PUBLICATIONS OF THE OPLAND COLLECTION OF XHOSA LITERATURE

VOLUME 1

William Wellington Gqoba

Isizwe esinembali
Xhosa histories and poetry (18731888)

edited and translated by

Jeff Opland, Wandile Kuse and Pamela Maseko

Contents

Acknowledgements ix
Introduction Jeff Opland
1
1
2
3
4

Indatyana: A few items of news (1873)

Ncedani: Please help (1875)
Utywala: Liquor (1875)
Ulaulo lwaba Ntsundu: The administration of black
people (1880)
5 Isimangalo sika Tixo (Isaiah I.): Gods complaint (1884)
6 Amabalana ahlekisayo: Amusing sketches (18845)
7 Ingxoxo enkulu nge mfundo: umzekeliso: A great debate on
education: a parable (1885)
8 The native tribes, their laws, customs and beliefs (1885)
9 Ukububa ko Mfundisi wakwa Nondyolo: The death of the
Stockenstrom minister (1885)
10 Ukububa kuka Mr. Philip Koti: The death of Mr Philip Koti
(1885)
11 Umpanga ka Mfi u Rev. S. Mtimkulu: The passing of the
late Rev. S. Mthimkhulu (1885)
12 Ilitye lesikumbuzo lika-John A. Bennie, wase-Lovedale:
A memorial stone for John A. Bennie of Lovedale (1885)
13 Icebetshu lokusinda (Acts xxvi. 28.): A narrow escape (1885)
14 Ukububa kuka Miss Catherine Tukani: The death of
Miss Catherine Tukani (1885)
15 Isikalazo sika Tixo (Amos iv. 613.): Gods complaint (1885)
16 Imbali yama Xosa: The history of the Xhosa people (1887)
17 Imbali yase Mbo: The history of the eastern territory (1887)

38
44
50
54
62
70
84
210
232
236
240
244
248
254
258
264
300

18 Intsingiselo zama qalo esi-Xosa: The meaning of Xhosa

proverbs (1887)
19 Ukububa komka Ntibane Mzimba: The death of Mrs
Ntibane Mzimba (1887)
20 Ingxoxo enkulu yomGinwa nom-Kristu: A great debate
between a heathen and a Christian (18878)
21 Isizatu sokuxelwa kwe nkomo ngo Nongqause:
The motive for the Nongqawuse cattle-killing (1888)
Biographical appendices
22 W. Gqoba to James Stewart (1881)
23 Ibandla le Mfundo: The Education Association (1886)
24 William Gqoba (1887)
25 Rev. William W. Gqoba (1888)
26 In memoriam: Govan Koboka and William W. Gqoba (1888)
27 M.K. Mtakati, William Gqoba (1888)
28 S.E.K. Mqhayi, Wm. Wellington Gqoba (1922)

350
376
386
460
485
487
492
518
520
528
534
538

Sources 540
Bibliography 543

Introduction
Jeff Opland

European notions of education and literacy were introduced to the

Xhosa-speaking peoples along the southeastern seaboard of South
Africa by Christian missionaries from the end of the eighteenth century.
Dr J.T. van der Kemp of the London Missionary Society (LMS), who
first taught a Xhosa person to write, worked in Xhosa territory from
August 1799 to December 1800 (Enklaar 1988). He was followed
by Joseph Williams from 1816 to 1818, and by John Brownlee, who
established his mission station on the Tyhume River in 1820 (Holt 1954,
1976). Brownlee was soon joined by agents of the Glasgow Missionary
Society (GMS), and the Tyhume mission became in time the forerunner
of the Lovedale Missionary Institution, which opened its doors to black
and white students in 1841 (Shepherd 1940, 1971).
All this early evangelical and educational activity fell within the
territory of the Xhosa chief Ngqika, who for a time joined the mission
as a teacher, until he was removed from the station and from missionary
influence by his disgruntled councillors (Mqhayi 2009: 4246).
Ntsikana son of Gabha, one of Ngqikas advisers, probably had some
form of contact with Van der Kemp; certainly, by the time Williams
arrived, he had established a dedicated community to whom he taught
hymns he had composed and to whom he regularly preached in his own
style of Christian worship (Bokwe 1914; Hodgson 1980). Ntsikana died
in May 1821, while on his way with his disciples to join Brownlee, and
in dying he urged his followers, under his sons Kobe and Dukwana, to
complete the journey to the Tyhume mission. Ntsikana is a figure of
enduring influence, revered as a charismatic prophet who foretold the
1

2 W.W.GQOBA

arrival of white settlers; he urged acceptance of some of the European

innovations, but only on Xhosa terms, a policy of assimilation by
the Xhosa rather than wholesale conversion by the missionaries. He
stressed the need for the community and the nation to remain as tightly
unified as a compressed, compacted ball made from the scrapings from
the inside of a pelt, imbumba yamanyama, a phrase that now serves as
one of South Africas national mottoes. For the most part his disciples
came to serve the missionary enterprise faithfully, and they and their
descendants played crucial roles in the development of literacy among
the Xhosa and in the early development of Xhosa literature in print. One
of Ntsikanas disciples was Peyi, like Ntsikana a member of the Cirha
clan. Peyis son was Gqoba, and Gqobas son was William Wellington
Gqoba, who was born in 1840, a year before the Lovedale Institution
commenced its mission.
Initially, under the principalship of William Govan, Lovedale offered
its students, both black and white, a non-discriminatory academic
education that included the study of Latin and Greek, geometry and
mathematicsthe standard Victorian education of the day.1 Gradually,
however, the implications of this educational philosophy dawned on
the Scottish missionaries, and Govan was replaced by James Stewart
in 1870. Stewart introduced a differential system, with white pupils
following an academic curriculum and black students pursuing
vocational courses such as agriculture, wagonmaking and bookbinding.
As R.H.W. Shepherd, himself a principal of Lovedale from 1942 to
1955, put it, Govan was sacrificed because of his conviction that a
primitive people could best be educated first by the highest education
of the few and Stewart took his place as Principal because he advocated
first the elementary education of the many (1971: 32). But the cat was
out of the bag. The Lovedale students of the 1850s, joined by graduates
of nearby Healdtown, a Wesleyan institution established in 1845,
formed an elite cohort who, by the 1880s, were mobilising for political
participation, press freedom and religious independence (Odendaal
1984, 2012).

1. On the development of the GMS philosophy of education in the eastern Cape, see
Williams (1967: 6375) and, more generally, Ashley (1974).

INTRODUCTION 3

William Wellington Gqoba was prominent among them, a wagonmaker, missionary, teacher, historian, poet, folklorist and editor. For
much of his brief life he served on mission stations as a catechist, but
he was not a docile Christian who subscribed meekly to European
values; he gave as good as he got from his employer, the well-respected
James Stewart, and he confronted white misreadings of Xhosa history,
which he felt misled school pupils (see item 21 below). Like Tiyo Soga
before him, he sought to explain and in certain respects defend Xhosa
custom, a stance anathema to the missionaries, who were bent on its
eradication. Gqoba lived his life as a Christian, but never compromised
his pride in his Xhosa identity: in a speech at a meeting of the Native
Education Association on 6 January 1886, two years before his death,
Gqoba concluded by saying that, from what he had seen, he was glad
he was not a white man (wagqiba ngokuti ude uvuya kanye, kuba
ingenguye umlungu ngenxa yoko akubonileyo, item 23 below). For
over three years, from November 1884 to April 1888, under Stewarts
eagle eye, Gqoba edited the Lovedale newspaper Isigidimi samaXosa (the messenger of the Xhosa people), to which he contrived to
contribute subversive poetry outspokenly critical of Western education,
the European administration of black people and the social, economic
and political discrimination suffered by colonised blacks. In his all too
brief literary career, William Wellington Gqoba fashioned the figure of
the Xhosa man of letters; unrivalled in his time in the generic range
of his activities, he was the author of letters, anecdotes, expositions
of proverbs, histories and poetry, including two poems in the form of
debates that stood for over fifty years as the longest poems in the Xhosa
language. In so doing he set a demanding example and exhorted his
peers to emulate him. In accordance with the philosophy of Ntsikana,
whom he revered, he sought his own Xhosa accommodation with
Christianity and European innovations, and finally it was not Jesus but
Ntsikana who appeared to him in a vision. In his terminal illness he
confided to a close friend:
Ndinento endiza kukuhlebela yona engaziwa bani kwabakufupi
kum. Ndiyafa, andiyi kupila. Indawo endiyityilelweyo yeyokuba
kwakusondela, ndiya kuvaleka umqala, ndikohlwe kukuteta.
Ndite ndakubuza ku Tixo ukuba kukutini na ukuba andenjenjalo

4 W.W.GQOBA

akandipendula, koko wandibonisa umbono osimanga.

Ndingati ndityilelwe izulu, ndalubona usapo luka Ntsikana
luqukene ndaweni nye kona, lutsho ngeziqaqambileyo ingubo.
Bendingamazi nje la Ntsikana wembali namhla ndiyamazi.
(item 25 below)
There is a secret I am going to tell you, a secret unknown to
people close to me. I am dying, I am not going to live. What
I have been told is that closer to the time my throat will be
blocked and I will not be able to speak. When I asked God why
He allows me to be in that condition he did not reply, instead he
showed me wonderful visions. I might say I have been shown
heaven, and there I saw Ntsikanas family gathered together,
dressed in bright clothing. While I never knew the famous
Ntsikana, now I know him.
Janet Hodgson has remarked of Ntsikana that [he] was the one who
was first able to be a Christian while remaining an African, and this was
his legacy to his disciples (1986: 188). Gqoba followed Ntsikanas
example.
The legacy of Ntsikana

After Ntsikanas death at Thwathwa in May 1821, his disciples fulfilled

his dying wishes and joined John Brownlee at the Tyhume mission with
their families, where they continued to dress distinctively and held their
own services, which always included the singing of Ntsikanas hymns;
the sermons were devoted to the life and prophecies of Ntsikana.2
Some, like Soga son of Jotelo, maintained contact with the mission
but lived nearby, pursuing a life in keeping with Xhosa custom, but
holding services twice a day in his homestead and attending services
at the Tyhume mission on Sunday. As a councillor to Ngqika, Soga
argued against involvement in Hintsas War of 18345 but, having lost
the argument, he supported his chief in the war and lost everything to
rampaging soldiers. He then embraced Western agricultural technology
and monetary systems and became a successful entrepreneur. Sogas
2. For a collection of Ntsikanas sayings, see Jabavu ([1952] 1953: 36).

INTRODUCTION 5

independent frame of mind brought him into conflict with the

missionary William Chalmers, who had arrived at Tyhume in 1827.
Hodgson explains:
A particular bone of contention was Sogas following of
Ntsikana in his religious practice. Chalmers praised him for
holding regular prayer meetings in his village, but could not
approve of his making his own rules. No hymns but those
of Ntsikana were allowed, neither the Xhosa ones of the
missionaries nor those Festiri had composed. His Christianity
was not automatically identified with mission preaching and all
that went with it. His was an African response to God which had
yet to be fully worked out, but which was nonetheless authentic.
Soga was a thorough Xhosa nationalist and therefore sought
to integrate his leading of the independent peasant movement
with his African consciousness. Ntsikana provided him with the
necessary symbols for integration. (1986: 1967)
Since Soga refused missionary injunctions to relinquish all but one of
his wives, his wife in the Great House, Nosuthu, who had been baptised
at Tyhume, separated from her husband, though she continued to live in
his homestead. Their eldest son, Festiri, established a school of his own
at Sogas homestead and later became a mission teacher.
Noyi and Matshaya, both disciples of Ntsikana, were baptised at
Tyhume as Robert Balfour and Charles Henry, and dictated the earliest
Xhosa history and autobiography to missionaries who saw to their
transcription and publication;3 John Muir Vimbe, another disciple,
contributed historical articles to Lovedales newspapers. Ntsikanas
sons Kobe and Dukwana were also baptised at Tyhume and worked
on the mission. Dukwana assisted the missionaries in printing their
early publications, including the first Scottish periodical in Xhosa,
Ikwezi (the morning star).4 When Chalmers decided to appoint

3. Both documents are included in Bokwe (1914). The publishers first gathering
of Noyis unpublished Xhosa history was reprinted in Opland and Mtuze (1994:
626); see further Opland (2004: 235).
4. For the history of Xhosa periodicals, see Opland (1998: ch. 11).

