Cleansing ceremony at Ntaba’kaNdoda

The Amathole District Municipality (ADM) is intending to hold a cleansing ceremony of the Ntaba’kaNdoda Mountain on 26 February 2011.  This mountain has a huge significance for the isiXhosa people from both a historical and cultural point of view. 

The mountain near Debe Nek was named for a Khoi chief, Ndoda, who lived in the area during the 1700s.  Rharabe killed him in a battle for land, when Rharabe moved west over the Kei after a disagreement with his brother, Gxaleka.  Ndoda’s wife, Hoho, was given land by Rharabe, and the mountain behind Pirie Mission still bears her name.  During the Ciskei homeland period, Sebe had a large shrine built on Ntaba kaNdoda in 1981, intending it to be a monument to the Xhosa chiefs who had died in the struggle against the dispossession of their lands.  With the fall of Sebe and the removal of the ‘homeland’ status of the Ciskei, the building was abandoned and has since been vandalised.  During Sebe’s time, most of the Xhosa people did not support the homeland states, yet they were forced to attend ceremonies on this mountain otherwise they would be punished in one way or another, hence it became a curse for many Xhosa people and is the reason why the shrine has been vandalized and left derelict, and why it has now become necessary to hold a cleansing ceremony.  The cleansing ceremony is essential if the ADM is to make any further developments there as part of the Amathole Heritage Initiative (AHI) Programme.

There is more to the story.  Maqoma, born in 1798, was the eldest son of the Rharabe King, Ngqika, but of the Right Hand House, so not in direct line of succession.  As a young man he established his household in the Winterburg in the so-called ‘Neutral Territory’ in 1821.  He was strongly opposed to the extension of the colonial frontier and consistently and successfully raided cattle of the white settlers.  This brought him into conflict with the magistrates and in 1829 his homestead was captured, his cattle seized and he was forced to move east of the Kabusie River. King Ngqika died in 1829 and Maqoma became Regent as Sandile, son of the Great House, was still only a boy.  He fought resolutely in the 1834-35 frontier war and gained status as a powerful and capable leader of the Rharabe.  Sandile came of age in 1840 and Maqoma lost his position and this, together with the colonial incursions, made him very depressed, and he began to drink heavily.   He returned to his land in the Waterburg in 1848 and continued cattle raiding to great effect. He regained his old fire during the 1850-53 war and took part in the Cattle Killing.  For this he was exiled to Robben Island until 1869.  His freedom was short-lived and he was sent back in 1871, dying two years later. He was buried on the island.  His remains were disinterred in 1878 and reburied on Ntaba kaNdoda.