"Nonqawuse"

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Women's Day - 9 August 2007

Who said we are just a bunch of racists and we do not honour our black women? Today 9th of August is women's day in South Africa. This day in 1956, is when black women marched on the Union Buildings in Pretoria, protesting against the pass laws. 1956 was exactly 100 years after another "great" black woman, Nonqawuse, had a spark of genius. So on this day, I want to honour the "great" Xhosa woman Nonqawuse, whose name will live on in infamy as the epitome of black stupidity.Mention the name "Nonqawuse" to white people and few will know who you are talking about. Mention it to Xhosas and they lower their eyes in embarrassment, quickly steering the conversation in another direction. They don't like to talk about Nonqawuse.Today, Nonqawuse is to the Xhosas what Efialtis is to the Greeks. Efialtis was the traitor at the Battle of Thermopylae when 300 Spartans fought off the forces of Xerxes, the Persian King. The name Efialtis was absorbed into the Greek language and means "Nightmare". Likewise the name Nonqawuse was absorbed into the Xhosa language and means "Liar".
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death." Proverbs 14:12
In April 1856 two young Xhosa girls were sent to chase birds from cornfields near the River Gxara. The elder girl, Nongqawuse (15), reported that while they were drinking at the water's edge some mysterious figures materialised alongside them. They told the girls to take a message back to their kraal that a great resurrection was about to take place, and that all the people should kill all their cattle as these would no longer be needed. Once the great day came there would be no shortages of any kind, so they must tell their people that there must be no sowing or cultivation of crops and all stored grain must be thrown away. Once this had been carried out, the strangers told the girls, no further work must be done. And when all the Xhosa cattle had been killed the new people would come, sweeping all the whites into the sea.Nonqawuse told her uncle, Mhalakaza, who at first did not believe her. The voices in the reeds told her to bring her uncle along, four days later.He too heard these voices saying, "We are the people who have come to order you to kill your cattle, to consume your corn and not to cultivate anymore." Mhalakaza was instructed to take this message to the paramount chief of the Xhosa, Sarili, and to all the other chiefs.Parramount chief Sarili listened to Mhalakaza's words and was prepared to believe that Nongqawuse had really seen the strangers. He was encouraged in this by his own hopes of seeing the British driven away from the borders of his lands; and of seeing the influence of the white men removed from Xhosa life and society.For ten months a kind of madness possessed the Xhosa . They killed their livestock (it is estimated that they killed 300 000 to 400 000 head of cattle) and burned their crops until they had nothing left but their family. The slaughter of their own cattle by the Xhosa was one of history's most enormous acts of faith, a ritual suicide.British officials were aghast at the developments, but felt helpless to stop them. Missionary Charles Brownlee, brought up among the Xhosa and fluent in their language, was prominent in visiting the Xhosa kraals to try to counteract Mhalakaza's influence, but most would not listen to his warnings.The day of their salvation was to be the 18th of February 1857. On that day, Nonqawuse predicted, a blood-red sun would rise, stand still in the sky, and then set again in the east.As the great day dawned, the Xhosa people sat waiting. The sun rose. It made its slow passage across the hot February sky. A gentle breeze blew off the sea as the sun set in the west. Darkness fell on a ruined and starving nation. The day had turned out to be nothing more than an ordinary, beautiful, summers day.Nonqawuse fled and went to live on a farm called Glen Shaw in the district of Alexandria in the Eastern Cape. She died in 1898.However, upwards of 100,000 Xhosas (80% of their population at the time) died from starvation.
"He who works his land will have abundant food, but the one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty." Proverbs 28:19
Today nothing has changed. Blacks still suffer from the Nonqawuse syndrome. They still listen to their false prophets such as Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and Thabo Mbeki who says that AIDS is a myth and want to cure people with beetroot and garlic. Blacks first go the Sangomas before they go to western doctors. It indeed appears as if blacks in South Africa are on a road to self destruction. Their policies of Affirmative Action and Black Economic Empowerment leads to job loss, more poverty, hunger and ultimately the destruction of their own race. The state of South African hospitals are beyond a joke, crime is completely out of control, hundreds of thousands of blacks are dying of AIDS every year, but blacks still vote for their modern "Nonqawuse", the ANC.Blacks were stupid to listen to Nonqawuse and believe her lies, but what if there was a twist to this tale?For a while it has been rumoured that the strangers that Nonqawuse saw amongst the reeds weren't strangers or mythical figures at all, but some white people who could speak Xhosa fluently, have smeared themselves with clay, dressed up as "spirits" and hid amongst the reeds.At that time the Voortrekkers, who fought the Xhosas in six wars, have left the Cape Colony and the remaining British fought against the Xhosas in another three wars. I think at that time they must have had enough of war...and the Xhosas.However sinister this might sound, if it is true, it would have been military genius.
Posted by Uncle Cracker at 9:56 AM 10 comments