Qwathi in the sources
The amaQwathi are a people of Tembuland who, in Soga’s account, are a minor house of the amaXesibe, entered Tembuland in the reign of Ngubencuka and kept their own identity there; their chief Dalasile fought the Cape Government in Hope’s war of 1881. The Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims lists them among communities that sought refuge among the Thembu.
What the sources say
Origin and arrival. Soga says the amaQwati “were a Minor House of the Ama-Xesibe” who, seeking a new home, entered Tembuland, tried to seize land by force and were beaten by Ngubencuka; went on to Basutoland, where they were not welcome; and returned “as suppliants”, when Ngubencuka allowed them to settle (p. 477). In 1828 the amaNgwana (Mfecane) invasion of Tembuland struck them first and they fled; Ngubencuka asked the Colonial Government and the Gcaleka for help and the invasion was crushed (pp. 477 to 478). Soga lists the Qwati among the abaMbo tribes (p. 298, table). See Ngangelizwe and Dalindyebo.
Dalasile and the war. One of Ngangelizwe’s subjects, Dalasile, chief of the amaQwati, refused to come under the Government, and Stokwe of the amaVundle likewise; Soga says that because of their different origin the Qwati never amalgamated with the Tembu and kept their separate identity. When the Tshatshu chief Gungubele was imprisoned after helping Kreli in 1877 to 1878, the sureties for his fine, Tembu chiefs and Dalasile and Stokwe, held the fine paid; the Government refused and war followed, mainly in the Indwe district; the Tembu stayed out of it; the Qwati were overcome in seven days and surrendered, having sought to join the Pondomise in what is called Hope’s war (1881) (pp. 486 to 487). Soga also notes the Qwati reinforced the Tembu army in the war against Kreli in 1877 (p. 250).
The Commission. The Commission lists the amaQwathi among the communities that sought refuge among the Thembu under Ngubengcuka, and names Stokwe of the amaQwathi as one of four clan leaders who accepted the move to Emigrant Thembuland in 1865. See the Thembu and Matanzima pages. Wikipedia’s clan list says they are related to the Mpondo, Mpondomise and Xesibe, with a founder Mtshutshumbe, and settled in Thembuland more than 350 years ago, which conflicts with Soga’s account of their arrival in the early nineteenth century; we have not resolved this.
Cautions
Soga’s account of Stokwe differs from the Commission’s in the clan he belonged to (Soga gives Stokwe as chief of the amaVundle, the Commission as of the amaQwathi). The date of the first entry is the main conflict: Soga puts it in Ngubencuka’s reign, shortly before 1828, and the Wikipedia listing puts it more than 350 years ago. We have seen neither the Qwati’s own accounts nor the colonial files. Soga was a Xhosa-born mission doctor and historian who wrote in 1930 from tribal informants and the older colonial histories; his tables are partly garbled in the machine-read text, and he often says that a clan’s place in the genealogy is uncertain.
Izithakazelo and totem
We found no Qwathi praise poem or totem. If you belong to the amaQwathi and recite your praises, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- J. H. Soga, The South-Eastern Bantu (Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1930); read in the Internet Archive text, with machine-read tables (page numbers below are as the running heads gave them)
- Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims: Determination on the abaThembu kingship claims (the passage listing the amaQwathi)
- Wikipedia: Xhosa clan names (the page mixes tribes and clan names)
Do you belong to the Qwathi? Tell us your izithakazelo and what elders say about the family’s history, and we will add it, credited to you. Share what you know or WhatsApp 065 138 8213.