{{short description|Xhosa Tribe}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2022}} {{Infobox ethnic group | group = Fengu People <br> AmaMfengu | native_name = | image = [[File:Captain_Veldtman_Bikitsha_-_Cape_Colony_Military_leader.jpg]] | image_caption = Photograph of Fengu military leader Veldtman Bikitsha 1891 | pop = 1 million | regions = {{flagcountry|South Africa}} <br> {{flagcountry|Zimbabwe}} | region1 = | pop1 = | ref1 = | languages = [[Xhosa language|IsiXhosa]], formerly Old Mfengu ([[Guthrie code]] S401) | religions = Christian | related = [[Xhosa people|amaXhosa]]{{·}}}} {{Infobox NC name|uMfengu|AmaMFengu|IsiXhosa|KwaMfengu}} The '''Fengu''' or '''''amaMfengu''''' (in the [[Xhosa language]] ''Mfengu'', plural ''amafengu'') are a group of clans whose ancestors were refugees that fled from the [[Mfecane]] in the early-mid 19th century to seek land and protection from the Xhosa. These refugees were assimilated into the Xhosa nation and were officially recognized by the then king, [[Hintsa kaKhawuta|Hintsa]].<ref name="Mtumane2017">{{cite journal|last1=Mtumane|first1=Zilibele|title=The Practice of Ubuntu with regard to amaMfengu among amaXhosa as Depicted in S. E. K. Mqhayi's Ityala Lamawele|journal=International Journal of African Renaissance Studies - Multi-, Inter- and Transdisciplinarity|volume=12|issue=2|year=2017|pages=68–80|issn=1818-6874|doi=10.1080/18186874.2017.1392146|s2cid=149374813}}</ref>
The word Fengu comes from the old Xhosa word which is "ukumfenguza" which in the old Xhosa dialect meant to wander.
The Fengu people are a confederation of clans from the former British colony of Natal;<ref>{{cite web | title=Natal Colony | url=https://www.britishempire.co.uk/maproom/natal.htm }}</ref> these clans include Miya, Ndlangisa, Gatyeni, Bhele, Tolo and Tshezi clans.
This meant after their settlement in the Cape, they were lawfully recognized as British since by the principles of English common law or natural law, Freeholds cannot be granted outside lawful descent; the land devolves by heirship, binding ancestry and lawful rights together.<ref>https://www.ancestors.co.za/database/ecbaptisms-results.php?term=M&sqry=A</ref>
Hence the colonial records and deeds majority of the time show their clan names are recorded in their English form, i.e., Myer would have been the anglicized Miya and its other English variants as supported by church records and land deeds. Some like Stewart were not only anglicized forms but translated directly to Sonkosi, Knox to Nokwe, Marsh to Mahashe, Gwenwynwyn to Gcwanini, Rheade to Rhadebe and others.<ref>{{cite web | title=Ancestors.co.za - Eastern Cape Baptisms | url=https://www.ancestors.co.za/database/ecbaptisms-results.php?term=stewart&sqry= }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Myer Name Meaning, Family History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms, german | date=January 2000 | url=https://www.houseofnames.com/myer-family-crest/german }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=The Colonial Office Archives | Ancestors Research South Africa | date=31 August 2022 | url=https://www.ancestors.co.za/the-colonial-office-archives/#:~:text=The%20Colonial%20Office%20Archives%20in,you%20can%20contact%20me%20here.&text=CO%208/552%2D8/,district%20(1806%2D1872).&text=CO%206/137%2D6/,Office%20(1806%2D1898).&text=CO%206/156%20comprises%20queries,persons%20(1867%2D1899).&text=CO%206/128%20%E2%80%93%206/,criminals%20(1893%2D1903) }}</ref>