6 W.W.GQOBA

an elder at the mission, Dukwana was unanimously elected by the

congregation as their leader. Soga opposed the War of the Axe (18467)
but, as in Hintsas War, fought on the side of his chief. Both Soga and
Dukwana were involved in hostilities in support of their chief Sandile
in Mlanjenis War (18503), during which the Tyhume mission was
destroyed and abandoned. After the war Dukwana settled with the
Tyhume refugees at Peelton Mission, which had been established by
Richard Birt in 1848. Finally, Soga and Dukwana yet again reluctantly
fought in support of Sandile in Ngcayechibis War (18778), during
which both were killed. Mqhayi notes that Sogas bones were located
and transferred to Mgwali: when peace was declared, his countrymen
collected his bones, identifying them from his old bracelet, and buried
him at Mgwali (lite lakuxola amawabo awacola amatambo ake,
ewabona ngesacolo sake esidala,awancwaba kwase Mgwali, Mqhayi
2009: 3789). The register at the back of the Mgwali minute book for
187792 records the burial of The bones of Old Soga in December
1883.5
Festiris brother Tiyo, the younger son of Soga and Nosuthu,
entered Lovedale in 1844 and became the first Xhosa person to be
ordained as a minister.6 Tiyo spent two periods in Scotland, and
returned to South Africa with his Scottish wife Janet Burnside in the
aftermath of the disastrous cattle-killing episode of 18567 (Peires
1989). After reuniting with his parents, Tiyo proceeded to Peelton to
assemble the remnants of the United Presbyterian congregations of
Tyhume, Uniondale and Igqibirha172 men, women and children
and moved them to Mgwali in 1857, where they formed the core of the

5. The Mgwali minister, Rev. M.A. Mhaga, kindly permitted me to photograph this
invaluable document in September 2010; a copy was deposited in the Cory Library
for Historical Research, Grahamstown. A report on Sogas reburial in Isigidimi
confirms the date of the reburial as 12 December: Idlaka lika Soga umfo ka
Jotelo, Isigidimi (1 February 1884: 5).
6. The following brief account of Tiyo Soga bypasses recent assessments from a
Western theoretical perspective. For an engagement with scholars such as Attwell
(2005) and De Kock (1996), see Davis (2012: 95124). Davis in turn bypasses and
discredits biographical treatments of Soga by Chalmers, but she does so largely
with regard to Chalmerss framing narrative (Davis 2012: 188224). The following
Afrocentric view of Soga is informed by Sogas writings as quoted by Chalmers.
On Tiyo Soga, see Chalmers ([1877] 1878) and Williams (1978, 1983).

INTRODUCTION 7

congregation at his new mission settlement. The first service at Mgwali

concluded with Ntsikanas hymn. Tiyo wrote in a letter:
We concluded by singing the hymn of Ntsikana, the father of
Dukwana. It was always a favourite with the Chumie people,
and the late Mr Chalmers, I remember, invariably concluded
the services of the communion, by giving out this hymn. I
scarcely think it will ever again be sung as it was sung in his
day. Our people since they left the Chumie must have had few
opportunities of singing it. The effect which it produced in our
little assembly was thrilling. It must have awakened memories
of the past. (Chalmers [1877] 1878: 161)
At Mgwali, four of the Tyhume elders continued to serve in that
capacity, including Dukwana son of Ntsikana and Festiri son of Soga.
Also living at Mgwali were Tiyos brother Zaze and Nkohla Falati, who
was married to Dukwanas daughter Mary. Mgwali served as a direct
extension of the legacy of Ntsikana, through the physical presence there
of Ntsikanas descendants and followers, and through the liturgical use
of Ntsikanas hymn.
Tiyo Sogas biographer, his colleague J.A. Chalmers, describes
him as the Kafir patriot and the Christian missionary (Chalmers
[1877] 1878: 440); he was both. True to Ntsikanas model of absorbing
Christianity into a Xhosa world view, of becoming a Christian but
remaining a Xhosa, Tiyo Soga sought an accommodation between his
foreign faith and his native identity. On his death he left a notebook
containing 62 precepts to guide his children. The first precept includes
this admonition:
I want you, for your own future comfort, to be very careful
on this point. You will ever cherish the memory of your
mother as that of an upright, conscientious, thrifty, Christian
Scotchwoman. You will ever be thankful for your connection
by this tie to the white race. But if you wish to gain credit
for yourselvesif you do not wish to feel the taunt of men,
which you sometimes may be made to feeltake your place
in the world as coloured, not as white men; as Kafirs, not as
Englishmen. (Chalmers [1877] 1878: 430)

8 W.W.GQOBA

The Scottish missionaries were committed to the eradication of Xhosa

custom. As Donovan Williams put it,
[polygamy], bride-price, the levirate, marriage ceremonies,
intonjane and circumcision were condemned and attacked with
a resolute dogmatism rooted in the early Victorian morality
of the Evangelical Revival as well as the conviction of the
superiority of Western European civilisation. Christianity, qua
Christianity, did not produce conflict; it was when Christianity
attacked the customs and rites of the Kaffirs that it became a
menace to Kaffir society and the chiefs in particular. (1967: 89)
But, up to a point, Soga was tolerant of Xhosa custom. He was not
opposed to circumcision as such, but sought a modification of some
of its practices, such as smearing the face and body with white clay.
Circumcision, he claimed, was a civil and not a religious rite. When
boys on his station at Mgwali, including the sons of two of his elders,
entered the circumcision lodge, he did not oppose them, but offered
them guidelines; as he wrote, If they wished to be men, they required
only to perform the rite, without adopting the other degrading customs
(Chalmers [1877] 1878: 264). Against the run of missionary ideology,
he believed that missionaries entering the field should not oppose Xhosa
custom out of hand, and that they should be concerned to respect the
authority of the chiefs. When the United Presbyterians were considering
expanding their missionary activities beyond the Kei, Soga wrote a
letter to Andrew Somerville, foreign mission secretary of the United
Presbyterian Church. In reprinting it, Chalmers distanced himself
from its sentiments in these terms: although some of the statements
contained in it seem somewhat arbitrary, and such as many men in the
mission field might decline to endorse, it is most valuable as expressing
his own view of the connection that ought to subsist betwixt the Mission
Board and its agents ([1877] 1878: 312). Soga advised Somerville that
[the] brethren must be prepared to identify themselves with the people,
on whose behalf they leave home and kindred. The knot of the Kafirs
prejudices and habits is not to be rudely cut, by the uncompromising
knife of civilized tastes. It must be patiently and cautiously untied

INTRODUCTION 9

(Chalmers [1877] 1878: 314). With regard to the Gcaleka king Sarhili
he wrote: Kreli is exceedingly jealous of his power, and of his country.
The missionary must support this authority in all lawful things, and
recognise it among his future converts in secular matters (Chalmers
[1877] 1878: 315).
On 30 October 1861, Tiyo Soga called on chief Sandile and spoke
to him, his wives and Oba the son of Tyhali who was, like Sandile, a
son of Ngqika. When Soga invited objections to his statements, an old
man spoke up:
We have nothing to say; but it strikes me that in reference to
this thing (Christianity), the way in which it has come to us is
not right. I do not see how we can receive it; yet I do not say
it is not true. The Owner of it has cut the thing in the middle,
and done it by halves. You know that we are the remnants of
past generations of Kafirs. Why was the Word not sent to our
forefathers, so that we should have received it through them
in the natural course of things? We do not like the idea that
the thing which is considered so good for us should have been
withheld from them. They should have received it first; we next,
through them.
Soga offered a response in harmony with Ntsikanas philosophy: Soga
does not denounce belief in the ancestors, but demonstrates how the
Christian message might be accommodated, absorbed and assimilated
into the Xhosa way of life. The two systems are not antithetical:
That mode of arguing will not do. We cannot cross-question
Gods modes of dealing with His creatures. We may depend
upon it that He has done right to our forefathers, even as He has
done right to us in sending us His Word. We must take it, without
reference to its having been sent or not sent to our forefathers.
I said, See, you have on a blanket. Yes. Our forefathers
wore karosses. Yes. You dig your gardens with the white
mans plough, and spade and hoe. Yes. Our forefathers dug
them with wooden spades. Yes. Well, but these things were
not sent to them; they did not get them. But, according to your

10 W.W.GQOBA

mode of reasoning, you should have nothing to do with these

things. But you use them, because you see they are good for
you. You like them; they are profitable to you, and you have
no scruples to use them, although in the time of Tshiwo and
Palo they were unknown. At this point Oba had a hearty laugh.
You must do the same with the Gospel, I proceeded; take it
on its own merits, on its own suitableness to your wants, on its
profitableness to you as sinners, and not with any reference to
the generations of your forefathers. This silenced my friend;
for, amid a shout of laughter, he exclaimed, No, I did not mean
anything; I was only talking for the sake of talking! (Chalmers
[1877] 1878: 2423)
Tiyo Sogas strategy was similar to that adopted by Isaac Williams
Wauchope, whose subversive tract on The natives and their
missionaries (1908) implies the Xhosas active acceptance of the
gospel and its absorption into their culture through his title alone: the
natives have appropriated their missionaries.7 As a student at Lovedale,
the poet S.E.K. Mqhayi, who regularly performed at Ntsikana Day
celebrations, also insisted on his own accommodation with his Xhosa
identity: in defiance of his teachers he ran the risk of expulsion and
entered the circumcision lodge in 1894 prior to undergoing baptism at
Lovedale.8

7. Reprinted in Wauchope (2008: 3974); see further Opland (2003). Like Soga,
Wauchope (18721917), an ordained Congregational minister, wrote on
ecclesiastical matters as well as Xhosa history and oral traditions; like Soga, he
was not blindly opposed to Xhosa custom. His commentaries on proverbs, the
first philosophical writing in Xhosa, were designed to demonstrate the existence
of a coherent ethical system among the precolonial Xhosa: see Wauchope (2008:
245311).
8. In 1907 the Mfengu community gathered at a milkwood tree near Peddie to repeat
the vows of loyalty they had made on arrival from Gcalekaland in 1835. This
annual celebration became known as Fingo Day. In response, in 1909 the Xhosa
community gathered for the first annual Ntsikana Day celebration. On ethnic
tension between Xhosa and Mfengu, and the modern politicisation of Fingo Day
and Ntsikana Day, see Manona (1980: 97121). For Mqhayis account of his
circumcision, see Mqhayi (1939: ch. 9).

