Episode 73 – Shaka overwhelmes the Qwabe and the British upend the trekboer Loan Farm tradition
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Show notes
So, in 1817, Shaka had been forced to flee his home as Zwide’s Ndwandwe attacked repeatedly – and he found himself south of the Thukela.
He needed to forge a stronger relationship with the people to the north, and in particular the Qwabe who were found south of Umhlatuzi river, near his mother’s clan, the Langeni.
What doomed Phakathwayo was the fact that his older brothers were gumbling about their treatment – he’d scuffled with his brother Nomo – while their father Khondlo was still alive. Nomo was the heir designate, but Nomo’s mother was an Mthethwa, not a full-blooded Qwabe. The Qwabe powers that be thought this disqualified Nomo.
He duly headed off to Dingiswayo of the Mthethwa for help, although their first impi was defeated by Phakathwayo. Shaka was lurking by now, and some Qwabe had crossed over to join him, recognizing a powerful man in the making I guess.
One was Sophane kaMcinci and the other was Nqetho kaMcinci – both khonza’d Shaka just before Phakathwayo was to face his sternest test.
Right now, we need to swing back to the Cape.
We left off in 1812, with the British Governor Sir John Cradock having used the Boers to great effect and subdued the Albany amaXhosa.
He had named the new town of Grahamstown after his military steamroller, Lieutenant colonel John Graham. Both men had happily sent the trekboers as their shock troops to rid the Albany thickets of the amaXhosa and rebellious Khoekhoe. Jacob Cuyler, the Uitenhage landdrost, had taken to appreciating the Boers hard life, and had changed his view from calling them “a set of vagabonds and murderers…” to embracing their world view.
