Ntsikana (born 1780-1821) was a Christian Xhosa prophet, evangelist and hymn writer who is regarded as one of the first Christians to translate Christian ideas and concepts into terms understandable to a Xhosa audience. [1]
Ntsikana was born around 1780 to Gaba, a councillor to the western amaRharhabe king, Ngqika and his junior wife Nonabe in the Thyume valley, north of Alice. Ntsikana who belonged to his father's clan, the Cirha clan, was brought up around his mother's kinsmen until he was about five or six. [2] His father sent for him having secured his rights by paying a beast for the child's maintenance since infancy. His father's great wife, Noyiki, who had a daughter but no sons, adopted Ntsikana who therefore became Gaba’s heir. From this time, Ntsikana made the Great Place in the Thyume valley, north of Alice his home. [1] Ntsikana's first contact with Christianity coincided with his customary Xhosa initiation in 1800. In 1799, Johannes van der Kemp, a missionary of the London Missionary Society, arrived among the western amaXhosa and was permitted to set up his camp near to Ngqika’s Great Place. Van der Kemp soon became an attraction both for the king and his people, and in the year that he remained among them they had many opportunities to hear him preach and discuss with him his new teaching. When he left in 1800 van der Kemp could not claim any converts but he may have had an influence on Ntsikana. [2] Ntsikana married two young women, Nontsonta and Nomanto, and settled between the Kat River district and the Peddie district in 1811. Later, he and his family moved to Gqore in the Kate River district. [3] After converting to Christianity, Ntsikana divorced his wife Nomanto. Ntsikana died in Thwatwa in 1821. [4]
From his first contact with Christianity through van der Kemp to 1815 Ntsikana led a normal life. His first spiritual experience was when he was at the kraal looking at his prized ox, Hulushe. As he watched, he saw a patch of light, brighter than ordinary sunlight, illuminating the hide of the animal. Ntsikana asked his companion, a young herdsman for corroboration but the young man denied seeing anything. [1] Later that day, Ntsikana participated in Umdudo (traditional wedding dance). During his performance, a gale-force wind started and when he stopped, it ceased. When he stood up again to dance, the gale-force winds returned with lightning and thunder. Ntsikana did not fully commit to the Christian religion until he met James Read and Joseph Williams who were travelling with Dyani Tshatshu, son of Xhosa chief from the Buffalo River, near Fort Beaufort in April 1816. Read and Williams offered further scriptural teaching to Ntsikana, before inviting him to travel with them back to Bethelsdorp when they returned. But such a journey was impossible, neither his chiefs nor the British authorities would allow him to travel into the colony, so the missionaries advised him to remain where he was until Williams could return to establish the new mission station and offer him further instruction. When Williams returned he found Ntsikana had patiently waited for him and had moved his family from Thyume to establish his home in the Mankazana hills, close to where the new mission station was built. Each Saturday, with his complete household, he visited Williams to receive instruction and stayed until Sunday to join in worship. [2] Now a fully converted Christian, Ntsikana divorced one of his wives Nomanto and denounced polygamy. In 1818, Williams died, and Ntsikane became the leader, establishing Christian communities in the Mankazana Valley and at Burnshill, Somerset East, Debe Nek, King William’s Town and Mgwali. Ntsikana’s Christian influence touched the lives of leaders such as King Ngqika, and his counsellor, Old Soga, the father of Tiyo Soga, and Tiyo’s older brother, Festiri. [2]
Ntsikana experienced an internal conflict between indigenous belief system (Inkolo yakwaNtu) and the foreign belief system (Inkolo yaseMzini)- Christianity. As a child he did not agree to be baptised by missionaries but became a Christian leader in life. He also acknowledged that Christianity demanded exclusivity meaning that he had to do away with Xhosa traditional belief systems. [2] Ntsikana also had a rivalry with Makhanda who is also known as Nxele, a prophet under chief Ndlambe who was based in the area now known as Grahamstown. Nxele rejected Christianity and western innovations, resisting the arrival of Europeans on the frontier during the Frontier Wars. Nxele called for the worshiping of Xhosa God, Mdalidiphu, while Ntsikana worshipped Thixo, the God of Christians. Referring to Nxele, Ntsikana once said "uNxele ubuquqekile, ubalahlekisilani abantu?" (Nxele has turned upside down, why does he mislead people?) [1]
Ntsikana also composed Christian hymns in isiXhosa which included “Intsimbi” (Ntsikana’s Bell),“Dalibom (Life-Creator), “Ingoma engqukuva” (Round Hymn) and “Ulo Thixomkulu” (“Thou Great God” - the Great Hymn). [2]
Ntsikana is regarded as one of the first Christians who tried to adapt Christianity to African culture.