[[File:John Jabavu and his family. Cape Colony circa.1800s.jpg|thumb|Fengu settlers circa.1835]]
Their arrival in the British Cape colony coincided with the settlement of the 1820 British settlers.<ref>{{cite web | title=2020-05 - the arrival of British settlers 200 years ago continues to cast a shadow over South Africa - Wits University | url=https://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/opinion/2020/2020-05/the-arrival-of-british-settlers-200-years-ago-continues-to-cast-a-shadow-over-south-africa.html }}</ref> They were settled on the frontier as a buffer between the Cape colony and the Xhosa which also meant they coincidentally settled the same territory as the 1820 settlers from Wales, England, Scotland and Ireland.<ref>{{cite web | title=The Story of the 1820 Settlers - 1820 Settlers South Africa - Correspondence | url=https://www.eggsa.org/1820-settlers/index.php/articles-2/1820-history }}</ref> Because they were amongst the 1835 settlers from the [[British Isles]], it is very likely some were settled by the colonial British American [[Jacob Glen Cuyler]]. <ref>Port Elizabeth of Yore: Captain Jacob Glen Cuyler - A Man of Many Parts - The Casual Observer https://thecasualobserver.co.za/port-elizabeth-yore-captain-jacob-glen-cuyler/</ref>
During the [[Xhosa Wars|6th Frontier War]], they were promised independence from the oppressive Xhosa government by the Cape Colony and it was proposed under the crown's prerogative that they would be granted their own fief which was to be called [[Fingoland]], the southwestern portion of [[Kaffraria|Eastern Xhosaland]], in the [[Eastern Cape]] of South Africa.<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Fingo|volume=10|page=376}}</ref>
The Fengu were then granted land under the Cape government and enrolled on Cape British baptismal and land grant records. These land grants were [[freehold estates]]<ref>{{cite book | last1=Sundkler | first1=Bengt | last2=Steed | first2=Christopher | title=A History of the Church in Africa | date=4 May 2000 | publisher=Cambridge University Press | isbn=978-0-521-58342-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y1p61xARWY4C&q=freehold }}</ref> hence the Fengu were fully incorporated into the British Cape colony as British subjects by land grants and official records. They then had full legal standing within the Cape franchise, giving them full voting rights by the Crown's royal prerogative.<ref>{{cite web | title=Ancestors.co.za - Birth Records | url=https://www.ancestors.co.za/database/birthrecords-results.php?term=S&sqry=A }}</ref>
Leaders such as James Stewart<ref>{{cite web | title=Reverend Dr James Stewart | the Journalist | url=https://www.thejournalist.org.za/pioneers/reverend-dr-james-stewart/ }}</ref> were primary supporters of the Fengu community and helped raise funds to rebuild Fengu society and identity which had been destroyed prior.<ref>{{cite book | last1=Sundkler | first1=Bengt | last2=Steed | first2=Christopher | title=A History of the Church in Africa | date=4 May 2000 | publisher=Cambridge University Press | isbn=978-0-521-58342-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y1p61xARWY4C&q=mfengu }}</ref>
==History==
===Formation and early history=== The name ''amaMfengu'' does translate as "wanderers" as many believe and the Mfengu people were formed from the clans in the colony of Natalia that were broken up and dispersed by [[Shaka]] and his Zulu armies in the [[Mfecane]] wars.