INTRODUCTION 11

Soga declined to condemn Xhosa custom, the common practice of

his missionary colleagues. Indeed, he devoted considerable effort to the
collection and exposition of Xhosa lore. Chalmers notes: It was wellknown that Tiyo Soga, since entering the mission-field, was collecting
Kafir fables, legends and proverbs, fragments of Kafir history, rugged
utterances of native bards, the ancient habits and customs of his
countrymen, and the genealogy of Kafir chiefs with striking incidents in
their lives ([1877] 1878: 343). Again, [his] biographer has often seen
him seated in a Kafir hut, adjoining his house at the Mgwali, when the
station people were asleep, sitting with pencil and note-book in hand,
jotting down what he expected to give to the world, whilst an old man
named Gontshi, as grizzled as the ancient mariner, with a well-filled
pipe, and a huge bowl of coffee before him, waxed eloquent in his
narration of incidents of Kafir history, and of Kafir fables (Chalmers
[1877] 1878: 3434). Soga contributed a number of articles to the
Lovedale newspaper Indaba (news), commencing with a contribution
to the first issue encouraging readers to submit folklore to Indaba in
order to ensure its preservation. Indaba, Soga wrote, could be a lovely
dish for holding safely the legends, news and sayings of the home
(isitya esihle sokulondoloza imbali, nendaba namavo, asekaya, Indaba,
August 1862: 10). Chalmers quotes extensively from two of Sogas
papers on Xhosa custom and belief, the first on diviners (1878: 344
54), the second on Xhosa creation myths (3548).9
With his Scottish wife at Mgwali, Tiyo must have been the living
embodiment of Ntsikanas creed of accepting the white man but
locating him within the ambit of an evolving Xhosa culture. There
must have been relatively easy interaction between black and white on
the isolated mission station and an accommodating impulse towards
European culture. Isaac Williams Wauchope particularly noted the

9. For an examination of Sogas writings, see Davis (2012). There is considerable

disagreement about Sogas contributions to Indaba. Williams accepted uncritically
J.J.R. Jolobes selection of eight items (reprinted in translation in Williams [1983:
15077]), but only six of these articles can be confidently attributed to Soga,
writing under the pseudonym UNonjiba waseluhlangeni (the dove of the nation),
or, once, simply N.W. In addition to the articles assembled by Jolobe, Soga himself
asserts that he contributed two articles on theft, the first on its causes, the second on
its consequences and prevention (Chalmers [1877] 1878: 290).

12 W.W.GQOBA

easy social intercourse at John Knox Bokwes wedding at Mgwali in

December 1895:
Zipambili zonke into zalapa, kodwa eyona nto intle kukuvisisana
pakati kwabafundisikazi nomtinjana ofundiswayo. Sifumene
umoya omhle kunene, obange ukuba singabi nakuxhalaba noko
sihlalelene intsuku ezininzi nabantu abamhlope. Kufudula
kunjalo ke kudala; kwanga kunga hlala kunjalo ke apa
Emgwali. (Wauchope 2008: 104)
Everything here is exceptional, but the most appealing thing of
all is the co-operation between the lady teachers and the female
students. We were received in a truly hearty spirit, which helped
us to relax even though we were to stay with white people for
several days. That used to be the way it was in the past; we
wish that it would always be as it was here at Mgwali.
The prevailing influence at Mgwali of Old Soga, his son Tiyo and
Dukwana son of Ntsikana alone must have contributed powerfully to
the philosophy of the mission station. As Adrian Hastings remarks,
Dukwana, Tiyo, and old Soga are important, not just because
they were all three very remarkable people, but because they
represent in three different ways a single tradition. Old Soga
stands upon the one side, Tiyo upon the other, Dukwana
somewhere in the middle. A half-century after Ntsikana they
demonstrate that his legacy of a Xhosa Christianity spiritually
free of missionary control remained a reality, hard as that was
in the South Africa of the later nineteenth century.
The heritage of Ntsikana and the distinctive atmosphere at Mgwali,
in particular the example of Tiyo Sogas contributions to Xhosa
journalism and his collection of Xhosa folklore, cannot but have exerted
an enduring influence on William Wellington Gqoba, who joined the
Mgwali mission as a teacher at the invitation of Tiyo Soga.

INTRODUCTION 13

The life of William Wellington Gqoba

In 1887 James Stewart, principal of Lovedale, compiled Lovedale

Past and Present, a biographical listing of over 2000 students and
graduates of Lovedale, as a rebuttal to critics of missionary education.
The extended entry on Gqoba (item 24 below) claims that Gqoba was
born at Gaga in August 1840 and educated at Tyhume before entering
Lovedale in September 1853; in May 1856 he was indentured in the
wagonmaking trade and worked in King Williams Town for a number
of years, before accepting Tiyo Sogas invitation to teach at Mgwali.
While William Wellington was working in King Williams Town, his
father Gqoba son of Peyi accepted Sogas invitation to join the Mgwali
mission as an elder. Writing from Mgwali to Andrew Somerville on
9 February 1859, Tiyo reports that four new elders were appointed to
the new mission in September 1858, one of whom, Goba, had studied
at Tyhume under William Chalmers and afterwards left the Chumie
for Cat River, when for long he held the post of Dutch interpreter
to the Fingoes & Kaffirs, for the Messrs Read of PhiliptonIt was,
I believe under their ministry, that he came to the Knowledge of
the truth (Williams 1983: 478). On 13 July 1864 the elder Gqoba
attended a church meeting attended also by Dukwana Ntsikana (Indaba,
September 1864: 20911); in the same year, the elder Gqobas son
Cumming was born at Mgwali. Tiyos invitation to William Wellington
Gqoba to join the Mgwali mission as a teacher, after some years
service as a wagonmaker in King Williams Town, seems consistent
with a concerted effort to gather at Mgwali the children and followers
of Ntsikana and their descendants.10
Lovedale Past and Present provides an outline of Gqobas
subsequent career, until the year before his death. Gqoba served at
Mgwali, taught for a year at Lovedale, and at the end of 1868 returned
to Mgwali. In October 1870 he moved to King Williams Town to
teach, before transferring to Rabula in January 1873 as a preacher.
10 . In the following commentary, and in the notes to the texts, Gqoba will refer to
William Wellington Gqoba and Gqoba Peyi to his father Gqoba, son of Peyi.
It was acceptable practice at this time to refer to a Xhosa man by his given name
followed by the name of his father; the name of the father soon developed into a
surname for the European record. Thus, William Wellington took the name of his
father, Gqoba, as his surname, as did his children.

14 W.W.GQOBA

He stayed at Rabula until the outbreak of Ngcayechibis War in 1877,

and in August 1878 took charge of the Peelton Mission in the absence
overseas of its founder, Richard Birt. In January 1880 he returned to
Rabula, where he cannot have stayed long, since an annual report on
the Lovedale Missionary Institution for 1880 lists him as a teacher of
English to the first-year class (Christian Express, 1 January 1881: 2).11
His feisty letter to Stewart in January 1881 (item 22 below) suggests
that Stewart accused him of dereliction of duty, and Stewart might
well have terminated Gqobas services as a teacher at Lovedale, since
in February 1881 Gqoba apparently moved to Kimberley, where he
worked in the Post Office and the Native Registry Office. At the end
of 1884, seemingly reappointed by Stewart, he returned as a teacher
to Lovedale, where he succeeded John Tengo Jabavu as editor of the
Lovedale newspaper Isigidimi sama-Xosa.
At Lovedale Gqoba was active in educational affairs (he was a
prominent member of the Native Education Association, founded in
1879, the first known African political organisation in the Eastern Cape)
and a keen member of the Lovedale Literary Society. His contributions
to a meeting of the Native Education Association in January 1886 (item
23 below) reveal him to be ever ready with a quip or an anecdote. In
June 1887, at a meeting of Free Church clergy in Grahamstown, Gqoba
was now accorded the full authority (licence) to preach wherever hes
been invited and permission to go and establish new congregations
anywhere theres an opportunity and any congregation is free to invite
him (unikwe ngoku igunya elizeleyo (License) lokushumayela apo
afunwe kona, nemvume yokuba aye kusiqalela iremente nokuba kupina
apo kuvuleke ucango kona, nokuba angabizwa nayiyipina iremente
emfunayo, Isigidimi, 1 August 1887: 58). On 30 January 1888 Thomas
J. Mbeia wrote a letter to the Editor of Isigidimi from Auckland
announcing that, in the indisposition of James Read Sr, his son, James
Read Jr of Philipton, had written to Gqoba inviting him to take charge
of the Auckland congregation as its minister (ucela u Rev. W.W. Gqoba
ukuba amncede, apate le yena i-Remente, abe ngu mfundisi wayo,
Isigidimi, 2 April 1888: 32), fulfilling a longstanding desire of the
congregation for Gqoba to come and minister to them (intlanganiso ize
11 . Gqoba is not mentioned in the annual reports for 1879 or 1881.

INTRODUCTION 15

kukupa uluvo nomnqweno obuko kakade we Remente yase Auckland

wokunga u Rev. W.W. Gqoba angaba ngu mfundisi wayo). Gqoba was
never able to assume this appointment: the following issue of Isigidimi
reported his sudden and unexpected death on 25 April 1888. The
obituaries in The Christian Express, Isigidimi and Imvo zabantsundu
(Imvo 9 May 1888: 9, henceforth Imvo; items 24 and 26 below) were
unstinting in their admiration of his qualities;12 he was hailed as
um-Cirha omkulu, um-Xosa wama-Xosa kum-Xosa; i Lawu
lama-Lawu kuma-Lawu; um-Lungu kwabateta isi-Lungu; iciko
kumaciko; incoko kumancoko; into ebuso buhle kuwo wonke
umntu angamaziyo nomaziyo; umxoxi ezincokweniititshala
ezititshaleni, umshumayeli kuba shumayeli bendaba zika Kristu;
umvuseleli we Cebo lombuso wo Sombawo. (item 25 below)
a great man of the Cirha clan, a Xhosas Xhosa among the
Xhosa, a coloureds coloured among the coloured, a white
man among those who speak the language of the white man, a
wise man among wise men, an eloquent man among eloquent
men, a man pleasant to strangers and to those he knows well, a
good debater, a teacher among teachers, preacher among those
who preach Christs message, one who revives the law of our
forefathers.
Gqoba was a lively editor of Isigidimi, free of the confrontation
and controversy characteristic of Jabavu, and as editor he presided
over an unprecedented efflorescence of literary and ethnographic
contributions, many of which he provoked by his editorial comments
and his own writings. Jabavus Imvo was an explicitly political journal,
whereas Isigidimi, as a mission publication, was committed to a nonpolitical stance: shortly after Gqobas death, in December 1888, in the
face of competition from Imvo and escalating debts, Isigidimi ceased
publication after a run of eighteen years, the last of the nineteenthcentury Xhosa mission newspapers. Some thirty years after Gqobas
death, John Knox Bokwe, a colleague at Lovedale and himself a prolific
contributor to newspapers, assessed Gqobas editorship in these terms:
12 . The Imvo obituary largely quotes the Isigidimi obituary.

16 W.W.GQOBA

Thus the Isigidimi in the fourteenth year of publication was

in need of another editor. Happily, Mr William Wellington
Gqobas services were secured. He was a Gaika [i.e., Ngqika]
orator and a poet of no mean ability, with matured experience
not only of his own tribe but of other races in this land, having
by residence and travel come to be in possession of a fund of
historical knowledge, folklore, and interesting anecdotes of
nearly every South African Bantu tribe in the provinces and
adjacent territories. He was a fluent speaker and writer of
several languages. Under Gqobas editorship the Isigidimi began
to assume a different tone in Sixosa literature. Notwithstanding
the fact that the majority of subscribers had been attracted away
by the new weekly and secular free lance in King Williams
Town with its less restricted outlook [i.e., Imvo], the Isigidimi
was gaining respectful and influential recognition when, in
the eighteenth year of publication Mr Gqoba died after a very
short and unexpected illness; and with his demise the Isigidimi
Samaxosa ceased publication in December, 1888. From that
year the Lovedale Missionary Institution has revived no similar
vernacular general newspaper. (Bokwe 1920: 172)
In his accommodating attitude to Xhosa custom and tradition, and his
collection of Xhosa lore and history, Gqoba followed closely in the
footsteps of Tiyo Soga, extending considerably the range and volume of
Sogas literary achievement.
Details of Gqobas family are somewhat sketchy. His brother
Cumming was born at Mgwali in 1864, and went to school at Mgwali,
Peelton and Rabula before entering Lovedale in January 1882. He
left Lovedale in March 1886 to become a telegraph messenger in
Kimberley, and in 1894 was working on the Lovedale Farm. Gqobas
son John Slater, born in 1866, followed a similar educational career,
and worked on the Lovedale Farm after studying at Lovedale from
February 1882 to December 1886. Gqobas elder daughter, Frances
Adelaide Alice, was born in 1868. In 1873 she entered school at
Mgwali, transferring to Peelton and, in 1880, to Lovedale. She left
Lovedale in 1886, but returned on the death of her father in 1888. She
travelled to England with the African Choir, was employed at Lovedale

INTRODUCTION 17

by Mrs James Stewart, and by 1894 she was teaching at Mngqesha.

