The Piper System Blog

Part 1

From the Malay in the Bokaap, the Xhosa in the valleys, the Sotho in the mountains, the Nama in the desert and the Zulu in the highlands, South Africa is made up of a number of population groups, each with its own religions, traditions and languages. These differing groups are entwined and linked by history and genetic heritage. The history we share is both our greatest treasure and curse, so I will speak for all Africans.

[Editor's note:
The Cape Malay does not hail from Malaysia, but rather from Indonesia, as brought here by the V.O.C (Dutch East India Company). This information was given to us by historians at the National Archives in Cape Town). The Bokaap refers to the Malay Quarter in Cape Town.]

Africans and their fighting arts

The Abantu group is made up of over 400 nations, and each nation is divided into the various tribes, and each tribe divided into clans, each clan divided into houses, each house will have a family name and families will then have people. So as you can see, that is a lot of people, so just to neaten things out I will only speak about the people in South Africa. This is not to say we are separated from the rest of Africa.

The original inhabitants of Southern Africa were the Khoi khoi [Editor's note: It seems historians are now adopting the spelling Khoe khoe] cattle herders and the San hunter-gatherers. The Abantu group entered South Africa from the east around 2000 years ago. There is ample evidence showing that this might have happened earlier from artefacts found to be about 5000 years old, that show that the Abantu were already here, but here I will describe full-scale settlement of the area. These people are divided into the Sotho-Tswana, Nguni, and Venda-Tonga groups. The Sotho groups tended to live in stone houses in big clustered village towns. The Venda groups also tended to congregate in similar dwellings. The Nguni lived in Kraal (Imizi) these were made out of mud and grass built in beehive form around a central cattle hold. This central place was sacred and could only be accessed by members of the family and clan (both sexes). These kraals were located far in between in valleys and hills.

When sons had attained their majority they would move away from home to start their own Kraal. This isolation meant that each home was vulnerable to attack and could not count on raising reinforcements when attacked. It was therefore necessary for every male child to be able to use a weapon in order to defend himself and his people. This is when the trying rights of passage were firmly established to teach self-reliance and to make one lose the fear of death.

Boys of the same age group would be gathered into an (Intanga) age group gang and learnt herb lore, how to fight with sticks, how to hunt and how to survive in the bush and most importantly how to defend the herds from wild animals. During this time they were never allowed to use a bladed weapon, they had to fight with sticks. When they were ready, they had to be circumcised with a spear. The belief was that if a man knows what it feels like to be cut by a spear he would never be hasty in using it.

They learned their tribal history and where they fit into it, they would learn how to sing, dance and how to compose and recite poetry (Izibongo). During this time they would be lent a spear to practise with under the teaching of elders. Those who survived would then be moved back home were a party would be held. They would then be presented to the King or Chief, who would then give them the right to carry a bladed weapon, and create a regiment (Ibutho) out of the group. The regiment would then be allowed to go and build a village, which would be named after them. This helped expand the reaches of the Tribe as these young men conquered new areas. So the ability to survive was the main selective criteria and produced a proud, obstinate, fearless warrior who would be gentle to his family and honour his duty to his people and King.

Other Northern Nguni people e.g. the Mthethwa under Dingiswayo, removed the initiation stage and instead drafted the young men into their father’s regiment. This was done in order to insure that there were enough men to serve in the Mthethwa army. Shaka was drafted into one of these regiments when he came of age, his Intanga was the enDlatsheni. Only after the period of service was finished (10 or so years) were they allowed to marry and start families. When an Ibutho proves its bravery they may be allowed to wear the resin headband (Isicoco) that released him to family life. Examples of these are Izicwe regiment, famous for producing Shaka, Mdlaka and Mgobhozi of the mountain (Mthethwa), the Matlama regiment, of Moshoeshoe (Sotho), the Jingqi regiment of Maqoma (Xhosa).

This approach allowed the Nguni to have much dominance over the area. Xhosa moved into Khoi territories, the Nothern Nguni went into Tonga, Sotho and Karanga territories. This lead to the adoption of standing armies, and the adoption of the stabbing spear and the creation of the buffalo horn formation that is so erroneously credited to Shaka. Earlier Portuguese documents in northern Zimbabwe describe the Buffalo Head formation being used about two hundred years before Shaka. The short stabbing spear was known among the Xhosa and most Nguni groups but was used as a secondary weapon when the call “ phakathi” or charge was called. Some warriors broke the shaft of their spears in order to have the right length for hand to hand combat.

Shaka could afford to pay a large number of blacksmiths and had access to huge iron ore deposits. The fact that Dingiswayo, Mthimkhulu and Donda, powerful leaders of that time, favoured him made it easier for him to recruit men. During this time there was no knife carrying or fighting culture in Southern Africa and fighting was done with club, axe and spear.

So these people were moving and fighting in the Cape. The Khoi were busy with two threats, the Xhosa from the rear and the Dutch who we building a “Refuelling Station” in the Cape. In the end, absorption into Xhosa tribes, intermarriages, disease and relentless hunting by the Dutch led to a weakening of Khoi culture and the rise of Cape Coloured culture. The Dutch bought with them slaves from Guinea, Angola, Zanzibar, Bantam, Batavia, China, India and Madagascar. These slaves brought with them the knife culture that is so strong in our cities. The Orang Cayen, who were a warrior caste, were also exiled into the Cape. The earliest recording of a stabbing was by a Chinese convict called Yatchoo (1600’s) who stabbed and killed another slave over a bet, this and other cases are to be found in the records of the Cape.

Slaves were not allowed to use firearms and fought on the side of the Dutch against the Khoi with pitchforks knives, spears and clubs. This meant death for any slave who, when escaping, found themselves in Khoi territories. Those who managed to escape the Dutch and crossed into Xhosa lands were retained and used as warriors. Then came the Frontier wars between the settlers (Dutch and British) that lasted 200 years. During this time many Xhosa who were prisoners of war were forced to work in servitude in the Cape. These were mainly women and children and there were some warriors too. Some warriors were held in jail cells, with a number of those descended from the slaves and there was naturally a sharing of ideas and a change in outlook.

To be continued…

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