General & Historical Bandile on 26 Jan 2007 11:09 pm
Knife Fighting and the world that created it
Part 2 of the article Stick fighting and knife fighting in South Africa: Where they are linked
Now in the previous post I spoke about how South African native populations did not have a knife culture. Then the Malays and others were forcefully kidnapped from their countries and imprisoned in the Cape. I spoke about how some escaped into the native populations, and the integration that happened when they got there. The next period I will talk about is the frontier wars until the migrant labour system was in place.
Nguni people lived in their kraals having ritualised warfare until the late 1600s, when the trade in Zanzibar, Munumutapa (Great Zimbabwe) and Maputo changed from gold and agricultural products into slave trading. Credo Mutwa, a renowned Zulu shaman, storyteller and artist, is an amazing user of metaphors in depicting our historic legacy, pity some people are prone to take literally what he means figuratively. In his book “Indaba my children” tells an interesting story about how Portuguese came and introduced maize and chickens to the native populations. Prior to this, Sorghum and Millet were the staple diet and these grasses carried lower yield and therefore could not support huge populations. Mealies (Maize) had a shorter generative time, could produce huge yield and the canes could be used as a reserve cattle feed for the winter. This changed the agricultural systems and led to a rise in population levels and the organisation of societies, suddenly there was a need to have great centralisation of government and Kingdoms like the Tsonga, Rozwi/Munumatapa, Swahili and Asante became specialist slave traders.
Their slave raiding caused much destabilization and massive migration of people down into what is now South Africa. Then came the period of the war kings. First of these was Dingiswayo ka Jobe who was prodigy of Mthimkulu kaRhadebe and his rival Zwide kaLanga. There were others, like Makhedama of the Langeni, Shaka’s uncle and Macingwana of the Cunu. These men formed huge alienated kingdoms as a response to Arab and Portuguese slaving pressures in the East. These huge concentrations of people needed food and crops to get going so they took part in raiding and intimidating each other for tribute. Shaka was born into this and his father issues drove him to create the Zulu empire.
This happened after an attack by Matiwane of the Ngwane, where his father Mthimkhulu ka Rhadebe was killed. Matiwane in his turn was running away from an attack by Zwide of the Ndwandwe. This was the start of the Imfecane amd Shaka was only drawn into it by the defeat of Dingiswayo by Zwide. Shaka, as one Dingiswayo’s prodigies was firmly in Zwide’s eye. So he had to secure his position to avoid annihilation by the strong Ndwandwe. This he did through attacking and drafting into Zulu armies the young people from his neighbouring tribes; he even exchanged cattle for warriors and called on old tribal alliances which brought the Qwabe, Hlubi, Buthelizi and Mthethwa into the Zulu ranks.
The British ended slavery in the Cape in 1808 and this caused huge labour issues in the Cape, and according to works of Prof Julian Corbing of Rhodes University, this was one of the reasons that there was the Imfecane. It happened in the middle of a prolonged drought period where the land could not support huge population groups. Mantathisi of the Batlokwa was a formidable woman warrior who was building a nice kingdom for herself in the Caledon Valley and into what is now the Gauteng region. She and her people were formidable warriors; she defeated Moshoeshoe and his Mokoteli Kwena people and drove them to Thababusio in the Maluti Mountain where he founded the baSotho.
The Tlokwa were unbeaten by all other Sotho nations until red dust came from the east. Mpangazitha, the eldest son of Mthimkhulu, had taken his people and moved them west. He fell on and destroyed the Tlokwa Mantathisi, took the remnants and moved north. He then proceeded to draft the Sotho people into Hlubi armies and travelled north again, this time he met up with Matiwane and they fought the Hlubi, lost this one again and Mpangazitha was killed. The Hlubi broke into three one group joined the Ngwane, the other went North and became Ndebele and the last group went into the Eastern Cape to join the Xhosa. Matiwane also folled this way South but was beaten by a joint force of Thembu and Brittish scattering his people near uMthatha in the Transkei.
