Cattle Killing Campaign
1856 - 1857

The Cattle Killing Campaign erupted in the Transkei and Ciskei regions of the Eastern Cape in 1856, and would reach a crescendo in 1857. Having failed to dislodge the colonial forces by means of warfare, it seems that the amaXhosa resorted to a call to their ancestors, together with a purification through the destruction of their corn reserves and their animals. Because the campaign affected mainly the rural areas of the eastern Cape, however, it would have less impact on the urban community at East London.

There were, however, three major exceptions. First, trade showed a distinct rise at the port as the amaXhosa bought more spades with which to dig new corn pits, and there was an increased sale in hides and horns. Second, as starvation set in, so the road to King William's Town became the regular scene of robberies. Third,

See also: West Bank Location The township community British Kaffraria

increased tension at the port itself saw the military take the law in its own hands when the body of one of its soldiers was found clubbed to death near the Black village at East London. The soldiers razed the village to the ground, thereby offering the Magistrate the opportunity to move the village to a spot further from the town.

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Dr Keith Tankard

Cattle Killing Campaign
1856 - 1857

The year 1856 saw the beginning of the Cattle Killing campaign in the Eastern Cape. This is one of those highly controversial events in South African history, and space does not allow a detailed examination here. Essentially, however, after fighting no less than eight unsuccessful wars against the imperial forces from Europe, the Xhosa people appear to have decided to embark upon a new course of action: a millenarian campaign of destroying all their livestock and grain in the hope of intervention from the ancestors who would drive the Whites out of their country and bring about a resurrection of new herds and new crops.

Modern historians and anthropologists are not in full agreement as to the cause of the Cattle Killing campaign. Anthropologist Errol Moorcroft argues in his 1967 thesis that it was linked to a moral protest and a claim to the land which had been "abused by Europeans". He contends that it was part of a national sacrifice to appease the national ancestors. What was unique about the Cattle Killing, he says, was not the killing of the animals as such, but the scale upon which those killings proceeded.

Jeff Peires also links the campaign to a millenarian action in the hopes of a purification of the land and a resurrection of the herds. He points, however, to a strange intermingling of traditional Xhosa tradition of ancestor worship with elements of Christianity. At the same time, he says, the extent of the killings was not necessarily any big deal because lung sickness amongst the cattle, which had first made itself manifest in South Africa after about 1853, was decimating the herds.

There is a third argument, which is commonly believed by many of the Xhosa people of the Eastern Cape. The Cattle Killing campaign, they say, was part of a great conspiracy by Sir George Grey and his henchmen in the colonial service. It was they who inspired the killings as a means to destroy the Xhosa people and take their land. What is certainly true is that about one third of the people died during the Killings, while another third sought refuge in the Cape Colony where they became labourers and forsook their tribal affiliations. Furthermore, immediately after the campaign, Sir George Grey imprisoned several of the Chiefs on Robben Island and rounded up the remnants of the Xhosa people in British Kaffraria, placing them in reserves under the control of White magistrates, and so freed the land for White settlement.

During the campaign, the Xhosa nation became divided into believers and unbelievers. At first, Sandile did not join in but Phato, Mhala and Maqoma, the Chiefs whose Great Places were close to East London, did. New cattle kraals were built and old ones were repaired so as to hold the new, resurrected herds. New corn-pits were dug and old ones were cleaned out and enlarged. By the end of January 1857, the famine had become so acute that many of the amaXhosa had begun to leave their homeland in search of food and employment. Rodney Davenport states that, of an original population of about 105 000 people, only 37 000 remained.

Although Chief Phato joined in the campaign, there is no evidence to suggest that the Black community at East London participated directly. By 1856, the amaXhosa at the port had ceased to be agriculturally based. Indeed, most were now dependent upon selling their services to the town and harbour in return for wages. Moreover, the restrictions imposed upon the Black people who lived at the port were such that they now had to have labouring jobs just to be allowed to remain in the "location".

Furthermore, wages paid at East London were high in comparison to those in other parts of British Kaffraria, which meant that the Black community at the port was considerably wealthier than those living elsewhere. This dependence on wages rather than on cattle would therefore have tended to make the people immune to the demands of the Cattle Killing campaign. Nevertheless, the campaign did affect the East London community in other ways.