Gqobas second daughter, Elizabeth Ellen Jane, was born at Mgwali in
1870 and attended school in Peelton, Rabula and, from January 1881,
Lovedale. She left Lovedale in June 1888, and married Andrew Ross.13
The register at the back of the Mgwali minute book covering the years
1877 to 1892 records the baptism of an unnamed child in 1868, giving
the parents as Gqoba and Nomve. If this refers to Frances, then Gqobas
wifes name was Nomve.
At the end of this book we have included a biographical appendix
containing seven items that record information on Gqobas life. These
include Gqobas letter to James Stewart, the notice in Lovedale Past
and Present, obituary notices, a later assessment by S.E.K. Mqhayi, and
two texts whose inclusion requires some justification. M. Klaas Mtakati
of Stutterheim contributed fifteen poems to Isigidimi and Imvo between
1882 and 1890. His obituary poem on Gqoba (item 27) is included not
so much for its biographical information but to offer an example of a
contemporary poet writing in a genre Gqoba favoured. It is a somewhat
pedestrian poem, and shows the merit of Gqobas obituary poems
by comparison. Item 23 consists of the minutes of a meeting of the
Native Education Association in 1886, at which Gqoba was present. It
shows Gqoba interacting with his colleagues and contemporaries, and
reveals him as ready with a witty quip and a historical anecdote. The
Association has been noted as the earliest black political organisation in
the Eastern Cape (see Odendaal 2012: ch. 6), but details of its concerns
are still somewhat sketchy. The minutes of the 1886 meeting cast some
light on the organisation: not only were the members concerned with
relatively minor issues such as the imposition of fines for absence from
meetings or musical presentations at the meetings, they also dealt with
explicitly political issues such as title deeds for land owned by black
persons. The report, quoted in full below, mentions in passing the
committee the Association established to compile a Xhosa and Mfengu
history, on which Gqoba served, and, perhaps most interestingly, it

13 . Information in this paragraph is derived from Major W.L. Geddess annotated

copy of Lovedale Past and Present held in the Cory Library. Geddes served
as boarding master at Lovedale from 1920 to 1941. On the African Choir, see
Erlmann (1999).

18 W.W.GQOBA

reveals the teachers, on their own initiative, free of white instigation,

addressing the weaknesses in the orthography of isiXhosa fifty years
before W.G. Bennies unpopular revision of the spelling system was
imposed on teachers in 1937.
The Gqoba canon

Gqobas literary career effectively commenced after he assumed the

editorship of Isigidimi; he contributed religious poetry (especially
poems of consolation on the death of ministers and parishioners),
humorous stories, historical articles, explanations of Xhosa proverbs
and two extended poems serialised in 1885 and 18878. He is a major
figure in the history of Xhosa literature in print, even though no volume
of his work has ever been published. Twenty years after Gqobas death,
W.B. Rubusana included many (though by no means all) of Gqobas
writings in his anthology Zemkinkomo magwalandini (1906, second
edition 1911), but Rubusana was a cavalier editor, selecting extracts
from longer works, and freely inserting his own alterations and
additions to the texts. In 1966, Lovedale issued an abridged edition of
Rubusanas collection that excluded all the poetry. A revision of the full
1911 edition appeared in 2002 (Rubusana [1911] 2002), but textually
it merely updated the orthography of Rubusanas texts. Another heavyhanded editor, W.G. Bennie, included Gqobas Imbali yaseMbo (the
history of the land to the east), which Rubusana had omitted, in his 1935
anthology Imibengo with the poetry excluded, as well as five of Gqobas
commentaries on proverbs, taken from Rubusanas selection, which
had been included in Zemkinkomo magwalandini without ascription to
Gqoba (Bennie 1935). In 1935 Bennie also included a much shortened
version of Gqobas history of the Xhosa (item 16 below) in the Senior
volume of The Stewart Xhosa Readers (Bennie [1935] 1948). Given the
radical posthumous editing of Gqobas work, it is important to assemble
and establish the texts as Gqoba originally published them, so that his
achievement can be recognised and properly assessed, and for that we
must refer to the pages of Isigidimi, especially between November
1884 and April 1888, the years of Gqobas editorship. Unfortunately,
determining Gqobas canon is problematic.
In the first place, despite his frequent literary contributions to
Isigidimi as editor after November 1884, none of Gqobas writings

INTRODUCTION 19

throughout the year 1886 is available, since issues of Isigidimi for that
year are no longer extant. Furthermore, a poem by Gqoba included in
S.E.K. Mqhayis Imihobe nemibongo (Mqayi 1927), on the death of
John Angell Bennie (item 12 below), probably originally appeared in
Isigidimi, but the front page of the issue of Isigidimi for 1 July 1885
has a section that might have contained the Gqoba poem clipped out
of the Bennie obituary in the only surviving copy of that issue. This
is all the more frustrating since Mqhayi omitted two lines from the
sixth stanza, the omission indicated by asterisks.14 Finally, care was not
always taken to ascribe authorship to items in Isigidimi, or pseudonyms
or only initials were used, with the result that authorship must often be
established from external sources.
In the strictest terms, Gqobas canon can include only those items
positively ascribed to Gqoba. Unsigned editorials and regular columns
of news may well have been composed by Gqoba, but this may not
always have been the case and these items must therefore be excluded.
The judgements of editors working after Gqobas death are unreliable,
but fortunately an annual index to Isigidimi was issued, and this often
includes ascriptions for the items omitted from the published pages
of the newspaper. Thus, for example, the poem Ukububa komka
Ntibane Mzimba (the death of Mrs Ntibane Mzimba, item 19 below)
is anonymous, but the poem is ascribed to W.W. Gqoba in the index for
1887. Again, three instalments of Amabalana ahlekisayo (amusing
sketches, item 6 below) appeared in 1884 and 1885.15 The first instalment
was entitled Amabalana ahlekisayo and contained two stories headed
by subtitles; it was ascribed to G.. The second instalment, which
appeared after an interval of three months, was entitled Idabi elikulu
(a great battle) and is anonymous; it has no apparent connection to
the earlier two Amabalana ahlekisayo, although it is placed below

14 . The asterisks were simply omitted from the second edition of Imihobe
nemibongo, edited by Tshabe in 1988 (Mqhayi [1927] 1988). Perhaps Mqhayi or
his publishers, Sheldon Press, felt the two lines were unworthy of publication in
a book intended for reading by school children, and this possibility of something
felt to be offensive in the two lines might also explain why the poem was clipped
from the only extant copy of the newspaper.
15 . These stories were not reprinted in either Rubusana ([1906] 1911) or Bennie
(1935).

20 W.W.GQOBA

the second instalment of Gqobas Ingxoxo enkulu ngemfundo, which

is ascribed to G.. Seven months later two more anonymous stories
appeared under subtitles, headed Amabalana ahlekisayo. The 1885
index allows us to ascribe these five light-hearted sketches to Gqoba
and to confirm them as a series, since the second instalment is included
with the other Amabalana ahlekisayo, and both are ascribed to
W.W.G.. With one exception, all Gqobas contributions to Isigidimi
are signed W. Gqoba, W.W.G. or just G.. The exception is an
untitled letter addressed from Rabula Mission Station on 9 September
1875, condemning the liquor trade (item 3 below); it is signed W.G..
There is little doubt that this W.G. is Gqoba, since we know that he was
stationed at Rabula at the time, and the letter is preceded by two letters
to Isigidimi in 1873 and 1875 and followed by a fourth in 1880, all
signed W. Gqoba (items 1, 2 and 4 below).
There would be no problem about ascribing this one letter by W.G.
to Gqoba, except that a number of items in English signed W.G. that
appeared in The Kaffir Express and The Christian Express in 1874 and
187980 have been claimed as Gqobas: Notes from the Transkei
upon witchcraft in three instalments; a pious poem, Winter scene
in Fingoland; and Notes of cases, from Fingoland Dispensary.16
To these may be added a fourth item by W.G., an article entitled
Fingo homesteads, gardens, and water-furrows (Christian Express,
1 July 1880: 5). However, it is clear from the content that the notes
on witchcraft were written by a medical practitioner. Why should it
be, he wonders, that a man is able, as I have practically tested, to lie
down upon a form in my dispensary and permit me to cut out a tumour
from his forehead, and all the while never wince... (Kaffir Express,
6 January 1874: 4). Moreover, this doctor is practising in Fingoland in
the Transkei, whereas we know that Gqoba was serving at Rabula in the
Ciskei in 1874, and was at either Peelton or Rabula in 1879 and 1880.

16 . W.G., Notes from the Transkei upon witchcraft (Kaffir Express 6 January 1874:
46; 7 February 1874: 46; 7 March 1874: 45); Winter scene in Fingoland
(Christian Express, 1 August 1879: 11); Notes of cases, from Fingoland
Dispensary (Christian Express, 1 April 1880: 56). For the claim that Gqoba is
W.G., the author of these items, see Masilela (2009) and Masilela (2010: 258).

INTRODUCTION 21

Notes of cases, too, is self-evidently written by a medical practitioner,

and a white doctor clearly wrote the poem, in which on a wintry day
A tall, thin, aged man came here
To ask advice about his case
Impelled by suffering severe,
With pain depicted on his face.
The speaker treats him, and they fall to chatting. The speaker suspects
the old man is no Mfengu, but a Xhosa, which the old man confirms:
Tis true, good sir, the truth you guess,
Im but a Kaffir stranger here,
My native lands a wilderness,
My chief is hunted like a deer;
And I too once lived merrily,
With wives and cattle, goats and sheep,
But war has robbed me bitterly,
And left me all alone to weep.
The W.G. who contributed these English items was not William Gqoba
but William Girdwood, known to the Xhosa as Gadudu, who joined
Tiyo Soga at Thuthura after studying medicine in Scotland (Williams
1978: 78). As his obituary makes clear, Girdwood moved to Qolorha in
1870, but resigned as a missionary in 1872 to found the Fingo Hospital
and Dispensary in the Nqamakwe district of what was then Fingoland
in Transkei. He practised there until 1881, when he took up service as a
magistrate in Tsomo and Centane, returning in 1884 to mission work at
Thuthura, where he died at the age of 68 on 5 February 1907 (Christian
Express 1 March 1907: 412). Girdwood signed his response to Bransby
Keys query about the first instalment of Notes from the Transkei upon
witchcraft (Kaffir Express, 7 March 1874: 56). Gqoba seems to have
signed himself W.G. only in the letter sent to Isigidimi from Rabula in
1875; his only attributed English contribution is his 1885 address to the
Lovedale Literary Society on The native tribes, their laws, customs
and beliefs (item 8 below).
Gqoba wrote for publication in Xhosa. One letter in English is
extant, but it was not written for publication. It was addressed to James

22 W.W.GQOBA

Stewart, the august principal of Lovedale, from King Williams Town

on 3 January 1881 and is now held in the Stewart Papers in the African
Studies Library, University of Cape Town (item 22 below). In it, Gqoba
responds forcefully but tactfully to criticism from Stewart of Gqobas
dereliction of duty as a teacher. The letters opening salvo runs as
follows:
In acknowledging the receipt of yours of the 30th ult, I
beg to state that I am long sorry that I ever entered into any
agreement with you at all; it was the least of my calculations
& of others that you would treat me the way you have hitherto
done.
You say my reason for being unhappy & uncomfortable
is because I did not attend regularly to my work, besides
being absent from my class, wh was frequently left in charge
incompetent parties & teachers. But my dear sir you know
as well as I do that such is not the case, & I do not intend to
say any more about any of the charges in this letter, but may
afterwards be forced to do so.