The history of the Cape Colony from 1806 to 1870 spans the period of the history of the Cape Colony during the Cape Frontier Wars, which lasted from 1779 to 1879. The wars were fought between the European colonists and the native Xhosa who, defending their land, fought against European rule.
Tiyo Soga was a Xhosa journalist, minister, translator, missionary evangelist, and composer of hymns. Soga was the first black South African to be ordained, and worked to translate the Bible and John Bunyan's classic work Pilgrim's Progress into his native Xhosa language.
The Xhosa Wars were a series of nine wars between the Xhosa Kingdom and the British Empire as well as Trekboers in what is now the Eastern Cape in South Africa. These events were the longest-running military resistance against European colonialism in Africa.
William Wellington Gqoba was a South African Xhosa poet, translator, and journalist. He was a major nineteenth-century Xhosa writer, whose relatively short life saw him working as a wagonmaker, a clerk, a teacher, a translator of Xhosa and English, and a pastor.
The Bhaca people, or amaBhaca, are an Nguni ethnic group in South Africa.
Samuel Edward Krune Mqhayi was a Xhosa dramatist, essayist, critic, novelist, historian, biographer, translator and poet whose works are regarded as instrumental in standardising the grammar of isiXhosa and preserving the language in the 20th century.
Dr Johannes Theodorus van der Kemp was a military officer, doctor, and philosopher who became a missionary in South Africa.
The Rharhabe House is the second senior house of the Xhosa Kingdom. Its royal palace is in the former Ciskei and its counterpart in the former Transkei is the Gcaleka, which is the great house of Phalo.
The Ngqika people are a Xhosa monarchy who lived west of the Great Kei River in what is today the Eastern Cape of South Africa. They were first ruled by Rarabe kaPhalo who died with his son Mlawu, who was destined for chieftaincy. The clan would be named after Ngqika ka Mlawu, the son of the then late Mlawu. It would be years before the child would rule his people who fought in the Xhosa Wars, which were sparked by the encroachment of European settlers on Xhosa lands.
Makhanda, also spelled Makana and also known as Nxele, was a Xhosa indigenous doctor. He served as a top advisor to Chief Ndlambe. During the Xhosa Wars, on 22 April 1819, he initiated an abortive assault on the town of Grahamstown, in what was then the Cape Colony.
This article focuses on the history of 19th century Xhosa language newspapers in South Africa.
Coenraad De Buys was described as "a remarkable figure" on the frontier of the Cape Colony. Travellers described him with awe. Their accounts mentioned that he was an impressive figure, nearly seven foot tall and with enormous self-confidence.
Centane, or alternatively anglicised Kentane or Kentani because Europeans often cannot easily pronounce the Xhosa click 'C'; is a settlement in Amathole District Municipality in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated at approximately 31 kilometres (19 mi) from Butterworth.
Jotello Festiri Soga was South Africa's first black veterinary surgeon who played a leading role in eradicating rinderpest. The library at the Faculty of Veterinary Science at the University of Pretoria is named for him.
The AmaNdlambe or the Ndlambe is a Xhosa principality located in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Founded by Prince Ndlambe, son of King Rharhabe and grandson of King Phalo, Ndlambe's advisors and strong army were known as the 'AmaNdlambe'. Prince Ndlambe was also the uncle of King Hintsa.
The Imidushane clan was founded by one of the greatest Xhosa warriors Prince Mdushane who was the eldest son of Prince Ndlambe, the son of King Rharhabe.
The Battle of Amalinda was an armed confrontation between two Xhosa chiefs of the Rharhabe House, which took place in October 1818 just outside of what is today King Williams Town, in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa. On the eve of the fifth Xhosa War Chief Ngqika had close ties with the British, while his uncle, Chief Ndlambe, had no such agreements and painted Ngqika as someone selling out his people in return for personal gain. Chief Ndlambe was assisted in the battle by the senior, King Hintsa and his Gcaleka warriors. When chief Ngqika was defeated in the battle, he retreated and appealed to the British for protection. A British-led force commanded by Colonel Thomas Brereton then seized 23,000 head of cattle from Ndlambe's people in retaliation, leading to the battle of Grahamstown.
William Anderson Soga was the first black African to qualify with an MBCM in 1883 and the first black African medical doctor to practise in South Africa, as well as being the first black African to obtain a doctorate MD. His thesis titled "The ethnology of the Bomvanas of Bomvanaland, an aboriginal tribe in South East Africa, with observations upon the climate and diseases of the country, and the methods of treatment in use among the people" was completed at the University of Glasgow in 1895. He was also ordained as a minister in the United Presbyterian Church 1885 making him one of the first medical missionaries in South Africa. Soga was involved in the running of mission stations, building churches, diagnosis and treatment of patients, research and writing.