Most of them fled westwards and settled amongst the [[Xhosa people|Xhosa]]. After some years of oppression by the Gcaleka [[Xhosa people|Xhosa]] (who called the Fengu people their "dogs"){{Citation needed|reason=contradictory to the citation at the end of the sentence||date=December 2018}}in the 1820s, they formed an alliance with the Cape government and in 1835 Sir [[Benjamin d'Urban]] invited 17,000 to settle on the banks of the [[Fish River, Eastern Cape|Great Fish River]] in the region that later became known as the [[Ciskei]].<ref>[http://countrystudies.us/south-africa/46.htm "Nguni"], US Library of Congress</ref> Some scholars, including Timothy Stapleton and Alan Webster, argue that the traditional narrative of the Fengu people as refugees of the Mfecane is in fact a lie constructed by colonial missionaries and administrators. They question the existence of the Fengu people as a distinct group prior to colonial contact, instead positing that the term was coined by the British government in the [[Cape Colony]] to describe a collection of Xhosa defectors, migrant laborers, and labor captives.<ref>Stapleton, Timothy, "The Expansion of a Pseudo-Ethnicity in the Eastern Cape: Reconsidering the Fingo "Exodus"of 1865", ''The International Journal of African Historical Studies'', Vol. 29, No. 2 (1996) {{JSTOR|220517}}</ref>
This is largely in part because the Fengu people have no recorded common language, names, chiefs or culture outside their adopted Xhosa customs and traditions. Their only language in common is English as they were by royal prerogative under the king's English common law. Their culture was in all aspects British outside of the Xhosa social influences due to proximity. This is how British culture came to be incorporated into Xhosa cultural identity, particularly their Scottish tartan fabrics, i.e., ixakatho,<ref>https://pin.it/1ay9JxtQ1</ref> ibhatyi yamakrwala<ref>https://pin.it/5Fih2fFBh</ref> and others. This was brought in by the Fengu who in local social references were AmaNgesi or the English. This English or rather British identity was not just a social or administrative recognition for the Fengu, it was a common law status for Qualified subjects in English common law.
[[File:Mfengu soldier of Cape Colony - Fingo People.jpg|thumb|left|The Fengu people, known across southern Africa as skilled gunmen, were invaluable allies of the [[Cape Colony|Cape]] in its frontier wars.]]
===Early frontier wars (1835–56)=== They subsequently became notable service men of the [[Cape Colony]] in the [[Xhosa Wars|frontier wars]] against their former oppressors after their British status was officiated by the Crown. In this capacity, they won several victories against their Xhosa enemies (particularly the Gcaleka Xhosa), and through shrewd and successful management of regional trade, formed a developed and materially successful nation. In addition, many were granted farms and started businesses in the small towns that were springing up in that part of the Cape frontier.
===The Cattle-killing movement (1856–58)=== {{main|History of Cape Colony from 1806 to 1870#Xhosa cattle-killing movement and famine (1854-58)}} The Fengu people did not take part in the [[History of Cape Colony from 1806 to 1870#Xhosa cattle-killing movement and famine (1854-1858)|great cattle-killing]] in 1857, which devastated the [[Xhosa people]].
While the Xhosa slaughtered their own cattle and burnt their crops, many of the Fengu people instead bought the Xhosa cattle at very low prices, only to resell them at a profit during the subsequent famine. They also were recorded as producing large excesses of grain at this time for their starving neighbours. The famine induced by the cattle-killing effectively brought much of the armed resistance in the eastern Cape to an end.
===The Fengu-Gcaleka War (1877–79)=== Over a decade of relative peace and economic development, which peaked in the mid-1870s, was brought to an end by a series of devastating droughts across the Transkei, which began to place severe strain on intertribal relations. Their severity increased up until 1877, when the last major war that the Fengu people fought, the [[Xhosa Wars|Ninth Frontier War]], broke out after a bar fight between Fengu and Gcaleka guests, at a Fengu wedding. Many Fengu people were Cape citizens by this time, so the Cape Colony took a partisan view of the war, which brought it into conflict with the Gcaleka forces.<ref>J. Fage, R. Oliver: ''The Cambridge History of Africa'', Volume 6 (1870–1905). Cambridge University Press, 1985, p. 387.</ref><ref>{{cite thesis|url=http://eprints.ru.ac.za/1761/1/Spicer-MA-TR78-38.pdf |title=The War of Ngcayecibi 1877 - 8|first=Michael W. |last=Spicer |access-date=2013-03-28 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140312212856/http://eprints.ru.ac.za/1761/1/Spicer-MA-TR78-38.pdf |archive-date=12 March 2014 }}</ref><ref>C. Bundy: ''The Rise and Fall of South African Peasantry''. University of California Press, 1979, p. 83.</ref>
The Cape government appointed the Fengu Captain Bikitsha to co-lead the Cape's forces in the war. They inflicted a string of crushing defeats on the enemy and dispersed their armies in the space of only three weeks. The ingratitude of Cape Colony governor [[Henry Bartle Frere|Sir Henry Bartle Frere]], who promptly humiliated the Cape's Fengu allies by forcibly disarming them, caused the Fengu to begin to identify more with the Xhosa, partly also as a reaction to increasing persecution from the Colonial authorities.