In the Cape, slavery has ended and the Trekkers were not happy and rebelled against British rule. They went North West creating the myth of the great trek. There was a need for cheap labour in the Cape. This is what caused the period of the Frontier wars. Also in the north, slave raiding Korana and Basters were carving huge chunks out of the Tlokwa and other Sotho groups and transporting them to the Cape. Two interesting characters in this period are Danster who was a renegade Xhosa cattle thief from the Cape, and the Afrikaaner, Coenraad Buys, who was also another thieving rascal. They joined forces raiding and stealing cattle from the colony and other black nations and both were never caught. Coenraad’s descendents founded Buys town up near Makhado and Danster’s descendants are to be found in the Klein Karoo.
So you had a lot of native people being transported to work in the Cape bringing with them their traditions and fighting methods creating a rather dangerous place in the Cape. After the end of the Colonial wars and when South Africa had become a Union there was the migrant labour system that forced young men to go and work in the cities. This disconnection from traditional roots and forced urbanisation created the character of Nongoloza, or Jan Note. Now came the fifties with influx control and pass laws, this resulted in large numbers of African people getting arrested and being jailed. Inside prisons, as a means of safety people had to join the prison gangs or be victims of them.
Forced removals and the eighties riots also lead to a large number of people getting arrested and sent to the prisons. This was when knives became popular in black communities. In my family my grandfather was a stick fighter, but his son (my dodgy uncle) was arrested about four times for stabbing people. Evidently he was the one who introduced me to knifing, or as he called it, Ghoni. So this just a brief sketch of what happened in our country and where our problem of crime and knifings comes from. Please Google some of the information to learn more.
Some interesting sites
http://www.ecu.edu/african/sersas/MasonSERSASF99.htm
The most spectacular custom of the Cape Malay is the performance of the Ratiep. It is an exhibition of skillful swordplay and symbolic of the power of faith. Many of the Imams disapprove of it. With a background of monotonous chanting and the rhythmical beating of drums, the performers go into a semi-hypnotised state. They stab the flesh with sharp instruments, wounding themselves without flinching. The name Chalifah is really the name for the leader who blesses the swords, directs the performance, and prays while it is being carried out.
South African numbers gang history concentrating on the numbers gangs and how they came to be.
- http://www.jstor.org/view/03057070/di013276/01p0581v/0
- http://andrejkoymasky.com/liv/fam/biom3/math1.html
Colonial and Native wars
- http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/chronology/turningpoints/bk3/chapter1.htm
- http://www.thuto.org/ubh/ac/mfec.htm
- http://www.jstor.org/view/03617882/ap010087/01a00050/0
- http://www.jstor.org/view/03615413/sp040020/04×0383s/0
- http://www.dwaf.gov.za/Communications/MinisterSpeeches/Kasrils/1999/sandile.doc
- http://www.nguni.com/culture/virtualafrica/xhosa/history.html
- http://rapidttp.com/milhist/vol013pb.html
- http://www.jstor.org/view/00218537/ap010093/01a00160/1?frame=noframe&userID=92e78132@ru.ac.za/01cce4406500501b672fd&dpi=3&config=jstor
Mantantisi, the forgotten warrior Queen
- http://www.whoosh.org/issue35/carper16a.html
- http://rapidttp.com/milhist/vol013pb.html
Griqua, Korana and Baster Groups
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griqua
- http://www.gwb.com.au/gwb/strachan/griqua.html
- http://www.ratelgat.co.za/history.htm
White Traders
- http://archive.lib.msu.edu/DMC/African%20Journals/pdfs/PULA/pula011001/pula011001007.pdf
Pass Laws
- http://sahistory.org.za/pages/specialprojects/sharpevill/02_passlaws.htm
Sophiatown and District six
- http://www.capetown.at/heritage/history/apart_enforce_commun_art.htm
- http://africanhistory.about.com/b/a/239731.htm
Tsotsi culture
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsotsi
- http://www.chico.mweb.co.za/art/2006/2006feb/060203-tsotsi.html
- http://www.dispatch.co.za/2001/05/18/features/WBANKEAS.HTM
- http://sahistory.org.za/pages/classroom/pages/projects/grade9/lesson1/unit4.htm