First, trade at the port was directly influenced. In August 1856, the Special Commissioner for Phato's people reported that the amaXhosa were taking large quantities of hides to East London and that "considerable numbers" of Sarhili's people were visiting the port to sell their corn. At the same time, they were buying spades "in extraordinary quantities". As the Cattle Killing reached its climax, it brought starvation and poverty to the amaXhosa in close proximity to the district of East London. The poor and the hungry therefore turned to violence to survive: attacks and robberies on the road from East London to King William's Town were frequently reported. This, coupled with the belief amongst many Whites in the area that yet another frontier war was imminent, led to increased tension at East London. It is in the light of this tension that the events of February 1857 should be understood.

On the evening of 24 February 1857, a British soldier of the 89th Regiment was murdered. His body was discovered among the rocks close to the sea, not far from the Black village. Although the post-mortem revealed that the man had been clubbed to death with a blunt instrument, there was no clue as to where or by whom the murder had been committed. Furthermore, the body appeared to have been carried to the place where it was found only after the murder had taken place.

Nevertheless, the Resident Magistrate came to the conclusion, despite the lack of evidence, that there were "strong grounds" for suspecting that the murder had been committed in one of the huts in the location. He therefore requested the authority of the Chief Commissioner to remove the entire village to a point beyond the rayon of East London and to dismiss Headman Maqoma, whom the Magistrate believed was "totally unfit" to control the Black community.

Soldiers of the 89th Regiment, however, took matters into their own hands and burnt the village to the ground. They thereupon chased the inhabitants through the streets of East London, down to the water's edge, beating them as they ran.

The murder, followed by the soldiers' retaliation, threw the White population at East London into a frenzy. Within a couple of days, the inhabitants of the town presented a memorial to the Resident Magistrate in which they called for immediate protection. They linked the murder of the soldier to the other incidents in British Kaffraria and concluded that war was about to erupt. They therefore wished to draw attention to the fact that they were too few in number to guard the town themselves and requested the protection of the military force at Fort Glamorgan. The Magistrate responded by appointing two Khoisan special constables "to assist in preserving regularity in the town", and to prevent the amaXhosa from entering it. The scare, however, lasted only a week, after which the special constables were discharged.

The murder nevertheless spurred Chief Commissioner John Maclean to insist that all Black people be registered if they were to be allowed to reside at East London. He recommended, moreover, that the Magistrate "do away with Magoma's next of thieves." The Magistrate therefore decided that, since the village had been razed to the ground, it was an ideal opportunity to move the Xhosa community and to build a new location at a spot much further from the town. Furthermore, Maqoma was fired and a new Headman ("Ngogoshe") was appointed in his place.

In June 1857, Maclean drew up a new set of regulations for the establishment of the new location at East London. He explained to the Governor that it was necessary to have the village constituted with "proper regulations" close to East London so as to enable men who were employed on the public works to be close at hand and also "to enable merchants to procure coolies, etc & to prevent idle Kaffirs from entering the Town after dark".

The regulations for the new location stipulated that the site should be well clear of the town so that no Black person, other than servants who slept on the employers' premises, was to have an excuse for being in the town after working hours. No huts would be allowed which had not first been sanctioned by the Chief Commissioner himself. All males who were capable of working had to be registered, together with their wives and children. The Headman was to be held responsible for all strangers who visited the location.

Furthermore, no-one was to remain in the location for any length of time without the permission of the Resident Magistrate. No woman, other than the wife or one of the family of a registered person, would be allowed to live there. Men who wished to live in the village, or build there, had to apply for permission to the Headman who, if he approved, would recommend that person to the Resident Magistrate for his approval.

The Cattle Killing campaign had a dramatic influence on East London. The tensions caused by the uncertainty and fear led to the destruction of the original Xhosa village which had been there since 1835, and probably earlier. The amaXhosa were now forced to move to a new spot further from the town. Moreover, new

See also: West Bank Location The township community British Kaffraria

regulations meant that nobody could live in the "location" unless employed in the town, or was a wife or child of such a person. The Xhosa village had therefore become no more than a labour pool for the port and its White population.

Dr Keith Tankard