Cirha in the sources
Cira (Cirha) was, in Soga’s account of the Xhosa royal house, the heir of the great house of Nkosiyamntu, who reigned about 1575, and the elder brother of Jwara and Tshawe. A clan called amaCira, with small sub-clans of its own, is still recorded, though Soga says it had fallen to the status of commoners.
What the sources say
In the royal genealogy. Soga writes that Nkosiyamntu, son of Malangana and grandson of Xosa, who reigned about 1575, “distinguished between his various houses”: the great house, whose heir was Cira; the right-hand house, whose heir was Jwara; and the iqadi or minor house, whose heir was Tshawe, citing Theal (p. 36; again p. 104). He adds that Tshawe’s mother had to flee with her young son to her own people because the rule of slaughtering a chief’s sons was still observed (p. 104). See Jwarha and Tshawe.
The click in the name. To show that the Xhosa had clicks before meeting the Khoikhoi, Soga points to the c click in Cira, “great grandson of Xosa, about 1600”, and in the name of the Tembu chief Cedume, who lived about 1575 (p. 96).
The clan. Soga says the clan name Cira “has come down to us through some other son of the chief, probably a son of a Right Hand or Minor House”, that the amaCira have small sub-clans such as the Xandeshe and Mbabalana “of little account”, and that the amaCira and amaKwemnta do not intermarry, a sign of close blood relationship (p. 283). In his table of Xhosa clans, the amaKwemnta descend from Cira through Bonga and a line of later names.
Cautions
Soga’s tables are the only source we have for Cira’s line, and the machine-read genealogy is garbled; the dates (about 1575, 1600) are his estimates. We do not know whether present families called Cirha belong to this clan. The Commission determinations on the Xhosa kingship (Gcaleka, Rharhabe) say little on this early period. 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 Cira praise poem or totem in the sources we read. If you belong to the amaCira and recite your praises, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
Do you belong to the Cirha? 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.