Celebrating Makhanda’s Day!

On 25 December 1820, during his imprisonment on Robben Island, Makhanda drowned as he attempted to escape along with 30 other prisoners. The other prisoners survived, who were mostly Xhosa and Khoisan prisoners of war from the Eastern frontier. Since he had promised his people he would never abandon them, they continued to hope for his return for another 50 years before his funeral rites were observed.

Makhanda (also called Makana), who was also known as Nxele (“the left-handed”), was a prophet of mixed Khoi and Xhosa descent. Makhanda was born near the coast around 1780 in the Uitenhage area of the Eastern Cape. His father was a Xhosa named Gwala of the amaCwerha clan and his mother was a Khoi of the Gqunukhwebe clan.

After Makhanda’s father died, while he was still a young boy, he was brought up by his mother, strongly influenced by her people’s Gqunukhwebe traditions. His mother was a spiritual diviner and medicine woman. Makhanda was later recognised as an “Inyanga”, which seemed rooted in the early guidance of his mother and her traditions.

The Xhosa also particularly held the Khoi and San spiritual guides in high esteem. His mother took him and his siblings to the Great Fish River Valley, where they lived with his foster father Balala. Makhanda encountered the Christian Missionary Dr James van der Kemp, who had established a mission station in Bethelsdorp in 1799, and Makhanda became a lay preacher.

During his days as an itinerant preacher, he was attacked by a gang of detractors and was rescued by Qalanga, a councillor of Chief Ndlambe. Qalanga introduced Makhanda to the Royal Chief of the Rharhabe and around 1812 Chief Ndlambe appointed Makhanda as an advisor and military doctor.

Makhanda came to serve as a top advisor to Chief Ndlambe and he ensured that all of the amaXhosa had an understanding that the British, as the Dutch before them, were seeking to take their land from them. Makhanda viewed the emerging conflict between the European and African world views as a contest between Thixo, the god of the whites, and Mdalidiphu (creator of the deep), the God of the Xhosas. He began to preach a fusion of these religions to reconcile them, leaning toward Xhosa beliefs.

In 1818, at the Battle of Amalinde, Makhanda fought against Chief Ngqika, who was considered to be selling out his people in return for personal gain as an ally of the British Cape Colony. When a British-led force, commanded by Colonel Thomas Brereton, seized 23 000 head of cattle from Ndlambe’s people, Makhanda urged all the Xhosa to unite to try to drive British forces out of Xhosaland once and for all. Makhanda advised Ndlambe that the gods would be on their side if they chose to attack the British garrison in the settlement of Grahamstown, and promised that the British “bullets would turn to water”.

Ndlambe took Makana’s advice, and on 22 April 1819, Makanda led a raid on Grahamstown with a force of about 6 000 men, all under the overall command of Ndlambe’s son Mdushane. The British garrison was able to repulse the attack only after timely support was received from a Jan Boesak-led Khoi force.

Defeated by superior British firepower and poor tactics by the amaNdlambe leadership, Makhanda eventually chose to surrender himself under the belief it would bring an immediate end to the conflict. The British colonial government imprisoned him on Robben Island, but treated him with great respect, giving him private accommodation, food and furniture.

Makhanda is regarded as one of the first Africans to attempt a cultural synthesis of African and European beliefs in the fight against imperialism. Dawn, the monthly journal of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), credited his actions with having inspired the multiculturalism of the African National Congress (ANC) upon its founding. Anti-apartheid political prisoners imprisoned on Robben Island later petitioned for the renaming of the island after Makhanda.

“Sigubha usuku lukaNxele!”

Castro Khwela
Seasonal Greetings Fellow Compatriots!