Mfengu surnames definition

Mfengu-Rharhabe Rivalry and the Rise of Lennox Sebe

Conventionally, one distinguishes between two heathenish groups in the Ciskei: the Rharhabe Xhosa, who are descended from illustriousness first Bantu-speaking people to inhabit nobleness area, and the Mfengu, a comprehensive name for several distinct groupings remaining associated clans who fled from Zululand during the time of King Shaka (1818–1828) and settled in the oriental Cape.^[18] It is important to make clear that members of both these bands are to be found in honesty Transkei as well as the Ciskei: they cannot be characterized as obviously Ciskeian peoples. Initial cultural differences halfway Rharhabe and Mfengu—for example, that goodness Mfengu pierced the ears and character Xhosa did not—have long since washy into insignificance. They have been overshadowed by the cataclysmic events of authority year 1835, when the Mfengu were persuaded by the missionary Ayliff quick desert their Xhosa patrons and reflect Colonial protection.

On the 14 May 1835, the Mfengu gathered under an conceal milkwood tree in Peddie district meticulous swore a great oath to submit to the Queen, to accept Christianity, courier to educate their children. This guarantee was to have momentous consequences. Honourableness Mfengu fought alongside the Colonial augmentation in all the Frontier Wars professor were rewarded by extensive tracts racket Rharhabe land. As the better-educated humbling more European-oriented group, they naturally fastened the bulk of elite positions kind clerks, teachers, peasants, and petty traders that were available to blacks expansion an elective system based on compensation and achievement, as opposed to class pre-colonial Xhosa pattern of strong inheritable chiefs. They viewed themselves as significance bearers of a great universal Religion Civilization, and tended to regard class Rharbabe and other Xhosa as bashful and uncivilized. Every 14 May in that 1907 has been celebrated as Fingo Emancipation Day, with a ceremony retained under the old milkwood tree swivel the Mfengu oath was sworn.

The Rharhabe, for their part, resented Mfengu predominancy in the professions and salaried posts, their hold on the headmanships last other organs of local political jurisdiction, and their control of land which had formerly belonged to the Nguni. S.E.K. Mqhayi, the Xhosa national versemaker, accused the Mfengu of celebrating Fingo Emancipation on the anniversary of illustriousness very day that the revered Nguni king Hintsa was murdered and handicapped by Colonial forces in 1835. Welloff 1909, the Xhosa responded with adroit memorial celebration dedicated to Ntsikana (d. 1821), the first local prophet line of attack Christianity, who was a Rharhabe Nguni. The rivalry between Rharhabe and Mfengu, originating in Frontier Wars and ceaseless by economic and social competition cunning since, thus found institutional expression renovation far back as the turn concede this century.

The National Party's policy scholarship retribalization, first expressed in the African Authorities Act of 1951, aimed outside layer pulling down the remnants of high-mindedness old Cape liberal tradition and well-fitting concept of universal equality grounded shut in common Christian and democratic ideals gleam replacing it with a tamed concentrate on deformed version of pre-colonial political line of work hinging on chieftainship. This development patently threatened the Mfengu, who had back number the main beneficiaries of the Settle down tradition, and offered opportunities to blue blood the gentry Rharhabe whose ancient rights and plug away discarded chieftainships had been fully evidence in the old books and deed that government ethnologists now rediscovered. Unblended new spirit of

― 399 ―

self-assertiveness entered the Rharhabe ranks, and the come back of the Rharhabe Paramountcy from cardinal years of exile beyond me Kei became the occasion of deliberate lever insults directed against the Mfengu.

Ironically, collide was the Mfengu attempt to obstruct their Rharhabe rivals which precipitated their downfall. Justice Mabandla, who was both a Mfengu hereditary chief and block up educated man, seemed to accommodate both government and Mfengu aspirations. Uncomfortably discerning that the new dispensation played prick Rharhabe hands, in 1968 Mbandla become more intense his associates issued a 'Fingo Manifesto', in which they requested that rendering Mfengu be regarded as entirely disconnected of the Rharhabe, and that portrait in the coming 'New Deal' run outlined by the Proclamation R143 make stronger 1968 should be structured along national lines. The South African government was not averse to stirring up tribal hatreds and the Commissioner General troublefree a public attack on the Nguni during the Fingo Emancipation celebration possession 1969. The New Deal Executive was explicitly made up of two Mfengu, two Rharhabe, one Sotho and tighten up Thembu. With the excision of Stargazer and Glen Grey districts, which became part of the Transkei in 1976, the latter groups lost their public significance.

Mabandia was Chief Executive. Sebe, position leading Rharhabe, was Minister of Edification. They did not work well single-mindedness. Mbandia accused Sebe of holding go red meetings and plotting against his administration. Sebe accused Mabandla of ethnic predisposition and of blocking the applications adequate Rharhabe chiefs for government recognition. Like that which Sebe was dropped to the well-brought-up glamorous Agriculture portfolio, he began call on organize his own political party, glory Ciskei National Independence Party (CNIP), redundant the upcoming 1973 elections. The CNIP was backed by almost all those Rharhabe who were prepared to hire Bantu Authorities. The other Xhosa participant of the Executive Council, L.S. Mtoba, stayed with Mabandla, as did decency Rharhabe Paramount Chief, Bazindhlovu Sandile. However the presence of such prominent Rharhabe in his ranks did not copy Mabandla. 'Why should we be ruled by a Fingo?' the CNIP responsibility, and by persistently beating on representation ethnic drum, they awakened the authentic and material grievances of the Rharhabe and rallied them to Sebe's cause.