{{Short description|Xhosa indigenous doctor}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = | name = Makhanda | honorific_suffix = | image = Makhanda.jpg | alt = | caption = Image of Chief Makhanda. Date of photo: May 16, 2016. Content provider: Thembani Onceya. | birth_name = | birth_date = ~1780 | birth_place = Uitenhage, Xhosa Kingdom | death_date = {{Death date|df=yes|1820|12|25}} | death_place = | other_names = | occupation = War-doctor Prophet | spouse = }} '''Makhanda''', also spelled '''Makana'''<!--Do not use multiple spellings in article; looks like errors --> and also known as ''Nxele'' ("the left-handed"), ({{circa|1780}} &ndash; 25 December 1820<ref name="anc-arch">{{cite web|url=http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/people/makana.html |title=ANC.org.za - Makana |access-date=2008-10-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080602210240/http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/people/makana.html |archive-date=June 2, 2008 }}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=May 2024}}{{efn|Other sources date his death 9 August 1820{{sfn|Wells|2007}}}}) was a Xhosa indigenous doctor. He served as a top advisor to Chief Ndlambe. During the Xhosa Wars, on 22 April 1819, he initiated an abortive assault on the town previously known as Grahamstown, in what was then the Cape Colony.

He was imprisoned on Robben Island. On 25 December 1820, Makhanda attempted to escape with thirty other prisoners, but drowned. Only four of the escapees survived the crossing.

==Life==

Makhanda was born near the coast around 1780 in the Uitenhage area. His father was a Xhosa named ''Gwala'' of the Cwerha clan and his mother was a Khoikhoi of the Gqunukhwebe clan. After Makhanda's father died when he was a young boy, he was brought up by his mother strongly influenced by her village's Khoi traditions. His mother was a spiritual diviner and medicine woman. Makhanda was later recognised as an ‘'inyanga,'’ which seemed rooted in the early guidance of his mother and her traditions. The Xhosa also particularly held the Khoikhoi and San spiritual guides in high esteem. His mother took him and his siblings to the Great Fish River Valley, where they lived with his foster father Balala.

It is unclear when Makhanda encountered Christianity. Missionary Dr James van der Kemp had established a mission station in Bethelsdorp in 1799, and Makhanda may have met him. Makhanda advocated peace and denounced the use of magic after converting to Christianity.<ref name="Makana1">{{cite web| title= The other Mandela of 200 Years Ago-Makana| date= 21 July 2017| publisher= Camissa People| url=https://camissapeople.wordpress.com/2017/07/21/the-other-nelson-mandela-of-200-years-ago-makana/| access-date=16 August 2017}}</ref>

During his days as an itinerant preacher, he was attacked by a gang of detractors. He was rescued by Qalanga, a councillor of Chief Ndlambe.<ref name="Makana1"/> Qalanga introduced Makhanda to the royal chief of the Rharhabe. Around 1812 Chief Ndlambe appointed Makhanda as an advisor and military doctor. As a royal appointee, Makhanda had discussions with the Rev. Vanderlingen, the chaplain at Grahamstown, and with missionary John Read, about theology and cosmology. During this period, Makhanda slowly increased his following and influence among the Xhosa. Up to 1816, he viewed missionaries as coworkers in the same cause. Missionary Read described Makhanda as “a stout and handsome man, who commands respect.”<ref name="Makana1"/>

In 1816, Makhanda's attitude towards missionaries changed. Having grown up in areas with Afrikaner farmers, he had firsthand knowledge of their mistreatment of khoikhoi people. To Makhanda, Christianity represented European culture. Makhanda and all of the amaXhosa were opposed to the encroachment of European settlers in the region, which had begun when Afrikaner ''trekboers'' from the Cape Colony started migrating into their lands, and culminated in the expulsion of 20,000 Xhosa from the Zuurveld in 1812.<ref name="Makana1"/> Makhanda viewed the emerging conflict between European and African world views as a contest between ''Thixo'', the god of the whites, and Mdalidiphu (creator of the deep), the god of the Xhosas. He began to preach a fusion of these religions to reconcile them, leaning toward Xhosa beliefs.<ref name="Makana2">{{cite web| title=Dictionary of African Christian Biography| publisher=Makhanda (Nxele)| url=http://www.dacb.org/stories/southafrica/makhanda.html/| access-date=16 August 2017| archive-date=28 July 2017| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170728174212/http://www.dacb.org/stories/southafrica/makhanda.html| url-status=dead}}</ref>

== Battle of Grahamstown ==

In 1818 at the Battle of Amalinde, Makhanda fought alongside a combined force of the Xhosa against Chief Ngqika, who was considered to be selling out his people in return for personal gain as an ally of the British Cape Colony.{{citation needed|date=April 2021}}

