Mqikela
The Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims, in its determination on the position of the paramount chief of amaMpondo aseNyandeni, records that Faku fathered, among others, Mqikela from the great house and Ndamase from the right-hand house, and that Mqikela was the rightful heir and successor-in-title to the kingship of the amaMpondo. It says Faku was the last principal leader to rule over a united amaMpondo and that the split came in the time of his two sons. See our Mpondo page for the Commission’s finding on the kingship as a whole.
Birth, rank and reign
South African History Online calls Mqikela “Chief Faku’s eldest son” and says he took over as paramount chief of the Pondos from his father in 1868, while Darren Reid’s page on his correspondence with the Aborigines’ Protection Society says he was born about 1841, was not Faku’s eldest son but was the traditional heir because his mother was the highest-ranked of Faku’s wives, and became chief of eastern Mpondoland in 1867. The two accounts differ on the order of the sons and on the first year of his reign (1867 or 1868). Reid says Faku divided Mpondoland into eastern and western districts to ease the conflict with Mqikela’s elder brother, with Mqikela taking the east.
The 1878 split
The Commission says Mqikela did not co-operate with the colonialists, so that Nqwiliso, the son and successor of Ndamase, was elevated to paramount chief in 1878, dividing Pondoland into Eastern and Western Pondoland and curtailing Mqikela’s powers. South African History Online gives a reason: that Mqikela supported the Griquas of Kokstad in their 1878 revolt against the Cape government, after which his recognition as paramount chief was withdrawn. It then says the country was split into Eastern Pondoland (Qawukeni) under Mqikela and Western Pondoland (Nyandeni) under his half-brother Victor Poto Ndamase; the Commission instead names Nqwiliso as the first western paramount chief, so the two disagree on who that was. The Commission finds the elevation of Nqwiliso contrary to Mpondo custom, because a son of the great house is senior to a son of the right-hand house. See also Kok.
Letters and annexation
Reid’s page says Mqikela wished to send a deputation to England to protest the Cape’s annexation of Xesibeland and Port St Johns after 1878, that his Methodist agents refused in 1880 to send letters criticising Bartle Frere’s confederation scheme, so he used traders and lawyers (H. W. Welborne, then Hamilton MacNicholas), and that the historian William Beinart argues these agents had economic interests in keeping Mpondoland out of colonial rule, a risk Reid acknowledges but weighs and judges the letters reasonably reliable. It lists letters of 1 August 1883, 8 February 1884 and 12 July 1884. Wikipedia’s article on Xesibeland says armed Mpondo invaded Xesibeland on 20 October 1886, after it was annexed, naming the Mpondo leader as “Umquieka”; see Xesibe.
Death and succession
South African History Online says Mqikela died on 28 October 1887 at Qawukeni, near Palmerton, and was succeeded by his son Sigcawu (Sigcau). It cites the Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa, an Africa Media Online piece on the 130th anniversary of his death, and Stapleton’s 2001 book on Faku.
What we have not read
We have not read Stapleton, Beinart, or the APS letters themselves, and we could not open a Wikipedia article on Mqikela (404). We found no Mpondo royal-house account on a page we could open. The Commission’s determination concerns the western paramountcy, so it describes Mqikela only through that dispute.
Izithakazelo and totem
We found no recorded praises or totem for Mqikela, so we are printing none. If you belong to the Mpondo royal house and recite his izibongo, 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 amaMpondo aseNyandeni
- South African History Online: Chief Mqikela dies (28 October 1887)
- Darren Reid: Mqikela’s correspondence (Letters to the Aborigines Protection Society, 2021)
- Wikipedia: Xesibeland
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