===Transkei and Ciskei=== {{see|Ciskei|Transkei}} The Fengu lived in the [[Bantustan]]s of [[Transkei]] and [[Ciskei]], established by the [[Apartheid]] government. Ciskei was the scene of political rivalry between the [[Rharhabe]] and the Fengu as a result of the apartheid policy of "retribalisation", which resulted in resentment toward the historically better educated, and relatively economically advantaged Fengu, and this rivalry culminated in the election of [[Lennox Sebe]], a Rharhabe, who replaced Fengu leader [[Chief Justice Thandathu Jongilizwe Mabandla]] in 1973,<ref name="Vail1991">{{cite book|last=Vail|first=Leroy |title=The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X4VmAWdXPD0C&pg=PA398|year=1991|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-07420-0|page=398|chapter=Mfengu-Rharhabe Rivalry and the Rise of Lennox Sebe}}</ref> however Sebe subsequently abandoned his anti-Fengu rhetoric.<ref name="Vail1991" />{{rp|402}}
== Christianity in the Fengu community== [[File:Cape_Town_couples_dancing_-_Cape_Colony_1878_-_Cape_Archives.jpg |thumb|Fengu village in Cape Town in the 1870s]] Christianity played a major role in the survival of the endangered Fengu people after the [[Mfecane]] wars. After contact with the Gcaleka Xhosa, who were hostile towards them, the Fengu people found comfort in Rev. John Ayliff, the missionary at Butterworth who devoted himself to the refugees for the next 30 years. In 1835, John led 17 000 and 22 000 head of cattle to Peddie<ref name="SundklerSteed2000">{{cite book|last1=Sundkler|first1=Bengt |last2=Steed|first2=Christopher |title=A History of the Church in Africa|url={{google books|plainurl=yes|id=y1p61xARWY4C|keywords=Fingo}}|year=2000|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-58342-8}}</ref> On 14 May 1835, the Fengu people gathered under an old milkwood tree in the Peddie district, in the presence of Rev. John Ayliff, and swore an oath to obey the Crown, to accept Christianity, and to educate their children. This agreement became known as the 'Fingo-Oath'. Soon after accepting Christianity, the Fengu became the first people in South Africa to use ploughs, and also the first to plant wheat.<ref name="FingoHistorynewza">{{cite news|title= Fingo leaders gather at Peddie | publisher=South African History Online| url=http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/fingo-leaders-gather-peddie| access-date=27 June 2017}}</ref> A small group moved to Tsitsikamma and carried their Christian customs with them. The Fengu, who were most Wesleyans, soon moved to Grahamstown where they fought on the side of the British in the eighth frontier war of 1850 to 1853 and were rewarded with land in a freehold village known as Fingo in Grahamstown in 1855.<ref name="FingoHistorynew">{{cite news | last= J. Blumenfeld and M. Nuttall |title=Grahamstown's Fingo Village: From Poverty to Paradise? | publisher=Reality Publications, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa | url=http://disa.ukzn.ac.za/rejul727| access-date=19 June 2017}}</ref> The educated Fengu went as far as [[Port Elizabeth]], where they worked at the harbour and established urban communities in Cape Town, where they also continued practising as Christians. Since the day the 'Fingo-Oath' was sworn, 14 May has been celebrated as Fingo Emancipation Day and a ceremony held under the old milkwood tree where the oath was sworn.<ref name="FingoHistorynewza"/>
