The Great House
The Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims, in its determination on the amaGcaleka, records that Gcaleka was the first-born son of the great house of Phalo, one of the kings of the amaXhosa, whose kingship Tshawe had established centuries earlier (see our Tshawe page). Phalo’s two best-known sons were Gcaleka, from the great house, and Rharhabe, from the right-hand house. By the commission’s account Gcaleka was the rightful heir.
The sources tell the split differently. The commission says only that Phalo gave Rharhabe authority to settle west of the Kei River, where his community, independent but subordinate to the king, became the amaRharhabe. Wikipedia’s article on the Gcaleka, citing oral accounts (Zenani, 2006) and Nomalanga Mkhize (2009), says Phalo married two princesses on the same day, that the Mpondo princess bore the heir and so became the great wife while the Thembu princess became the right-hand wife, and that Gcaleka, fearing the popular Rharhabe would displace him as heir, tried to overthrow Phalo and failed. Phalo then advised Rharhabe to leave. That article’s history section carries a tag saying it cites no sources.
The line of kings
The commission says Phalo died in 1775 and was succeeded by Gcaleka, who died in 1778 and was succeeded by his son Khawuta. Khawuta’s sons were Hintsa, from the great house, and Buru, from the right-hand house, and Hintsa was followed by Sarhili, Zwelidumile and Xolilizwe. Wikipedia gives Gcaleka’s reign as 1775 to 1792, which does not fit the commission’s 1778.
Wikipedia dates Hintsa to about 1780 to 12 May 1835 and says it gives his reign inconsistently, as 1820 to 1835 in one place and from 1804 in another. During the Sixth Frontier War (1834 to 1836) he was held captive by Sir Harry Smith and killed on 12 May 1835. The article says that the account of his death, which comes from Noël Mostert, cannot be fully trusted, because Premesh Lalu argues colonial archives shaped it. His son Sarili (Sarhili, called Kreli by colonial writers) ruled from 1835 to 1892 according to Wikipedia, and set up his Great Place at Hohita. In 1856 he accepted Nongqawuse’s prophecy and destroyed his own cattle and crops, and the famine that followed devastated the kingdom. He was briefly exiled beyond the Mbashe and allowed back in 1865. After the Fengu-Gcaleka War of 1877 to 1879 he went into exile in Pondoland and then Bomvanaland and died there in 1892.
Dual paramountcies in 1961
The commission records that Zwelidumile Sigcawu was king of the amaXhosa as a whole, and that the confusion began only when the homelands of Transkei and Ciskei were created. In 1961 Zwelidumile Sigcawu was appointed paramount chief of the amaGcaleka alone, in the Transkei, while Archie Velile Sandile, formerly chief of the amaNgqika (a subsection of the amaRharhabe, see our Ngqika page), was appointed paramount chief of the amaRharhabe in the Ciskei and made equal in status. The commission found that Sandile’s appointment was irregular because it effectively created a dual kingship.
What the commission decided
The commission found that the kingship of the amaXhosa exists, that it was established by Tshawe by assimilating, accommodating and merging various communities, and that since Tshawe it has passed from one generation to the next under Xhosa customary law. It concluded that the position of the late paramount chief of the amaGcaleka, Xolilizwe Sigcawu, “is that of king of amaXhosa as a whole”, and that the kingship resorts under the lineage of Gcaleka. It recorded that Xolilizwe’s heir apparent by the great house, Siseko, was deemed unfit to rule, so that Calvin Mpendulo Sigcawu, a son by another wife, was adopted into the great house and became successor in title. Wikipedia lists Zwelonke Sigcawu (2006 to 2019, who died in 2019) and then Ahlangene Sigcawu from 2020. Ahlangene is described by the commission as the son of Xolilizwe’s right-hand house. We have not verified the present succession.
Izithakazelo (iziduko) and totem
We have not found a published Gcaleka praise text or a confirmed totem, so we are not printing either. If you belong to the amaGcaleka and recite the praises, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims: Determination on the position of the paramount chief of amaGcaleka (pp. 143 to 155 of the PDF)
- Wikipedia: Gcaleka, Hintsa kaKhawuta (cites Mostert, Frontiers, 1992; Lalu, The Deaths of Hintsa, 2008; Peires, The House of Phalo, 1982) and Sarhili
The sources differ on several dates, as noted above. Peires’s The House of Phalo is the standard history and we have not read it first-hand.
Do you belong to the amaGcaleka? Tell us your iziduko, your praises and what elders say about the history, and we will add it, credited to you. Share what you know or WhatsApp 065 138 8213.