Nqika in the sources
Nqika (more often written Ngqika) is the name of one of the two great branches of the Xhosa, the amaNgqika, whose royal line descends from Rharhabe; this is a pointer page.
What the sources say
Soga. He writes of the splitting of the Xhosa tribe into “its two great branches, the Ama-Gcaleka and the Ama-Nqika or Rarabe” (p. 289).
Where to read more. See our fuller Rharhabe page.
Cautions
This page is a pointer only: whether a family called Nqika descends from the amaNgqika royal line cannot be settled from these sources. Soga was a Xhosa-born mission doctor and historian who wrote in 1930 from informants and older colonial histories; his tables are partly garbled in the machine-read text. We searched the full text of Bryant (1929), Soga (1930) and Bonner (1983) under the spellings given here and under likely variants; absence from these books says nothing about whether the family is old or important, only that these three sources are silent.
Izithakazelo and totem
If your family belongs to the amaNgqika, we would like to record your praises and history, credited to you.
Sources and further reading
Do you belong to the Nqika? 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.