Ncapayi
Ncapayi (also Ncapai and Ncaphayi) was a son of Madzikane and, according to Wikipedia, the second son, crowned after Madzikane’s death. The Wikipedia article on Madzikane says he ruled from 1836 to 1846 and lived at the Mpoza Great Place, with a residence at Lutateni, and describes him as a diplomat and a “fierce freebooter”, citing Soga. It gives conflicting dates for his death: 1846 in its infobox and one passage, and March 1844 in its text; the Bhaca article places the fatal raid on the Mpondo in 1845. We cannot tell you which is right. See Bhaca.
Family
The Madzikane article says his senior wife was Queen Makhohlisa, mother of Diko and Sogoni, and names other sons, Makaula and Dabula. The Bhaca article adds Mpongoma and says the ruling line split after his death, with a great-house branch under Mdutyana returning to Mzimkhulu and his son Diko succeeding him; it calls Mdutyana’s line the “great house”, while the Madzikane article says Ncapai was meant to share the throne with Sonyangwe’s heir. We have not resolved how those statements fit together.
Wars
- Zulu attack. Wikipedia credits him with defeating a Zulu invasion at the Ntsizwa mountains, which it says kept the Bhaca independent. South African History Online, in its article on the Mfecane, says only that the Qwabe leader Nqetu, who had fled to Pondoland, was killed by Ncapayi.
- Thembu and Mpondo. The Bhaca article says he raided Thembuland and, citing Bryant, that the raid led to the death of the Thembu king Ngubengcuka; it also says Madzikane advised him to serve as a tributary king under Faku, that the two later fell out, and that he was killed on Faku’s order after a raid on the Mpondo. Wikipedia’s Madzikane article says Faku’s counterattack drove the Bhaca onto a ridge, where Ncapai was wounded and fell from the cliff before being killed on Faku’s order. We have not checked Bryant, and the Thembu date (the Commission, on our Thembu page, gives his reign as 1800 to 1832) does not obviously fit a Bhaca raid led by Ncapayi, so please treat this claim with care.
- 1840 Boer raid. South African History Online says the Natalians raided Ncaphayi in 1840, seizing 3,000 cattle and abducting seventeen children as apprentices; see Bhaca.
What we have not read
Both Wikipedia articles are tagged as needing citations and the Bhaca one carries a notice about possible machine-written text, and they rest on Soga (1878), Bryant (1929), Hammond-Tooke and a 1988 work on succession disputes by A. M. Makaula, none of which we have read. We could not open the Rhodes University thesis on Bhaca political history. We have found no account by a Bhaca author and no praise text.
Izithakazelo and totem
We are printing no praises or totem for Ncapayi because none has been confirmed. If you are Bhaca and recite his praises, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- Wikipedia: Madzikane (includes the Ncapai narrative)
- Wikipedia: Bhaca people
- South African History Online: Political changes from 1750 to 1835
- South African History Online: The aftermath of the Battle of Blood River 1838
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