Neither am I going to say any thing in reference to the first
& last parts of your letter. But I do not remember ever having
met with such treatment since I left Lovedale Inst in 1860.
Gqoba berates Stewart for his high-handed treatment of him, quoting
Pauls Philippian epistle, and referring to both Stewart and himself as
fellow pilgrims to one home, fellow workers in one garden, servants
of one master. In conclusion, Gqoba adopts a more tractable tone,
suggesting that Stewarts charge must refer to days when he was absent
through illness, and he ends:
Forgive any expression I may have made too much, but that
was not my intention for I must speak to you plain Dr Stewart, I
hate flattery. You are our father, not of one or two but of all the
natives for whom you have come.

With kind regards

your most humble servant

W Gqoba

INTRODUCTION 23

Gqoba was evidently not in awe of Stewarts status: he gave as good as

he got. That should not surprise us since his debate poem on education
includes outspoken criticism of white discrimination against blacks.
His 1880 letter to Isigidimi, too, headed Ulaulo lwaba Ntsundu (the
administration of black people, item 4 below), is highly critical of the
hut tax and the pass system.
Apart from the four letters he submitted to Isigidimi, all of Gqobas
writings were published in Isigidimi while he was serving as editor of
the newspaper. Apart from his talk to the Lovedale Literary Society on
The native tribes, their laws, customs and beliefs, all were written in
Xhosa. Within the restrictions imposed by problems of authorship and
the unavailability of certain issues of the newspaper, we may classify
Gqobas extant literary contributions to Isigidimi in Xhosa as follows:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

four letters to the editor;

nine poems on religious themes, six of them obituary poems;
two extended serialised poems in the form of debates;
five humorous sketches;
commentaries on twenty-seven proverbs and expressions; and
three historical studies.

Gqobas contribution to Xhosa literature between 1873 and 1888, and

especially in the brief period from December 1884 to April 1888, must
take its place alongside that of other major contemporary literary figures
such as Isaac Williams Wauchope, whose literary career ranged from
1874 to 1916, and Jonas Ntsiko, who wrote as Uhadi waseluhlangeni
(The harp of the nation) between 1875 and 1916.17 Much of Gqobas
writing is dedicated to the recording of precolonial oral traditions
perceived to be threatened, or responding from a Xhosa perspective,
often poetically, to the intrusion of British governance and imperialism.
Gqoba as poet and historian

Gqoba considerably extended Tiyo Sogas efforts to record Xhosa

custom, lore and tradition. He produced a series of commentaries on

17 . A selection of Wauchopes writings can be found in Wauchope (2008). Ntsiko

contributed some seventy items, many of them poems, to Isigidimi, Imvo, Izwi
and The Christian Express. On Ntsiko, see Jordan (1973: 916) and Mqhayi
(2009: 1449).

24 W.W.GQOBA

proverbial expressions and, in his published talk to the Lovedale

Literary Society, offered detailed expositions of Xhosa laws, customs
and beliefs; his humorous sketches are delightful, full of fun, and offer
insight into the social life of Xhosa people accommodating to white
mores. His major achievements as an author, however, lie in the fields
of history and poetry. Gqobas historical writings, Imbali yama Xosa
(item 16) and Imbali yase Mbo (item 17), constitute the earliest
serious attempt to compile a systematic account in the Xhosa language
of Xhosa and Mfengu history. Both are sustained, collaborative efforts
produced in response to a commission from the Native Education
Association. At the end of a century of frontier warfare that had
resulted in defeat and territorial dispossession, Gqoba was sustained by
a nationalistic vision of history: My fervent desire is that our history
should be well known and brought into print because all nations who
possess a history, even if they are scattered far and wide, continue to
live and do not die (Imbali yakowetu asikuko nokuba ndinga ingaziwa
kakuhle ishicilelwe kuba zonke izizwe ezinembali ziba zihleli azifile
noko sukuba zezicitakele, item 17). He was also concerned to confront
and correct white distortions of Xhosa history, as in his two-part article
on the motive behind the cattle-killing of 18567, Isizatu sokuxelwa
kwe nkomo ngo Nongqause (item 21 below).
Gqobas historical and ethnographic writing came to fulfilment
in the publications of Tiyo Sogas son, John Henderson Soga, and
his nephew, Tiyo Burnside Soga, the son of Tiyos brother Zaze.18
He himself stood on the shoulders not only of Tiyo Soga but also of
other predecessors who had recorded the early history of the Xhosaspeaking peoples. Although literary historians tend to overlook
nineteenth-century developments, as well as historical, biographical
and ethnographic writing in general, much early literature falls under
these headings. In the appendix to his account of the life of Ntsikana,
John Knox Bokwe included narratives by Noyi and Matshaya, disciples
of Ntsikana, dictated to, translated and subsequently published by

18 . J.H. Soga (1930, 1931); T.B. Soga (1917). Only the first part of T.B. Sogas
Intlalo ka Xosa was published; the second part has been lost (Peires 1980: 75).
The original Xhosa version of J.H. Sogas Southeastern Bantu (1930) has never
been published (Peires 1980: 778).

INTRODUCTION 25

missionaries; a second appendix contains Xhosa narratives by John

Muir Vimbe, Zaze Soga, Makapela son of Noyi, and Jacob Mnxuma,
a grandson of Noyi (Bokwe 1914). Noyis narrative in John Bennies
translation was published in The Glasgow Missionary Record in
1848, but the original Xhosa version was intended for independent
publication, although only the first gathering was set in print, by
G.J. Pike in Botwe in 1838; had it been published, Noyis Iziqwenge
zembali yamaXosa would have been the first secular book published in
Xhosa (Opland 2004: 235). The Anglican missionaries pioneered the
publication of secular books in Xhosa in the nineteenth century; the
first such book to be published, Kafir Essays, and Other Pieces, was
written by students at St Matthews mission school in Keiskammahoek
and included an account of the seventeenth-century clash between
Hlanga and Dlomo (Greenstock 1861: 6871). The third Xhosa book to
be published containing secular literature was Imbali zamam-Pondomisi
akwa-Mditshwa, three short Mpondomise historical narratives, which
appeared in 1876. Many contributions to early Xhosa periodicals were
historicalstories of Ntsikana, the Mfecane, the smallpox epidemic (as
well as English history)and later in the century newspapers carried
significant historical contributions by the likes of Pambani Jeremiah
Mzimba, Nathaniel Cyril Mhala, John Muir Vimbe, Isaac Williams
Wauchope, John Knox Bokwe and William Kobe Ntsikana (Ntsikanas
grandson).
In 1885 Ibandla le Mfundo (the Education Association), founded
in 1880, established a committee to undertake historical research;
the meeting of the Association in January 1886 noted that [there]
was insufficient time for the Committee established to research
black nations, consisting of Rev. P.J. Mzimba and Messrs Gqoba and
Ntsikana, to draft a report. It was decided that they should prepare it
for the next meeting (Ingxelo ye Komityi yokupendla imbali yezizwe
ezintsundu engo Rev. P.J. Mzimba no Messrs. Gqoba, no Ntsikana,
engabanga namatuba okuyibhala. Kugqitywe ukuba ize ize iyibhalile
ngentlanganiso elandelayo, item 23 below). As editor, Gqoba used
Isigidimi sama-Xosa as a vehicle for the interim product of this research:
a series of articles on Xhosa history commenced in January 1887, and a
second series on Zulu and Mfengu history in April. Gqoba contributed
the first instalment of Imbali yama Xosa in January 1887. The series

26 W.W.GQOBA

was continued by William Kobe Ntsikana in subsequent issues, until in

October Gqoba responded to a correspondents query with a final article
on the Gqunukhwebe. From April to August 1887 Gqoba contributed
five monthly articles entitled Imbali yase Mbo, a series continued by
Pambani Jeremiah Mzimba in three further instalments. Only Gqobas
contributions are included here. In his articles Gqoba is careful to
record his ignorance in certain areas, the subject of ongoing research.
Gqobas contributions to the history of the Xhosa people concentrate
in particular on the Mbalu and Mdange and, later, the Gqunukhwebe.
He confines himself to tracing the intricacies of royal lineages and
intermarriages. Even when he breaks into narrative, his accounts deal
with the qualities of individual chiefs and with royal succession. For
the Gqunukhwebe he offers the well-known story of their origin in
the reign of Tshiwo. His contributions to the history of the abaMbo,
however, are of a different order. Here, Gqoba offers a coherent
narrative focusing on the scattering of the nations. He starts with the
unprovoked murder of two mysterious white men, an action in defiance
of royal decree that leads to regional restlessness, uprisings and military
clashes and serves as a leitmotiv for the entire historical narrative. He
moves from the Mthethwa under Dingiswayo, through Dingiswayos
patronage of Shaka to Shakas succession to the Zulu kingdom and
his defeat of Zwide of the Ndwandwe and the murder of Matiwane of
the Ngwane. All this is familiar territory. Gqoba then continues with
the Ngwane and their clashes with the Hlubi, once again initiating the
narrative sequence with portents of disruption. He devotes considerable
attention to Mahlaphahlapha of the Khabaludaka, an obscure group
about whom little is recorded, related to the Rhadebe. The Khabaludaka
seem to have been Bhele people, and one of the most striking things
about this section of Gqobas narrative is that he fails to mention the
recurrent claim about the Bhele: that they were originally cannibals. In
1909 Mabonsa kaSidhlayi told James Stuart that he had met the chief
and specifically asked him about this; Mahlaphahlapha admitted to
cannibalism among his people, but denied his own involvement:
Dingana chased the cannibals away from our part of the country.
The great cannibal chief was Mahlapahlapa kaMnjoli of the
Radebe people. He lived near Glencoe Junction and Dundee.

INTRODUCTION 27

I was once sent to Basutoland by Langalibalele to ask for

feathers. I there came across Mahlapahlapa himself, a big man
but with thin legs. He denied having ever eaten any people. I
spoke to him about the matter...Oh, no, he said, I never
ate people. Only members of my tribe did so. (Webb and
Wright 1979: 15)
Many of those who mention Mahlaphahlapha and the Bhele repeat
the charge of cannibalism, but Gqoba omits the sensational and the
salacious. He quotes the chiefs praises and refers to him as much loved
by all the Rhadebe; he puts in the chiefs mouth a linking reference to
the portentous murder of the white men; and he offers detailed accounts
of his clash with Bhungane, which led to the latters death, and his
engagements with his neighbours the Rheledwane and with the Ngwane
of Matiwane. Gqoba seems to be unique in recording these events.
Gqobas argument about the cattle-killing (item 21 below) has been
celebrated as a significant Xhosa source of information on the disastrous
events of 18567. Rubusana took considerable textual liberties in
editing only the first instalment for Zemkinkomo magwalandini, which
A.C. Jordan freely translated in Towards an African Literature (Jordan
1973: 705). J.B. Peires made sensitive use of the complete article in
his account of the cattle-killing (Peires 1989), and recently Bradford
and Qotole have translated both instalments of the article as well as
the debate it provoked in the press (Bradford and Qotole 2008). The
article provides graphic details of the sequence of events, details for
which Gqoba is now the sole source, but Gqoba was unlikely to have
been an eyewitness. He was sixteen or seventeen at the time, probably
commencing his apprenticeship as a wagonmaker in King Williams
Town. In 1857 many of the victims were buried in mass graves in the
Edward Street Cemetery in King Williams Town, and Gqoba cannot
have been indifferent to the unfolding catastrophe; nonetheless his
motive in composing the article in the last months of his life was
not primarily to provide a historical record. His earlier two historical
pieces were composed from a Xhosa perspective, bypassing European
versions of Xhosa history. Here, however, he is concerned to confront
and contradict the dominant interpretation found in English history
textbooks, which Gqoba deplores for misleading youngsters in schools.