==Fengu people in Zimbabwe== After the occupation of Matebeleland in 1893, the Ndebele took up arms in an effort to re-establish the Ndebele State in 1896. [[Cecil John Rhodes]] brought a group of Fengu fighters (who had fought on the side of the British) and were known as "the Cape Boys" in 1896. After the war, Rhodes tried further to 'neutralise' the 'war-like' Ndebele people by inviting more Fengu people into Southern Rhodesia. "He promised the Fengus three 'reserves' on which they could settle with the proviso that each man would work for three months a year. After 36 months of labour, each one would be given an individual title".<ref name="Nyathi2008">{{cite book|last=Nyathi|first=Pathisa|title=Zimbabwe's Cultural Heritage|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_xw8AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT94|year=2008|publisher=amabooks|isbn=978-0-7974-4504-8|pages=94–}}</ref> More Fengu leaders moved to Southern Rhodesia as Wesleyan Methodists, Salvationists, Anglicans, Presbyterians and Lutherans. In 2000, the Mbembesi Fengu/Xhosa community celebrated their centenary in Zimbabwe.<ref name="Nyathi2008"/> The Fengu in Zimbabwe, who are Xhosa speakers, are the subject of the first ever PHD thesis written in Xhosa by Dr Hleze Kunju titled IsiXhosa ulwimi lwabantu abangesosininzi eZimbabwe: Ukuphila nokulondolozwa kwaso (Xhosa as a Minority Language in Zimbabwe: Survival and Maintenance)<ref name="Fingozimbo2">{{cite news|title= PhD in Xhosa a real milestone| publisher= Herald Live| url=http://www.heraldlive.co.za/news/2017/04/24/phd-xhosa-real-milestone/| access-date=27 June 2017}}</ref>
===Veldtman Bikitsha (1829–1912)=== For much of the 19th and early 20th century, the Fengu were led by Captain Veldtman Bikitsha. Initially a constable who was of great service to the Cape in the 8th Frontier War, he was later promoted and served as a de facto military leader of the Cape's Fengu commandos.
Prime Minister [[John Molteno]], who held a very high opinion of Bikitsha, appointed him as a leader of the Cape forces (together with Chief Magistrate Charles Griffith) in the 9th Frontier War in 1877, where he swiftly won a string of brilliant victories against the [[Gcaleka]]. Throughout the 9th Frontier war, Bikitsha and his location were a focal point for the Gcaleka armies attacks and came under immense military pressure.
His military genius in the frontier wars earned him considerable renown and he was widely acknowledged leader in the [[Cape Colony]]. His courage was also frequently referred to. He famously once jumped onto a wounded and charging lion, holding it by the tail, overpowered it and killed it. He was invited to London in 1889, where [[Queen Victoria]] requested to meet him to thank him for his services. He reputedly told her ''"We have never feared a white man, and we have never lifted our hand against any of your people."''
He founded the Transkei General Council, and served as a juror and commissioner for the Cape Colony in later life<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ancestry24.com/veldtman-bikitsha/ |title=Veldtman Bikitsha|work=ancestry24.com |access-date=2012-08-31 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121211010016/http://ancestry24.com/veldtman-bikitsha/ |archive-date=11 December 2012 }}</ref>
===John Tengo Jabavu (1859–1921)=== [[File:John Tengo Jabavu and his son Davidson Don Tengo, around 1903.jpg|thumb|[[John Tengo Jabavu]], an influential Fengu politician of the early 20th century, with his son Davidson Don Tengo, around 1903]] As Fengu history switched from military defense to political struggle, so the great Fengu politician and activist [[John Tengo Jabavu]] rose in prominence after Bikitsha's military leadership ended.
Jabavu edited the first newspapers to be written in the [[Xhosa language|Xhosa]] and from 1876 he edited ''[[Xhosa language newspapers#Isigidimi samaXhosa|Isigidimi samaXhosa]]'' ("The Xhosa Messenger"). From 1884 he edited ''[[Xhosa language newspapers#Imvo Zabantsundu|Imvo Zabantsundu]]'' ("Black Opinion"). He wrote on the threat of [[Afrikaner]] [[nationalism]], equal rights for South Africa's black population, and in support of [[women's rights]].
