Nelson Mandela Timeline 1800-1899

1800: Historical Context

Nelson Mandela traces his lineage back to the Thembu Chief
Nxeko, one of the early Thembu Kings who ruled over
Thembuland, a territory that eventually became known as the Related Content
Transkei. The historical record shows Xhosa lived on the banks Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
of the Buffalo River in 1686 and settled at what is now Somerset
East in 1702. In the 1770s, Whites settlers encountered Xhosas
clans on the fringes of the Tsitsikama forest and in 1778 drove
them back from the Gamtoos River to the Fish River.
The emergence of Zulu King Tshaka , his conquest of large parts
of Natal, and the consequent expansion of the Zulu kingdom
lead to enormous upheaval in the region and the displacement
of entire communities. Many ed across the Umzinkulu River
and into Pondoland and further south.
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White settlers, mainly Afrikaans speaking farmers, trekked deep

into the territories of local chieftainships in what came to be Produced 08 July 2014
known as the Orange Free State and the Transvaal before their Last Updated 29 July 2020
expansion was halted in the late nineteenth century by the
powerful Zulu Kingdom.
1835
British commander Harry Smith crosses the Kei River with a
large force, marking the beginning of a systematic conquest of
the Tembus, Pondos, Fingoes and Xhosa communities in what

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 came to be known as the Transkei and Ciskei. Smith's invasion
formed part of what came to be known as the Nine Xhosa Wars
or Frontier Wars that spanned a hundred year period and
eventually led to the imposition of British rule in the Eastern
Cape following the 9th Frontier War in 1879.
The British administration imposed the Village System or Grey
System of local government on the territories conquered in the
successive wars. Devised by Sir George Grey, the Governor of
the Cape Colony at the time, the system divided land into
counties, towns and villages and gave them English names.
Mission schools are established and Xhosa children were
obliged to attend to learn English language and culture.
1850
The start of the 8th Xhosa war and the British under the
command of Colonel Mackinnon After mutual setbacks and
atrocities, the Xhosa people were driven from their
mountainous refuge and 'British Kaffraria' (later Ciskei) was
occupied. Relatively unscathed before, the Tembu people now
fell under British control and their chiefs were imprisoned or
exiled to Robben Island. The island and the incarceration of the
Xhosa chiefs such as Makana enter Xhosa folklore and become
notorious in Xhosa histories of resistance.
1856
A young woman, Nongqawuse, has a vision that leads her to
prophesise the imminent return of the ancestors who will
restore their land. In preparation for that liberating time, most
Xhosa homesteads sacri ce their cattle and livestock, an event
that has come to be known as the Xhosa cattle killing. Over the

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 course of a year, most families sacri ced their cattle and
refrained from planting new crops, resulting in destitution and
starvation. Over 40 000 people died and as many were
incorporated into the colonial economy as wage labourers.
Coming on top of the massive loss of lives and the
destabilisation of the social and economic fabric of those
tribes who fought against the conquest and colonisation of the
Eastern Cape, the cattle killing was a turning point in Xhosa
history and subjugation to British imperialism.
1878
9th Xhosa war ends and the two main Xhosa tribes are forced
across the Kei River.
1884
Ngangelizwe, grandfather of the Tembu Chief Jongintaba
Dalindyebo, dies. Jongintaba Dalinyebo would later become
Nelson Mandela's guardian, entrusted to him by Mandela's
father on his death bed.
1894
Pondoland, the northern part of the Eastern Cape, falls under
British control.

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Nelson Mandela Timeline 1800-1899
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

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