28 W.W.GQOBA

His own account of events is designed to support his argument against

the European claim that the cattle-killing was instigated by the chiefs
in a plot to arouse a militant uprising against the white settlers. Gqoba
refutes this theory by appealing to logic, Xhosa customary practice
and Xhosa historical precedent. His is a rebuttal of white historical
misrepresentations of Xhosa history that eschews Western academic
argumentation in its deployment of a native Xhosa exegesis.
This volume contains nine religious poems by Gqoba, six of them
obituary poems, a form later to be developed by Mqhayi into high art.
More prolific and inspired as a poet than his contemporary, M.K.Mtakati
(item 27 below), who contributed thirteen poems to Isigidimi and Imvo
between 1882 and 1890,19 and just as socially and politically committed
as his prolific contemporary Jonas Ntsiko, Gqobas poetry, like that
of both Mtakati and Ntsiko, always adopts Western metrical forms
and structure: he never wrote in the poetic style of traditional Xhosa
praise poetry.20 His religious poetry ranges in quality from mere biblical
paraphrase (item 15 below) to moments that demonstrate high poetic
sensibility, such as the conclusion to his lament on the death of Stephen
Mnyakama (item 9 below):
Hay betu lomhlaba, yinen uyadlula,
Awunasw isigxina sentw esisi nyanya;
Zonke, zonke, zonke, zimhlambi wa ntaka
Zi ngondo zimayo, matunzi okuhlwa.
This earths sorrows are truly transitory,
lacking an ancestral spirits constancy;
all things, all things, are a flock of birds,
hips stiff and motionless, shadows at eventime.
However, his greatest literary achievements are undoubtedly his two
extended, serialised debate poems (items 7 and 20 below), poems that
deserve to be recognised as among the highest achievements in Xhosa
literature.

19 . For an analysis of one of Mtakatis poems, Izizatu ze voti yam (the reasons for
my vote, Imvo, 6 December 1888: 3), see Moropa (2010).
20 . On Xhosa praise poetry, see Opland (1983, 1998) and Kaschula (2002).

INTRODUCTION 29

In the last year of John Tengo Jabavus editorship, Isigidimi

rejected an article by Jonas Ntsiko, a highly respected writer of
great intellectual integrity, widely read for that period in the literacy
of the Southern Africans (Jordan 1973: 91), for being too hostile to
British rule (Jordan 1973: 96).21 No doubt Jabavu felt constrained by
the tight editorial policy of Isigidimi, committed as Stewart was to the
exclusion of political commentary from Lovedale publications; Jabavu
left soon afterwards to establish the first independent black newspaper,
Imvo zabantsundu, and Gqoba succeeded him as editor of Isigidimi in
November 1884. Gqoba held strong political views of his own; he had
written a letter to the editor of Isigidimi in 1880 complaining about
such onerous aspects of white administration as the pass laws and hut
tax (item 4 below), which concluded, Let those who rule us live off the
fat of the land for the moment. Let them enjoy it while it lasts. But they
will not inhabit this land forever (Aba lauli betu bangoku bayekeni ke
bax a mle, lento baya yibuka, kodwa ilizwe abakuli hlala unapakade),
and in 1887 his explication of the proverb to be a stopgap (Ukuba ngu
Qelazana, a temporary patch, item 18 below) veers into the political:
Kwakona namhlanje izizwe ezintsundu ebezi ngabanini
bomhlaba kudala zizo esezibonakala zingo qelazana kuwo
sezihleli njengentaka ecope esebeni, inga qinisekile apo
iyakulala kona ngomso, Zinje ngesiziba esinguqelazana
kulombuso wanamhla, ziqaqw
a kalula emalungelweni ombuso
ezipantsi kwawo.
And today black nations who owned land in the past now seem
like stopgaps in their own land, like a bird perched on a branch,
uncertain where it will sleep the next day. With the present
government, they are like patches that are stopgaps, their rights
under this government easily unpicked.
As editor of Isigidimi, having clashed with Stewart over his conduct as
a Lovedale teacher in 1881, did Gqoba meekly acquiesce to Stewarts

21 . Jordan gives an account of this incident, and the outrage the action evoked in
Isigidimis readers (1973: 91102); for the editorial justification of the rejection,
see Isigidimi (1 May 1884: 3).

30 W.W.GQOBA

restrictive editorial code? In the third month of his editorship, as early

as January 1885, Gqoba printed in Isigidimi the first instalment of
his Great debate on education (Ingxoxo enkulu nge mfundo, item
7 below), a poem of 1150 lines serialised in seven instalments, and
the last issue of Isigidimi to appear under Gqobas editorship in April
1888, the month of his death, carried the fifth and final instalment of
his Great debate between a heathen and a Christian (Ingxoxo enkulu
yomginwa nom-Kristu, item 20 below), which ran to 850 lines. In
response to Stewarts controlling policy, Gqoba eschewed confrontation
in favour of subversion. The poems contain outspoken criticism of the
treatment blacks suffered at white hands, the strongest and earliest
protest poetry to be published in Xhosaand in a mission journal at
thatin passages such as the rousing concluding lines of the speech in
the first debate poem by Rauk-Emsini (Singed By Smoke), who resents
the suggestion that blacks should be grateful to whites and condemns
the discrimination they suffer:
Nale voti ikwanjalo,
Kukw ikete kwa nakuyo,
Asivunywa kany impela
Tina bantu abamnyama . . .
Okukona kukudala
Ungenile kweli gwangqa
Kokukona ungumfiki,
Kokukona ungumzini . . .
Nawo onke lamasheyi,
Siwenzelwa em Lungwini?
Xa kulapo kuyinene
Sonke, sonke simanyene
Kuba sonke sikatele,
Masiwal amagqebeqe
Nakwezo zi Palamente,
Ngokuteta ngezw elinye
Ukukasa zonk indawo
Zembulawo ezinjalo,
Asiboni mubulelo.

INTRODUCTION 31

Its no different with the vote,

rooted in discrimination,
were completely unaccepted,
those of us who are black . . .
Just as long as you continue
to have dealings with these white men,
just so long youll be a stranger,
just so long a rank outsider . . .
What about this rampant fraud
framed for us among the whites?
So then, I claim to speak the truth,
all of us, lets act in concert,
since were all of us exhausted;
lets oppose these machinations,
in those Parliaments if need be,
with one voice lets do our talking
damning every single item
of destructive legislation.
Weve no reason to be grateful.
How did Gqoba engineer this, under the beady eyes of Headmaster
Stewart, who in 1872 had set Jane Waterston to keep close watch
on Elijah Makiwanes editing of Isigidimi during Stewarts absence
overseas (Opland 1998: 23940)?
Gqobas two poems are set in regular Western metrical form: the
debate on education is in octosyllabics, the debate between a heathen
and a Christian is expressed in four-line stanzas with each line
containing twelve syllables.22 They give the superficial appearance of
conforming to Western literary tradition. So, too, does the fact that
Gqoba frames the speeches in a debate between two opposing parties
under an elected chairman, with polite forms of address to participants

22 . Gqoba inserts traditional praise poems into his history of the eastern lands (item
17 below), but he does not himself publish poetry that he has written in traditional
form.

32 W.W.GQOBA

and audience and each speaker taking his turn. Gqoba identifies his
poem as a parable (umzekeliso) in his subtitle, and the characters are all
given allegorical names in the style of the popular Lovedale translation
of Bunyans The Pilgrims Progress by Tiyo Soga (Bunyan 1868). The
chairman, Ungrateful (uBedidlaba), announces in his opening address
that he is unconvinced gratitude is due to the whites for the education
they have introduced, but he closes the debate with a concession that he
has been won over by the arguments for the missionary cause:
Ndoyisiwe kupelile,
Zinyaniso ndifeziwe,
Yon imfundo iyalala,
Ndiqondile ngeligala
Masifund ukubulela
Ndigalele ndafincela,
Mna ke ndiyaqukumbela,
Zenixele emakaya
Masitande amagwangqa,
Amabandla apesheya.
Ive been wholly crushed and beaten,
truths have vanquished my objections,
this educations bounteous,
from this day I understand
that we must acquire gratitude,
Ive poured it out to the very last drop,
and now Im just wrapping up:
inform everyone at home,
let us learn to love white people,
who came to us from overseas.
The poem has the superficial trappings of a pious argument in support
of missionary education, a topic close to Stewarts heart, which might
well have allayed any fears or objections Stewart harboured. However,
the debate form permits Gqoba to put in the mouths of those in
opposition powerful protest not only about education, but also about
white government and the administration of blacks. As Gqoba explicitly

INTRODUCTION 33

informs his readers in announcing the conclusion of the poem in the

August issue:
Namhla iza kupela le Ngxoxo nge Mfundo, kule nyanga
izayo. Siyatemba ukuba yopela ibavulile amehlo abaninzi
ngenxa zombini, kuzo zontatu ezindawo zale ngxoxoImfundo,
u Laulo kwa ne Mpato. Nongakataliyo kuyifunda ngezi mini
zanamhlanje, ziyeza imini ayakumana ebuyelela kwakuyo,
abone ubunene benteto yayo ngenxa zombini. Kanjalo nina
lutsha lufundileyo, coselelani lengxoxo, yiyo enefa kuni, kune
cricket njalo-njalo. Okunye uti umntu xa anentluta, akohlwe
yeyona nto afuna yona, ati wumbi acite, ahilizele aselenayo,
aze alambe kengoko. Wonke umzi ontsundu nopi, pantsi kolu
laulo lwaba mhlope, uyakala, uyateta, ngazo zonke ezindawo
zikuyo lengxoxo ipelayo namhla. (Isigidimi, 1 July 1885: 51)
Today I will bring this Debate on Education to a conclusion
in the following month. We hope that it will end having opened
the eyes of many on both sides of all three topics of the debate
education, government and administration. Even he who does
not want to read this in the present time, these topics will return
in days to come, they will see the truth of this on both sides
of the argument. You educated youth, take this debate to heart,
it will provide a greater legacy for you than cricket and such
things. Otherwise when someone is well fed he gets confused
about what he really wants, and others might discard and lose
respect for what he has already, and then he suffers hunger.
Black people everywhere under the administration of whites are
complaining, speaking about all these things in this debate that
is ending today.
The later debate between a heathen and a Christian involves only
two allegorical characters, Zwelizayo and Pakadelikoyo, World To Come
and Here And Now. Deploying the same device of a debate, Gqoba is
able to express criticism of the conduct of those who pay lip service
to Christianity, as well as support for Xhosa custom and tradition: as
Here And Now recurrently argues, this present world is just fine as it

34 W.W.GQOBA

is (umhlab uyolile), without concern for the future. What distinguishes

this poem are two striking, sustained parables. The first is a deft retelling
in verse of a folktale concerning a childless woman who picks up an
extraordinary baby, which transforms itself into a monster that eats the
woman. The dangerous baby to whom the woman shows misplaced
kindness can readily be seen to be whites and European culture, against
the unthinking adoption of which Ntsikana had warned. Whites were
commonly referred to as Oomasiza mbulala, those who help with one
hand and kill with the other.23 The second parable concerns two bridal
parties that are presented to the Xhosa people. The brides are deceiving
witches, and the bridewealth offered by the Xhosa is overgenerous, to
the point that the Xhosa lose everything of value, including their land.
The bridal parties are identified as the Mfengu from the northeast, and
the whites from overseas. Again, the debate ends with victory for the
Christian faction, but along the way such trenchant criticism is voiced
of social conditions that the angry female poet of the turbulent 1920s,
Nontsizi Mgqwetho,24 freely incorporated many of Gqobas lines into
her poetry forty years later, and used a number of Gqobas phrases as
titles of her poems.
Gqobas adoption of Western forms as vehicles for the expression
of social and political protest employs the strategy recommended by
Ntsikana of accepting white innovations on Xhosa terms, of exploiting
Western innovations to encourage and maintain pride in Xhosa identity.
Tiyo Sogas great literary achievement was his translation of Bunyan;
Gqoba followed in Sogas footsteps but greatly extended Sogas generic
range. During his editorship of Isigidimi for just over three short years
in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, William Wellington Gqoba
set printed Xhosa literature on a firm footing, laying the foundations for
its emergence in book form in the first decade of the twentieth century.
In his two monumental debate poems he sets aside the weapons of war,

23 . Kropf glosses the phrase as follows: people who help and afterwards turn and
kill (rob) you, i.e. who protect with one hand and kill with the other; said of the
Colonial forces under Lord C. Somerset, who in 1818 during the war of Tutula
assisted the Gaikas against the combined forces of Ndlambe and the Gcaleka
chiefs, but took the captured cattle as compensation for their own trouble and loss
of life (1915: 393).
24 . On Mgqwetho, see Opland (2007, 2012).