The rivalry between the Fengu and the Gcaleka Xhosa, which had previously broken out into war, declined during the era of Jabavu's leadership, as greater unity was encouraged. Nonetheless, some divisions remained. Jabavu's main political rival, [[Walter Rubusana]], was Xhosa. Rubusana's rise in the 1890s was through the new Gcaleka-dominated [[South African Native National Congress]] and their newspaper ''[[Xhosa language newspapers#Izwi Labantu|Izwi Labantu]]'' ("The Voice of the People") which was financed by [[Cecil Rhodes]]. The rise of Xhosa institutions meant that Jabavu and the Fengu were no longer in a position to provide the only leadership in the Cape's Black community.
Over the next few decades, divisions persisted between Jabavu's movement ''[[Imbumba]]'' ("The Union") and Rubusana's [[South African Native National Congress]]. However the rivalry was finally laid to rest and there was union under the newly named [[African National Congress]]. One of the early aims of this movement was finally to lay to rest "the aberrations of the Xhosa-Fingo feud."<ref>M.Plaut: ''Promise and Despair: The First Struggle for a Non-racial South Africa''. Jacana, Cape Town. 2016. {{ISBN|978-1-4314-2375-0}}. p. 24.</ref><ref>"The Arrival of the Mfengu in the Eastern Cape", ''Illustrated History of South Africa.'' The Reader's Digest Association South Africa (Pty) Ltd, 1992, p. 107. {{ISBN|0-947008-90-X}}.</ref>
===British annexation=== British Kaffraria had been annexed to the Cape Colony in 1866. Barring the brief revolt in 1877 and 1878, when the Gcaleka turned upon their Fengu neighbours, the British annexation of land east of the Kei River proceeded fitfully, but generally unimpeded. In September 1879 this was followed by Idutywa Reserve and Fenguland, and Gcalekaland in 1885. It is assumed that the restructuring of these territories into the divisions of Butterworth, Idutywa, Centani, Nqamakwe, Tsomo and Willowvale dates from these times.
===Social change and adaptability=== Originally farmers, the Fengu people had quickly built themselves schools, created and edited their own newspapers, and translated international literature into their language. The reason that the Fengu people were able to adapt so effectively to changing circumstances (like the coming of capitalism and urbanisation) was because they lacked a fixed tribal social-structure and hierarchy (having presumably lost it in their earlier flight from the Zulu). This state of social change and flexibility allowed them to quickly adjust to the European expansion, learn and adapt new techniques, and take advantage of the upheavals that followed. Other tribes were often suspicious of outside ideas and consequently resisted any change to meet the colonial threat. The Fengu had no paramount-chief as other tribes did, but the Cape Commander, Veldman Bikitsha, was a Fengu and held authority over the Fengu's military capacity.
Many Fengu have also subsequently intermarried with other ethnic groups, particularly with the Xhosa and Zulu, while some still live in Zimbabwe.
==Territory== [[File:Fingoland - Eastern Cape Map - 1911.png|thumb|right|Map of Fingoland (highlighted), and surrounding regions of the Eastern Cape Frontier. 1911.]] The region that was later known as the [[Transkei]] was originally divided into territories known as the Idutywa Reserve, [[Fingoland]] and Galekaland (Gcalekaland). Fingoland lay the borderlands in the far south of the Transkei, just north of the [[Kei River]].
The dominant pretense is that following their annexation by the [[British Empire|British]], they were restructured into the divisions of Butterworth, Tsomo and Ngqamakwe for Fingoland; Centani and Willowvale for Galekaland; and Idutywa for the Idutywa Reserve.
==Present-day South Africa == Today virtually all the Fengu people have intermarried with other ethnic groups particularly with the Xhosa and Zulu. Many are now often considered – especially by outsiders – to be ethnically [[Xhosa people|Xhosa]] and others [[Zulu people|Zulu]], because of their common language and some similar customs. A considerable number have a mixed racial background, especially in and around the Cape provinces.
==See also== * [[Sandile kaNgqika]] * [[Xhosa clan names]] * [[Xhosa Wars]] * [[Fingoland]] * [[Fingo Festival]]
==References== {{reflist|30em}} {{commons category|Mfengu people}} {{Authority control}}
[[Category:Xhosa]] [[Category:Ethnic groups in South Africa]] [[Category:Ethnic groups in Zimbabwe]]