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5 In late August 1852, just after a final abortive attempt to launch a raid on Gcalekaland, Faku, now about seventy-two years old, became extremely ill. Many people did not expect him to survive. The Reverend Jenkins of the Palmerton mission believed that Faku’s illness would prompt a wave of witchcraft accusations and executions as various factions within the great place battled for political control. However, the missionary visited the nearby Mpondo capital of Qawukeni in early September where an ailing Faku promised “that no man should be put to death on his account.” Within a week the paramount was convalescent and not one witchcraft accusation had taken place. William Shaw, the Wesleyan director based in the Cape Colony, was alarmed by a rumour that Faku had died, but upon hearing that this report was false he wrote, “I hope his [Faku’s] life may be spared some time longer.”1 Sometime in October 1852, as Faku was recovering from his illness, a group of Mpondo fighters attacked a Bhaca community. Although the exact objective of the raid is unknown, there had been hostility between the Bhaca and the Mpondo Kingdom for some time and most of these conflicts centred around accusations of stock theft. On this occasion, two Englishmen who were working at the Shawbury mission, one unidentified man and another named Hancock, led a group of “school people” to help defend the Bhaca, even though they were not living under the protection of the station. Encountering unexpected firepower from the Shawbury contingent, the Mpondo raiding party withdrew with heavy casualties. The two Englishmen later claimed “that they each shot 30 Pondos!” Subsequently, M.B. Shaw, the new British Resident in the area, complained to the Wesleyans, his father’s subordinates, that he did not approve of their people interfering in “tribal disputes.” However, he betrayed his real feelings by saying that “These wars between tribes are Direct Colonial Intrusion in Faku’s Final Years (1852-67) Notes to chapter 5 are on pp. 183–85. 95 96 / Faku: Rulership and Colonialism in the Mpondo Kingdom much to be regretted, but politically they have their advantage, as their tribal disunion will prevent the formation of a combined confederacy which might ultimately prove dangerous to British interests.”2 When the British had finally suppressed the Rharhabe rebellion in British Kaffraria in February 1853, Faku, through Jenkins, sent a large elephant’s tusk to Governor Cathcart “as a token of his continued peace and friendship with the Government.” Furthermore, the Mpondo king asked why he had not received his annual subsidy, as stipulated in the 1844 treaty, for the previous two years. The confusion of war probably prevented the colonial government from honouring its commitment, usually paid in the form of trade goods. While Cathcart sent the Mpondo ruler a saddle and bridle as a gift, the subsidy payment continued to be delayed for another year because of bureaucratic confusion. Faku, who had always been heavily involved in local trade, became particularly annoyed about this issue.3 By the end of 1851, the Natal administration had decided to make space for more white settlers by expelling Africans in their area southwest into the strip of land between the Mzimkhulu and Mtamvuna rivers that had been ceded to them by Faku. This would create an overcrowded reservoir of migrant labour for nearby settler farms. However, Theophilus Shepstone, who eventually became Natal’s Secretary for Native Affairs in 1853, believed that such a concentrated population of Africans had to be sandwiched between two white settlements in order to avoid stock theft and rebellion. Therefore, Shepstone planned to create a new settler colony with a chain of military posts between the Mtamvuna and Mtata rivers with the mouth of the Mzimvubu, Port St. John’s, as its primary outlet for seagoing trade. This was the heartland of Faku’s kingdom, but Shepstone foresaw no difficulty in convincing the Mpondo to move to the Mzimkhulu River, which would be within the new African labour reserve. Referring to the Mpondo ruler’s land rights as outlined in the 1844 treaty, Shepstone, as early as 1851, had reported that: I apprehend that the political circumstances which rendered desirable the acknowledgement of his supremacy over so large a tract . . . have ceased to have any weight. His relinquishing it would in reality be surrendering a right acknowledged only by us, and never asserted by himself. There is, however, space sufficient to provide abundantly for Faku . . . as well...

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