INTRODUCTION 35

rejects the failed policy of armed resistance that had culminated in

defeat in the final frontier war in 1878, and takes up the pen to continue
the struggle for independence from white control. He offers arguments
from a Christian perspective without denying his Xhosa heritage, and in
so doing points the way to the future. Ntsikanas way.
Edition and translation

John Bennie transcribed and printed the Xhosa language for the first
time in 1823. In 1830 representatives of the frontier mission societies
assembled in King Williams Town to approve Bennies orthography
for all their publications. This system of spelling remained standard
for over a century, until Bennies grandson W.G. Bennie engineered
a revision that became compulsory in schools as from 1937. Bennies
revision introduced new symbols that were not available on a normal
typewriter keyboard, and proved highly unpopular. It was revised
once again by H.W. Pahl in 1955 (Opland 1998: 282300). All Xhosa
books, designed primarily for educational purposes, adopted these
official spelling systems: the Xhosa language was standardised in
dialect, spelling and grammar. Xhosa newspapers, however, especially
those under black editorship, often reflected a less formal expression
much closer to colloquial usage. The newspapers simply ignored many
of W.G. Bennies innovations, for example. As the minutes of the
Native Education Association in 1886 (item 23) demonstrate, Xhosa
intellectuals were concerned about the representation of their language
in print, independent of the prescriptive policies of white missionaries,
colonial administrators and educationists, and the newspapers reflect
their efforts to devise a more effective orthographical system. It is
important, therefore, in reprinting items contributed to newspapers,
to preserve the original text. Editors who included Gqobas writing
in anthologies published after his death, such as W.B. Rubusana and
W.G. Bennie, freely cut sections, words, phrases and paragraphs, even
inserting passages of their own. It is important, therefore, in assembling
Gqobas contributions to Isigidimi to return to his texts as originally
published, to respect the authors integrity and preserve as far as
possible his intentions.
One of the consequences of the standardisation and bowdlerisation
of the Xhosa language in books is that primary data on the development

36 W.W.GQOBA

of the language, information vital for the construction of a historical

linguistics, is expunged from the homogenised texts. Pamela Maseko
has identified a number of aspects of Gqobas language that are at
variance with the dictates of prescriptive grammars. Gqobas subject
and object concords, for example, especially with regard to classes 1 and
3, are not quite regular, and the semivowel -w- occasionally intrudes
before the vowel in -ko- configurations. In editing Gqobas history of
KwaZulu, W.G. Bennie consistently emends Gqobas deficient verbs
-de and -mane to the standard forms -da and -mana. The emendations
elide Gqobas usage, which should be explained by linguists, rather
than judged irregular and accordingly elided. The texts presented in this
volume are reproduced as they appeared in the pages of Isigidimi: this is
a diplomatic edition of the writings of W.W. Gqoba. No alterations are
introduced in the interests of spelling, word division or grammar, still
less of content. Given the ephemeral nature of the medium, newspaper
items contain a fair measure of typographical errors. Where we have
felt it necessary to deviate from Gqobas text, a footnote preserves the
original reading. Footnotes to the Xhosa text also record a few of the
major deviations from the text introduced by Rubusana and Bennie
as editors, but not the many other liberties taken by these editors in
reprinting Gqobas writings.
The texts were located and assembled by Jeff Opland, who also
wrote the Introduction and compiled the notes; copies of all the texts
are housed in The Opland Collection of Xhosa Literature. Opland and
Wandile Kuse initially produced translations of many of the texts.
The Xhosa texts were then edited, and the translations revised and
completed, by Pamela Maseko and Opland. All three editors checked
the final texts. The translations aim at fidelity, lucidity and fluency in
English. No attempt is made in translating the poetry to adhere to the
metrical form of the original, although a rhythmical reading is aspired
to. Nor is any attempt made to lend the English version a false Xhosa
flavour by preserving words familiar to a South African audience such
as lobola or amasi; the original Xhosa text is available alongside the
English translation for those who wish to determine Gqobas usage.
A particular difficulty is presented by proper names. A variety of
names is current for individuals, especially members of royal families.
As far as possible, praise names occurring in poetry (izibongo) are

INTRODUCTION 37

translated as relevant to the meaning of the verses, though many

of these names are obscure in meaning and are accordingly left
untranslated; inconsistency in this regard is unavoidable. Chiefs
are occasionally referred to in prose by their praise names, such as
Lwaganda for Ngqika; the more familiar name is usually used in the
English translation, Ngqika rather than Lwaganda, or Stamps while
Fighting, Maqoma rather than Jongumsobomvu, or Watch the Red
Dawn. There are also a number of alternative names for groups of
people, who may be identified by the name of their chief or any of his
ancestors, as well as by the names of the favourite oxen of the chiefs,
or of female relatives. This variety in nomenclature is maintained in the
translation, and clarified in footnotes wherever it is felt necessary; it is
hoped that this practice will prove no more confusing to readers than,
say, the alternative names for Greeks and Trojans in Homers epics.
Patronymics often name individuals (the son of So-and-so), and these
locutions are maintained as a significant assertion of identity.
The aim of this edition and translation is to celebrate the life and
literary achievements of William Wellington Gqoba, respectfully to
reclaim and preserve Gqobas writings, and to make them accessible to
the Xhosa reading public and to a wider audience both in South Africa
and elsewhere, so that Gqoba may take his rightful place in the history
of Xhosa literature and the annals of South African culture.

1
Indatyana

King Williams Town, May 27th 1873

Nkosi yam,Ndifuna ukwenza indatyana ezabamnandi kunene kum,
ekuziboneni kwam.
Ngomhla wama1 21 ka May, kwakuko intlanganiso, yomnyaka kwa
Zidenge, umzana pofu ongaweyayo ngobuncinane bawo. Lomzi upantsi
kwokupata kwomfundisi wetu U-Rev. R. Birt. Ndafika mna kona sino
Mr. MacLean Bakaco intlanganiso selipakati saye ekungeneni kwetu
emzini apo kungasakohlile imipeko.
Into yokuqala endayi paulayo kulomzi, kukubona amaqaba elozwe,
ukupapela kwawo umsebenzi lowo; ndabona ezimbizeni eko nawo
ubuko bawo pofu, asingabantu abaze kubonela kodwa, babonakala nabo
bebilibilisha, kwabonakala ukuba banesabelo sabo kuwo lomsebenzi.
Singeneke etyalikeni nomhlobo wam safika kuteta umfundisi
omkulu U-Rev. Mr Birt ngendawo ezimnandi kunene zobubele be Nkosi,
nogcino, nonyamezelo lwayo ebantwini, nemfaneleko ngasebantwini
zokuyibulela ngoko. Waqubake yena, wada waya wapela, yada yapuma
intlanganiso. Ipumile kwabonakala sebexela izintlwa ngasezimbizeni
paya, sangena tina kwindlu ka Mr. M. Cafu (kuba kambe U-Mrs. Cafu
ngumfundisikazi wosapo kwelozwe), sangena2 kwindlu engqukuva
pofu, entle pantsi, eqatywe ngodongwe oluhle, yaye injalo inenkambile

1. wa
2. sagena
38

A few items of news (1873)

King Williams Town, May 27th 1873

My ChiefI want to report a few items of news which really appealed
to me when I came across them.
On 21 May an annual meeting was held at Zidenge, a village
not highly regarded because its so small. Our minister Rev. R. Birt
oversees this village.1 By the time I arrived with Mr MacLean Bakaco
the meeting was still in progress and the cooked food was ready to be
served.
The first thing I noticed in this village was that the reds hereabouts
were fully involved in this occasion.2 I saw them active in the kitchen:
they had not come as mere observers. They were hard at work, clearly
with specific duties in that occasion.
My friend and I, having entered the church hall, found ourselves in
the middle of a truly beautiful speech by the senior minister, Rev. Mr
Birt, concerning the benevolence of the Lord, his care for and patience
with his people, and the duty of the people to respond accordingly. He
went on to the end, and the meeting then broke up. Going out, you
could see people like winged termites in the kitchen there. We entered
the home of Mr M. Cafu (Mrs Cafu, by the way, taught the village
children), we entered the round hut with a spotless floor smeared with
beautiful clay, as was the bedroom where we were to sleep comfortably
1. Richard Birt (181092) of the LMS, who worked at Mxhelo before establishing
Peelton in 1848.
2. The reds are people who continue to live their lives in accordance with Xhosa
custom, which includes wearing garments dyed with red ochre. Reds have resisted
conversion to Christianity.
39

40 INDATYANA

apo salala kona kamnandi ekoyini yentsimbi, iko yonke into efuneka
kumntu ozipete ngobuntu.
Sanikwa idinala kwangohlobo olunjalo, itea ngexalayo,
ndingatininabetu; samkelwa kakuhle kwa Zidenge. Emva kwedinala,
sabizwa tina bafundisi bentsapo sanikwa itiketi ukuba sizitengise
ebantwini, (kuba kambe yaba yintlanganiso yetea ngokuhlwa) yekake
wena ndayibona into endingazange ndibone kumaqaba! Asuka
amanenekazi abomvu nawasesikolweni apuma nentsapo zawo, zatiwa
tshawu ezo tiketi ikakulu ngawo ayakungena pakati etyalikeni3,
wayesiti ke umntu, mna andifuni kusilela ntweni ndawonye nabantwana
bam. Kudeke kwa qalwa ukutyiwa. Gxebe indawo emandinityele enye,
yeyokuba inkosikazi U-Mrs. Birt, uma wetu, no Miss. Birt abancinane
bobabini, no Miss. Sturrock omncinane asebenza kunene lomakosikazi
wena, kwada kwalusizi kuba kwaye kubanda nokubanda, bawutwala
lomsebenzi4 ngotando nangenyameko, kwade kwagqitywa.
Kugqityiwe, kwabekwa izitya zokukongozela imali etafileni, yekake
mfondini, akwaba qaba, nowasesi kolweni yasuka yayinto yanye.
Masenditike kwawa mali, nagusha, nabokwe, nankuku. Sewuqonda
kuba enye into yada yati ndikupa ikati, yati enye intokazi ndi kupa
iqanda lenkuku Masenditike kuwe ngokufutshane, imali yodwa yaba
zi 127s, ngezo yure zimbalwa Yaza impahla yona pofu siyitelekele
yona kuma nani apantsi sati izi 163s, iyonke ngoko zi 2810s. Asinto
ndaka ndalibala, kwabonakala ukuba liyinyaniso izwi elitshoyo ukuti,
Imilambo yeli lizwe
Yovuyiswa ngalo,
Abantwana besi sizwe
Botyetyiswa ngalo.

