Tyali
Very little is available about Tyali (also spelled Tyhali or Thyali) in the sources we could read, and this page is short for that reason. Wikipedia’s articles on Maqoma and Hintsa name him as one of the Rharhabe chiefs in the Sixth Frontier War (1834 to 1836): the Maqoma article says he and Maqoma retreated to the Amatola mountains after defeats such as Trompetter’s Drift, and the Hintsa article says Maqoma, Tyali and Botumane led a large force into the colony in December 1834. The Wikipedia page we tried at the plain title “Tyali” does not exist (404).
The Amathole Museum account
An article by M. Hirst on Xhoxho, in the Amathole Museum’s newsletter Imvubu (2004), calls “chief Tyhali (d. 1842)” Xhoxho’s half-brother; it describes Xhoxho as a minor son of Ngqika but does not itself state who Tyhali’s father was, so we do not either, though it suggests he was also a son of Ngqika. It says Xhoxho was pasturing Tyhali’s cattle in the Mancazana valley, in the Ceded Territory between the Fish and Keiskamma rivers, where Xhosa settlement was barred under British treaties. It says a British patrol under Lieutenant William Sutton, from Fort Beaufort, was sent to expel Tyhali’s followers from a homestead between the Mancazana and Gaga rivers and to recover compensation for stolen horses, that on 10 December 1834 it burnt the huts and seized some of his oxen, and that a fight followed in which Xhoxho was wounded, which the article says provoked the “War of Hintsa” (1834 to 1835). It says Tyhali died in May 1842, that Xhoxho then became regent of the Ngcangatelo for Tyhali’s minor sons Oba and Feni, and that by September 1845 Sandile and Maqoma had removed Xhoxho and Tyhali’s widows took over the regency. See also Sandile.
What we have not found
We found no account of how or where Tyali died, and a search suggestion that he died on Robben Island is not supported by anything we read, so we do not say it. We have not read Peires’s The House of Phalo, which the Museum article cites, or Stapleton’s biography of Maqoma, and we found no Ngcangatelo account of their own history. We found no praises or totem.
Izithakazelo and totem
We are printing none because none has been confirmed. If you belong to the Ngcangatelo or to Tyali’s family and want its history recorded here, with your permission and credited to you, we would like to hear from you.
Sources and further reading
- M. Hirst, Amathole Museum: Xhoxho (Imvubu 16:1, 2004)
- Wikipedia: Maqoma
- Wikipedia: Hintsa kaKhawuta
Do you belong to Tyali’s family or the Ngcangatelo? Tell us the history you know and we will add it, credited to you. Share what you know or WhatsApp 065 138 8213.