Nqarhwane in the sources
The amaNqarwane are listed by Soga as one of the clans of Khoikhoi (Hottentot) origin living among the Xhosa, a minor branch of the Gqunukwebe, with no place in the Xhosa royal genealogy. The Xhosa regard them as of alien origin.
What the sources say
Soga’s statement. Soga writes that only several clans of the so-called Xhosa “bear distinct traces of Hottentot blood”, the Gqunukwebe, the Sukwini and “the minor branch of the Gqunukwebes, the Ama-Nqarwane”, but that none of them has any place in the genealogy of the Xhosa; they are “regarded by the Xosas as of alien origin, not of true Ama-Xosa stock” (p. 94). He rejects the idea that the Xhosa absorbed whole Khoikhoi communities by capturing women (p. 94).
Elsewhere. In the chapter on Xhosa clans, Soga names Nqarwane and Sukwini as among the clans whose place cannot be fixed accurately because they cannot trace their genealogy, the last two “mainly of Hottentot origin”, and lists “Clans of Hottentot Origin: Ama-Gqunukwebe, Sukwini, Nqarwane” in his table (pp. 280 to 282).
Cautions
Soga was writing in 1930 and uses the period term “Hottentot” for the Khoikhoi, which we do not repeat. His account of the Nqarwane is two sentences and one table line; we found no chief, genealogy or praises. The origin he reports is the Xhosa view of these clans and not an independent finding. 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 Nqarwane praise poem or totem. If you belong to the amaNqarwane 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 Nqarhwane? 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.