3. atyalikeni
4. losebenzi

AFEWITEMSOFNEWS 41

on an iron bed. All appropriate provisions had been made for respectable
people.
We were served dinner in the same fashion, and tea at the appropriate
time. What can I say? We were warmly welcomed at Zidenge. After
dinner we teachers were called aside and given tickets to sell to others
(for there was to be a tea party in the evening). You should have been
there! I witnessed something I had never seen done by reds! Both the
red women and the school ladies rose and went outside along with their
families, quickly the tickets were all taken up by them, and then they
entered the church, each one saying: I dont want to be left behind, nor
do my children. Eventually it was time for refreshments. But grant me
space to tell you that both Mrs Birt, our mother, and young Miss Birt, as
well as young Miss Sturrock, those ladies really rolled up their sleeves,
so that we felt sorry for them, because it grew colder and colder, but
they toiled away with love and zeal till the very end.
When they were finished, collection plates were placed on the table.
Surprisingly, my good fellow, there was no distinction between red and
school folk.
Let me tell you they gave money, sheep, goats and chickens. Youll
get the point from the fact that one said, Ill throw in a cat, while
another said, Ill throw in a chickens egg.3 Let me tell you, in short,
that the cash alone quickly added up to 127s in that space of time.
Pledges-in-kind, we estimate conservatively, amounted to about 163s,
2810s in all. This is something Ill never forget. Its clearly true that
The rivers of this land
will be gladdened by it,
the children of this nation
enriched by it.4
3. In the English section of the same issue, the editor comments on a summary of
this letter: These contributions will be looked upon in different lights according
to the temperament of the reader. As the writer of the above was well enough able
to judge, there is not the slightest reason to believe there was any satire expressed.
Supposing these offerings to be genuine, they are remarkable as gifts, and may
show from what small beginnings, missionaries have to educate heathens into the
grace and art of Christian liberality (Summary of contents. Kaffir edition, Kaffir
Express, 1 July 1873: 6).
4. This appears as the fourth stanza of Hymn 114, Sinelizwi likaThixo, in the
Methodist hymn book, Umbhedesho namaculo amaWesile (1926).

42 INDATYANA

Tandazani makowetu okokuba imini ifike eku yakuba njalo,

tandazelani amakowenu abaheyideni ukuba bavule ingcango zentliziyo
zabo, aze angene U-Kumkani wofefe ongu Gquma barwaqele, Utimla
betuke Uchibi laboni, Ugumbi lomoya, Umtunzi wabo bonke. Ilizwi
liyahamba kumacala onke, izizwe ziyaqala ukuluva usindiso lwe-Nkosi
yetu.
Ezinye indatyana ezihle ngomvulo 2nd June Inkosana etile
yamajoni, ibetwe kunene nga Maxosa ngomnqayi enqintsini kuba ivelwe
ngasemva, emva kwokuba bekubizwa imali kwatshiwo kwaqengqwa,
wati omnye Umxosa lomzuzu isawe sisiduli wamana edyara ihashe eli.
Kwati kwangalomini enye inkosana ivela E-Fort Murry ikwele
nenkosikazi yayo, kwapambana engxingweni nonomagidiva wo
Mxosa, kwati kuba elingasemva ihashe kula enkosana lindwebile,
kwati ekubeni kulungelelane, lesuka eli lingasemva lakaba enqweleni
le liyirolayo, latsho laziposa pezu kwonomagidiva latiwa bodo yirongo
le esiswini, yaselisuka inkosana ikupa ngenqindi ku Mxosa, yesuka
inkewu yona yaxininiza imihlati yatula umfazi lo enqweleni, imane
imrwaqula ngentwezimbi zentanyongo zamehlo kupela, bati bakutukuti
ukulidonyula, aselepalala amatumbu, yaselisuka inkosana ilidubula. Ke
ngoku umfo omkulu usanyanisiwe nge 30 yilonkosana.

5
Isimangalo sika Tixo (Isaiah I.)

1 U-Yehova uyateta
Nani, ntlanga zomuhlaba,
Umangele kulw izulu,
Elokaya lipezulu.
2

Bek indlebe wena Zulu,

Wena kaya lobunyulu:
Ndimangel u Akunani;
Ndideliwe ndingu Mdali.

Olusapo ndilondlile,
Ngoku lungo Qelesile,
Kanti ndizi kulisele,
Ababantu ndizondlele.

4 Qipu kanye! abandazi,

Kwa nekaya abalazi,
Kant iqwara, kwa nenkomo,
Ziyamazi umninizo.
5

Ababantu kupelile
Bango Zwe-liqelesile;
Sebe kaka-kamupetu,
Sebengenwe nazimpetu.

6 Sekutamba ixalanga;
Umpefumlo uyanuka,
62

Gods complaint (1884)

Lord Jehovah speaks to you,

to all you nations on earth.
He makes his complaint in the Highest,
his abode up in the heavens.

Pay special attention, Heaven,

the proper home of purity:
I reproach you for your indifference;
I the Creator am slighted.

I provided for this household,

now theyve developed independence,
yet I raised these people sturdy,
I fed them to suit myself.

But suddenly they dont know me,

dont even know their own home
yet quagga as much as cattle
recognise their owner.

These people are hopeless cases,

a country free of ties;
transferred to the other side,
infested with treachery.

6 Even vultures are pacified:

a stink rises up from the soul,
63

64 ISIMANGALOSIKATIXO

Yilo ntshontsho, yolo fuqa,

Yompefumlo onegqita.

7 Ndimangele kuwe Mhlaba,

Kuba, nguwe umdlezana
Owanyisa abantwana,
Sebebede ama dlaba.
8

Bayanuka, bate butyu,

Mina, Yise, ndite ruqu:
Ndibabiza ngamax onke,1
Ndibameme ngako konke.

Bazonele ngokwenene,
Umdlezana makapuse;
Omalanga babalele,
Ze bacitwe nazimfazwe.

10

Bangalima, bapandule,
Ngamakuba baqandule,
It imvula ndiyibambe,
Imibete ndiyivimbe.

11

Bangakupa nemijelo,
Ndoyomisa imilambo;
Bangafuya ozimfuyo
Zozinkomo kuti, mo;

12 Nomahashe, nozigusha;
Ozimali, nenciniba;
Ozibokwe, nenqanawa;
Senditshilo,ziyatshaba.
13 Sel i-Ndim nje, omangele
Kule nkundla, ndikatele.
1. ngamac onke

GODSCOMPLAINT 65

from the vile stench of a soul

steeped in its corruption.

I also complain about you, Earth

for you are the nursing mother
who gave her breasts to her children
to grow up so ungrateful.

They smell, erupt with pus,

I, their Father, am quite ground down,
I called to them incessantly,
offered free invitations.

Theyve only themselves to blame,

let their mother deny them milk;
and let drought invest the land,
and let them be scattered by wars.

10

Let them labour at their ploughing,

hack away at rocky soil,
while I clench rain in my fist,
and begrudge them even the dew.

11

Let them lead out water furrows,

Ill dry up all the rivers,
let them toil at raising livestock,
with cattle lowing mho,

12

with horses or with sheep;

raising money, breeding ostrich;
with goats or with vessels;
I decree that all will fail.

13 Concerned for you, I am who I am,

charging you in this court.

66 ISIMANGALOSIKATIXO

Ningabuyanga kwapela,
Senifile, kwa-impela

14

Ungo Wam umhlaba,

Noko ningo Bed idlaba.
Ndininike ngesi sisa;
Ndinenzela nindisola

15

Ndoni gxota, kulo mhlaba,

Ndini gxote, kwela kaya;
Isipelo ke yinina?
Singu-Ati! ati! ke mna.

16 Zihlambeni, zicoceni,
Obububi, bulahleni;
Kanipeze, nqumamani,
Ukwenz ifa kufundeni.
17 Pungulani imitwalo
Yabo babandezelweyo;
Gwebelani inkedama,
Kufuneni ukugweba.
18

Nabo nabahlolokazi,
Ukuze bangasileli,
Yenzani ubulungisa,
Xa nipete ukugweba.

19 Kanize ke, kesixoxe,

No Yehova sidibene:
Nokw izono sekumrolo,
U Yehova seletshilo,
20

Zoba mhlope ngokwe kepu,

Zibe mhlope njengomqapu,
Zibe wez, njengoboya
Buhlanjiwe, obegusha.

GODSCOMPLAINT 67

Unless you completely alter your ways

you will just as completely perish.

14

I am the owner of the earth,

whether or not youre ungrateful.
Out of compassion I give it to you,
even though you rebuked me.

15

I will expel you from this land;

I will expel you from those homes;
what conclusion will you come to?
Youll end up saying What a shame!

16

Scrub yourselves and cleanse yourselves,

abandon abomination;
please cease all this immediately,
strive for a fitting legacy.

17

Lighten the burdens of all of those

who suffer under oppression;
find a just solution for orphans,
set yourselves up as judges.

18

Act the same way towards widows,

so that they are not abandoned
commit yourself to doing good
while you have the power to judge.

19

Come let us reason together,

weve held meetings with Jehovah:
despite your ingrained sinful ways
Jehovah remains insisting

20

they will be turned as white as snow,

turned as white as wild cotton,
white as the fleece of a sheep,
as wool freshly washed and dressed.

68 ISIMANGALOSIKATIXO

21

Not ukuba ninemvume,

Okunye ke nilungile,
Ilungelo lalomhlaba,
Ndoninika, nolixamla.

22

Okanye ke nimangala,
Seni beda kwanedlaba,
Nakutshaba ngalw irele,
U Yehova utetile.

GODSCOMPLAINT 69

21

When you have come to compliance,

living a righteous life,
youll rightfully claim this earth,
Ill grant it to you to enjoy.

22

But if you remain unyielding,

persistent in ingratitude,
you will be consumed by the sword
the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

22
W. Gqoba to James Stewart (1881)

King Williams Town

Jan 3 1/81
Rev Dr Stewart

Rev & dear sir
In acknowledging the receipt of yours of the 30th ult, I beg to state that
I am long sorry that I ever entered into any agreement with you at all; it
was the least of my calculations & of others that you would treat me the
way you have hitherto done.
You say my reason for being unhappy & uncomfortable is because
I did not attend regularly to my work, besides being absent from my
class, wh was frequently left in charge incompetent parties & teachers.
But my dear sir you know as well as I do that such is not the case, & I
do not intend to say any more about any of the charges in this letter, but
may afterwards be forced to do so.
Neither am I going to say any thing in reference to the first & last
parts of your letter. But I do not remember ever having met with such
treatment since I left Lovedale Inst in 1860
I rather would go & work for 20/- per year than 100 per annum
with peace & happiness than thousands of pounds & no peace, & a
treatment as though one had no feelings, or in plainer words treat
each other as though we were not fellow pilgrims to one home, fellow
workers in one garden, servants of one master; Who could tolerate the
want of such things bet a gospel minister of Chst & a believer in the
same Lord & master? You may call this also a foolish & an unbecoming
letter if you choose, but we must understand each other, we must do as
Paul says in the Phil: Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory,
487

488 W.W.GQOBA

but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better mark better
than themselves, that is the spirit that should guide us & be animated
with; we shall then live, work, peacefully & shall trust each other &
shall not be ever prone to utter hasty, indifferent or haughty expressions
I hope then that we shall consider byegones as byegones, I shall
do my duty as much as withing me lies, but shall never do more, when
I am unwell & consequently unfit for any work, never expect me to
be able to do so for I must understand you to refer to the days of my
illness when you say I did not do my duty, I was frequently absent from
my class etc.
Forgive any expression I may have made too much, but that was not
my intention for I must speak to you plain Dr Stewart, I hate flattery.
You are our father, not of one or two but of all the natives for whom
you have come

With kind regards
your most humble servant

W Gqoba

W.GQOBATOJAMESSTEWART 489

490 W.W.GQOBA

W.GQOBATOJAMESSTEWART 491