Sarhili
Wikipedia’s article on Sarili kaHintsa (Sarhili, called Kreli) gives his dates as about 1810 to 1892 and says he was king of the Gcaleka from 1835 until his death, the oldest son of Hintsa and Nomsa kaGambushe Tshezi, with nine wives. It says his first heir died in 1853 and that his son Sigcawu, by his second wife Nohuthe, became next in line; the Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims lists Sarhili after Hintsa, followed by Zwelidumile and Xolilizwe (see our Gcaleka page). The Wikipedia article is tagged as needing more citations.
Reign
The article says Sarili succeeded without dispute but that Hintsa’s power had passed largely to his Great Councillors, so he struggled early to assert himself; that he failed against the Sotho and was defeated by Mtirara in an 1839 attempt on the upper Kei; and that in July 1843 he seized Thembuland with the official Xhosa army and set up his Great Place at Hohita. It describes him as a skilled diplomat who generally avoided direct clashes with the Cape Colony, but says his indirect help to the Ngqika in the Seventh and Eighth Frontier Wars was discovered and led to a temporary British invasion of Gcalekaland. South African History Online’s entry on Thembuland says that from 1871 the Thembu, under Ngangelizwe, were at war with an alliance including the Gcaleka, that Ngangelizwe’s chief wife Novili was Sarhili’s daughter, and that Ngangelizwe came under growing military pressure from Sarhili.
The cattle-killing and the 1877 war
Wikipedia says Sarili played a significant part in the movement that began in 1856 around Nongqawuse’s prophecies, destroyed his own cattle and crops, and that many subjects followed, bringing famine and driving people towards the colony. It says he was briefly exiled beyond the Mbashe and returned only in 1865, and that the Mfengu settled much of his former land. It says clashes between Mfengu and Gcaleka at a festival in 1877 grew into an inter-tribal war, that Sarili tried to avoid escalation but was pushed in by councillors and chiefs, and that after two devastating battles he ended his resistance and went into exile, first in Pondoland and then in Bomvanaland (see Bomvana). It says he died in exile in 1892 at Sholora, Bomvanaland. The article says this role made him hated in white opinion; we report it as the article’s statement and do not endorse it.
What we have not read
The article cites Cahoon’s “South African Traditional States”, the Dictionary of African Historical Biography (1989), the Cambridge History of Africa vol. 6, Spicer’s 1978 thesis on the war of 1877 to 1878, Bundy (1979) and Beck (2000); we have read none of them. We did not read Peires on the cattle-killing. We found no Gcaleka royal-house account of him on a page we could open.
Izithakazelo and totem
We found no recorded praises or totem for Sarhili, so we are printing none. If you belong to the Gcaleka royal house and recite his izibongo, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- Wikipedia: Sarili kaHintsa (tagged for citations)
- South African History Online: Thembuland
- Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims: Determination on the amaGcaleka
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