Go to AfricaBib home

Go to AfricaBib home AfricaBib Go to database home

bibliographic database
Line
Previous page New search

The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here

Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Memory of Maqoma: An Assessment of Jingqi Oral Tradition in Ciskei and Transkei
Author:Stapleton, Timothy J.ISNI
Year:1993
Periodical:History in Africa
Volume:20
Pages:321-335
Language:English
Geographic terms:Ciskei
South Africa
Transkei
Subjects:traditional rulers
oral traditions
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Education and Oral Traditions
History and Exploration
About person:Maqoma Xhosa Chief (1798-1873)ISNI
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/3171978
Abstract:Dominated by a settler heritage, South African history has forgotten or degraded many Africans who had a significant impact on the region. Maqoma, a 19th-century Xhosa chief who fought the expansionist Cape Colony in three frontier wars, has been a victim of such distortion. He has been characterized as a drunken troublemaker and cattle thief who masterminded an unprovoked irruption into the colony in 1834 and eventually led his subjects into the irrational Cattle Killing catastrophe of 1856/57. Recently, the validity of this portrayal has been questioned. While it is clear that Maqoma has been slandered by settler historians, his and his subjects' descendants have preserved oral traditions which contradict the dominant written sources. The oral traditions of the Maqomas and their Jingqi chiefdom can be divided into three distinct categories: genealogies of chiefs and influential councillors; praise poems, which are the preserve of trained praise singers; and various stories which are known by a few knowledgeable informants. On the basis of fieldwork conducted in the Ciskei and Transkei, South Africa, during the last half of 1991, the author considers some problems and limitations which hamper the oral evidence concerning Maqoma. Notes, ref.
Views
Cover