the white people were the source of the peoples woes. He began, with great prophetic energy, to persuade the great majority of Xhosa clans to unite and combine to repossess the land that had been taken from them by the powerful white nation. On 21 April 1819, he attacked Grahamstown in broad daylight, in the full conviction that they would somehow be miraculously protected from the guns of the soldiers. The result was humiliating defeat, and the complete routing of the Xhosa warriors. Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Willshire, commander of the colonial forces, was determined to capture Makana, and other chiefs hostile to the colony. In order to protect his people from further war and destruction, Nxele decided to hand himself over. With an air of calm pride and self-possession, he walked unattended into Andries Stockenstroms camp, and is reported to have said, People say I have occasioned the war. Let me see whether my delivering myself up to the conquerors will restore peace to my country. A few days after this, a group of Xhosa appeared at the edge of a thicket near Willshires camp, and signalled that they wanted to talk. Willshire, accompanied by Stockenstrom, met with them. Two of the Xhosas came forward, and proved to be chief councillors of Nxele and Ndlambe. Stockenstrom wrote afterwards that these two were as noble-looking men and as dignified in their demeanour as any I have ever beheld. Nxeles councillor addressed the officers, as Stockenstrom later put it in so manly a manner, with so graceful an attitude, and with so much feeling and animation, that the bald translation which I am to furnish from my hasty and imperfect notes can afford but a very faint and inadequate idea of his eloquence. This war, British chiefs said the councillor, is an unjust one, for you are now striving to destroy a people whom you forced to take up arms. Our fathers were men. They loved their cattle. Their wives and children lived upon milk. They fought for their property. They began to hate the colonists, who coveted their all, and aimed at their destruction. We fought for our lives. We attacked your headquarters, and if we had succeeded, it would have been just. You began the war, and we failed, and you are here. We wish for peace. We wish to rest in our huts. We wish to get milk for our children. Our wives wish to till the land, but your troops cover the plains and swarm in the thickets, where they cannot distinguish man from woman, and shoot all. Makana, after his capture, was taken and incarcerated on Robben Island, and after some time came to a tragic end by drowning, attempting to escape from the island. In later years it was said that the unjust expulsion of the Xhosas from the Zuurveld area of the Grahamstown region was the foundation of all the wars and atrocities that have since taken place in the East Cape divisions of the Colony. As Noel Mostert put it, Xhosa society had been thrown into turmoil by the ruthless campaign of Graham from 1812 to forcibly evict the Xhosas to the country east of the Great Fish River.* It was in this context that Makana spoke as a prophet of new hope for a people who had been forcibly removed from their land”. Sources: extracts from A Proper Degree of Terror - John Graham and the Capes Eastern Frontier: Ben Maclennan, Ravan Press 1986, (with some editorial summarising). Oral traditions also tell that Nxele was a Gona - the Khoi people conquered by the Rharhabe Xhosa about 1770 - whose mystical powers led him to be adopted into the royal Tshawe clan, and to be employed as their war doctor. As such, it is unlikely that he came in person to the Battle of Grahamstown, but stayed at home, working his protective magic. Ed. *Frontiers - the Epic of South Africas creation and the tragedy of the Xhosa people: Noel Mostert, Pimlico Press 1992.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Dec 2013 09:41:41 +0000
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