Faku: Rulership and Colonialism in the Mpondo Kingdom (c. 1780-1867)

Introduction

F rom roughly 1815 to 1867, Faku was ruler of the Mpondo Kingdom, which was located in what is now the northeast section of the Eastern Cape. After his father was killed in a campaign against the neighbouring Bomvana, Faku inherited power in a period of intense raiding , migration and state formation, the causes of which have stimulated an almost equally intense debate among historians. In order to survive the challenges of the early nineteenth century, Faku transformed the Mpondo polity from a loosely organized constellation of tributary groups into a more centralized and populous state with effective military capabilities and a prosperous agricultural foundation. Unlike most portrayals of the Mpondo in this period, they were not harried victims of the Zulu but a fast-growing and sometimes predatory regional power. In 1830, Faku allowed Wesleyan missionaries to establish a station within his kingdom; they became his main channel of communication with the Cape Colony, and later colonial Natal, for the rest of his life. With the arrival of Boer trekkers in Natal in the late 1830s, Faku was now faced with two colonial neighbours and attempted, with a fair degree of success, to play one off against the other. This Mpondo king played a seminal, yet often understated, role in stimulating the British occupation and annexation of Natal in the early 1840s. This led directly to Faku enhancing his territorial claims and regional influence through official alliance with the Cape Colony in 1844. In return, the British, from the late 1840s and early 1850s, expected Faku to assist them in wars against the Rharhabe and Gcaleka Xhosa far to his west, but every attempt to mobilize the Mpondo failed. Instead, Faku concentrated his military resources on trying to dominate his close neighbours, such as the Thembu, Bomvana, Mpondomise and Bhaca. Introduction Notes to the Introduction are on pp. 173–74. 1 2 / Faku: Rulership and Colonialism in the Mpondo Kingdom Throughout the 1850s and 1860s, the British in both the Cape and Natal became less interested in Faku as a military ally and began to impose agreements on him which gradually removed more and more territory from the Mpondo Kingdom. However, even in his old age, Faku remained quite astute in diplomatic negotiations with colonial officials and used his missionary connections to optimum advantage. Splitting the state between his two principal sons, Ndamase and Mqikela, probably saved the Mpondo from the horrors of a civil war and served to stave off colonial annexation for nearly three decades after his death. *** Many Europeans visited Faku throughout his life, but none of them seems to have made any sketch or painting or taken an early photograph of him. It is strange that Andrew Geddes Bain, at the time a trader and an amateur artist, met Faku in 1829 but only drew a picture of one of the Mpondo ruler’s sons, Bangazita. Other African rulers of the period, such as Moshoeshoe, Ngqika and Shaka, were sketched by Europeans. Perhaps Faku did not want to be sketched. However, while this may not be academically significant, in reading this biography it would be useful, at least in terms of historical imagination, to visualize what the subject looked like. Luckily, some European visitors did compose written descriptions of Faku that might be useful for this purpose. After Bain’s initial introduction to Faku, the former wrote: Faco [sic] was now pointed out to us among the bystanders. He is a tall good looking man, apparently not above forty, and in no way distinguishable from the rest of his people except by a bunch of red Lawrie’s feathers which hung behind his head.1 In 1832, Andrew Smith, who was travelling through Mpondo territory on his way from the Cape Colony to Port Natal, noted that: Facu [sic] is almost always yawning, and when even in serious conversation is in the habit of looking all round him and even directly behind him as if he wished or expected to see something . His face is full and round, with a rather pleasing expression . He has tender eyes and cannot stand the light. His make is middling, his stature tall, and in his gait he has a stoop and motion somewhat like some of the men of fashion in England. His whole appearance indicates a superiority, and I think if a person not knowing him were to meet him they would consider him more than common. He is careless in the dressing of his hair, and...