When a British-led force commanded by Colonel Thomas Brereton seized 23,000 head of stolen cattle from Ndlambe's people, Makhanda urged all the Xhosa to unite to try to drive British forces out of the land once and for all. Makhanda advised Ndlambe that the gods would be on their side if they chose to attack the British garrison in the settlement of Grahamstown, and promised that the British "bullets would turn to water".<ref name="saho">[http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/chronology/thisday/1819-04-22.html 22 April 1819: The fifth Frontier War: Sangoma Makana attacks Grahamstown under the patronage of Xhosa Chief Ndlambe, and is defeated - South African History Online]</ref>

Ndlambe took Makana's advice, and on 22 April 1819 Makana led a raid on Grahamstown in broad daylight with a force of about 6,000 men (some sources say 10,000 men), all under the overall command of Ndlambe's son Mdushane. They were accompanied by women and children, prepared to occupy Grahamstown after the battle. The British garrison of approximately 350 troops, along with a Khoikhoi group led by Jan Boesak<ref name="saho" /> was able to repulse the attack.

==Death and legacy==

Defeated by superior British firepower and poor tactics{{citation needed|date=March 2024}} by the amaNdlambe leadership, Makhanda surrendered. The British colonial government imprisoned him on Robben Island, but treated him with great respect, giving him private accommodation, food and furniture.

On 25 December 1820, Makhanda attempted to escape with thirty other prisoners, but drowned. Only four of the escapees survived the crossing.<ref name="anc-arch" /> Since he had promised his people he would never abandon them, they continued to hope for his return for another 50 years before funeral rites were observed.{{citation needed|date=April 2021}}

Makhanda is regarded as one of the first Africans to attempt a cultural synthesis of African and European beliefs.<ref name="Makana1" /> ''Dawn'', the monthly journal of the ''uMkhonto we Sizwe'', credited his actions with having inspired the multiculturalism of the African National Congress (ANC) upon its founding.<ref name="anc-arch" /> Anti-apartheid political prisoners imprisoned on Robben Island, including Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, later petitioned for the renaming of the island after Makana.

*The Makana Local Municipality was named after him.<ref>[http://www.salanguages.com/munnames.htm South African Languages - Place names]</ref> *Makhanda, Eastern Cape, previously known as Grahamstown, was named after him in 2018.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/eastern-cape/heres-why-grahamstown-has-been-renamed-makhanda-17334278|title=Here's why Grahamstown has been renamed Makhanda|work=IOL|access-date=2018-12-05|language=en}}</ref> *Makana F.A., a sporting body formed by political prisoners on Robben Island during the apartheid years, was named after him.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/06/sports/soccer/06robben.html Origins of Tournament in an Infamous Prison — New York Times, July 5 2010]</ref> *The 1834 anonymous novel ''Makanna'' is inspired by him.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Shaw |first=Dan |title=''Makanna, or, the Land of the Savage'': Makhanda ka Nxele in English literature |journal=English Studies in Africa |volume=63 |issue=2 |date=2020 |pages=112–122 |doi=10.1080/00138398.2020.1852700|s2cid=231588680 }}</ref>

== South African Ship == {{Main|SAS Makhanda}} * The ''SAS Makhanda'' was named after him.

== Notes == {{notelist}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Sources== {{refbegin}}

* {{cite book|last=Wells|first=Julia C. |title=The Return of Makhanda: Exploring the Legend|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gC-BMAEACAAJ|year=2012|publisher=University of KwaZulu-Natal Press|isbn=978-1-86914-238-4}} * {{cite book|last=Wells|first=Julia C. |title=Rebellion and Uproar: Makhanda and the Great Escape from Robben Island, 1820|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x7uFn2wQ5LoC|year=2007|publisher=University of South Africa Press|isbn=978-1-86888-368-4}} * {{cite book|last1=Pudi|first1=Ranko |last2=Satyo|first2=Sizwe |title=The illustrated life of Makhanda|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gw0vAQAAIAAJ|year=1984|publisher=Skotaville Publishers|isbn=978-0-947009-04-5}} * {{cite book|last=Philip|first=John |author-link=John Philip (missionary)|title=Researches in South Africa: Illustrating the Civil, Moral, and Religious Condition of the Native Tribes: Including Journals of the Author's Travels in the Interior|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.52928|year=1828|publisher=J. Duncan}} Irwin Pat Year (2019) The Battle of Graham's Town, 22 April 1819 [SA] Military History Journal 18(3)112-117 December SA ISSN 0026-4016

{{refend}}

== External links == *[http://www.makana.gov.za/ Makana Local Municipality] * [https://camissapeople.wordpress.com/2017/07/21/the-other-nelson-mandela-of-200-years-ago-makana/ The Other Nelson Mandela of 200 Years Ago- Makana]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Makana}} Category:1780s births Category:Date of birth uncertain Category:1820 deaths Category:Xhosa people Category:African warriors Category:Prophets Category:Deaths by drowning in South Africa Category:African resistance to colonialism Category:Prisoners who died in British detention