Xolela Mangcu

Biko: A Biography


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culturally chauvinistic and racially charged ideology that demanded, above all, that its agents adhere to accepted norms of British respectability that would not allow for marriage with Khoisan or African women, and certainly not condone adultery. [51]

      In an early precursor of the Black Consciousness critique of the commitment of white liberals to the struggles of black people, Xhosa chiefs increasingly questioned missionaries’ intentions. Neither James Read nor John Philip could resist the stampede of their more conservative brethren and they threw in their lot with the whites in the 1846 war against the Xhosa. Increasingly, the Xhosa chiefs regarded the missionaries as legitimate targets of war. One can see the antecedents of the Black Consciousness critique of white liberalism in the language they used.

      You are a teacher. You say it is your object in coming among us to teach us the word of God. But why do you always give over teaching that word, and all leave your stations and go to military posts when there is war? You call yourselves men of peace; what then have you got to do at any of the forts, there are only fighting men there? I am doubtful whether any of you be men of peace. Read, I think he is, but look at Calderwood; what have you to say about him? Now he is a magistrate, one of those who make war.

      Maqoma’s younger brother, Sandile, described the collusion of the missionaries as follows:

      The Modern Intellectuals from Tiyo Soga to Steve Biko

      It is often assumed that the colonial conquest of the Xhosa was a clean sweep. In fact, it was the colonial government’s failure to completely subdue the Xhosa that led to a rethink of policy and the colonial government’s decision to introduce a qualified franchise. All adult males who earned 25 pounds could vote. Legassick argues that the introduction of the franchise was an effort to restabilise the colony in the wake of the 1846 Frontier War, to incorporate as many whites as possible into the political system in Britain and in the colony, and to recruit many of the Khoisan who had thrown in their lot with the Xhosa. All of this was too late to stop the emerging solidarity among the Xhosa and the Khoisan, transcending more localised tribal and ethnic identities rooted in the previous century. For example, Maqoma’s brother and rightful chief of the Rharhabe, Chief Sandile (1820–1879), worked hard to forge a unified identity among the Xhosa and the Khoisan. He promised to re-establish the Khoisan dynasty if they should switch their allegiance from the British to the Xhosa:

      Tiyo Soga: The Father of Black Consciousness?

      In what would become one of the most consequential decisions in Xhosa history, the prophet-intellectual Ntsikana approached Ngqika’s counsellor Jotelo Soga and asked if he could bring Soga’s son Tiyo into his church. Jotelo could see the benefits of the new religion and education for his son. In his book Zemk’ Iinkomo Magwalandini, WB Rubusana argues for a direct link between Ntsikana and the Soga family. He writes that the last line in Ntsikana’s hymn UloThixo Omkhulu is a reference to Ntsikana’s invitation to the Soga family to join in his crusade. In the recorded text the line reads: lo mzi wakhona na siwubizile, which does not make sense in that context. Rubusana argues that it was a misprint and should have read Lo mzi kaKhonwana siwubizile –“we have invited Christ to the house of Khonwana, ancestor to the Soga family”. Rubusana writes in isiXhosa:

      The rough translation of this would be:

      There is a place we wish to correct in this rendition of Ntsikana’s hymn because it does not make sense. The part in the last line that says, Lo mzi wakhona na siwubizile is false [and indeed not translatable into English]. It should actually read as follows: “We have also called the house of Khonwana.” The Khonwana he was referring to was the father of Jotelo (Tiyo Soga’s father) and Jiyelwa and others; he is a man of the Jwarha clan, a Mtika, from the line of Soga. Ntsikana was inviting this house to the gospel because they were from the amaCirha, and his in-laws because his wife from the Great House, Makhombe’s mother, was also from the Jwarha clan.

      When another war broke out in 1851, Soga and Chalmers left for Scotland again to return only in 1856. While in Scotland, Soga enrolled for a theology degree, was ordained as a minister and fell in love with a Scottish woman, Janet Burnside. In keeping with Christian teachings Soga dissociated himself from African