Xhosa king calls for British apology

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Xhosa king calls for British apology

Lubabalo Ngcukana 6 January 2013 10:00

Xhosa King Mpendulo Sigcawu wants Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain to apologise for the murder of his ancestor King Hintsa

The motion was raised with President Jacob Zuma in December

Xhosa King Mpendulo Sigcawu wants Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, her family and members of her government to travel to his Nqandu Great Place to apologise for the 1835 killing of his ancestor, King Hintsa.

His spokesperson Zolani Mkhiva confirmed to City Press that the motion was officially put before President Jacob Zuma on December 11, while he was accepting the Hintsa Bravery Award from King Sigcawu.

Zuma described the award, named after Hintsa – who was killed by British troops – as his most prestigious yet.

Mkhiva said King Sigcawu officially raised the matter with Zuma so that his government could help facilitate a meeting during which Queen Elizabeth and her government could apologise to the Xhosa people for the atrocities committed by her country’s troops and the brutal murder of King Hintsa.

“They must come to Nqadu Great Place . . . we are not demanding this apology but want Queen Elizabeth II to say sorry to the people they have sinned against. We will welcome them,” said Mkhiva, former president Nelson Mandela’s poet and praise singer.

“We want to reconcile with the British and relate to them and find closure. But they need to pronounce on this matter and reconcile.”

Mkhiva said it was not the first time they had asked for an apology.

Late King Xolilizwe Sigcawu made similar requests to former president Thabo Mbeki.

Harry Smith, a 19th century British army commander, is believed to have ordered the killing of the unarmed King Hintsa during the Frontier Wars.

The AmaXhosa also said they wanted an inquest into the matter and asked Zuma for help.

Mkhiva said the king was happy that Zuma had undertaken to help the AmaXhosa find closure.

In his speech, Zuma paid tribute to the late king, calling him a warrior while chastising the British for their part in his death.

Gary Benham, spokesperson for the British High Commission in South Africa, said: “The UK government deeply regrets the suffering experienced during the Frontier Wars, in which King Hintsa’s death was a particularly tragic incident.”

Zuma’s spokesman Mac Maharaj said he was waiting for a response regarding the king’s request from the relevant people in the presidency before he could comment.

Quotable

To earn our respect, he [Zuma] must deliver on the promise of employment for young people.

DA Parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko

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Comments

Life not death

the implications drawn from the tragedy that befell Hintsa reduces the event to a spectacle of banality in the hands of the political elite in SA. You would do better to think about how this tragic event might open new ways to think about the meaning of the post-apartheid rather than fixing the event in the 1830s. Recall, that the commission into Hintsa’s death was possibly the first commission granting amnesty in SA, and therefore is at the very heart of the thinking that went into the formation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. What is needed is not merely an apology, but a fundamental rethinking of the premises upon which the post-apartheid is being forged.
Thangana

SA is a member if the Coomonweath Parliamentary Association(CPA). This is where former slaves and master meet and discusses non issues. The apology could be easily facilitated but because CPA this will never be accomplished. It’s a question of we need Britian more than. They need us kind of relationship.
http://twitter.com/Okwacha_ Okwacha

Am confuse here, after 178 years. And the current Queen was just in power for at least 60 years. HOW MUCH DO THEY WANT? It was during the Frontier Wars. Do you imagine in the year 2200 Iraq ask Britain and USA to apologies for killing unarmed Sadam Hussain after accusing him of having WMD.
- Corrupt_comrade_JACOB
  
  time moves slow in Africa,….for a reason:)
  - somuchricherthanyou
    
    lol. yeeeeeesssssssss
- http://www.facebook.com/sven.gohre Sven Gohre
  
  Okwacha, I am waiting for the Xhosa king to formally thank the British who helped save his nation from starvation when his forefathers slaughtered their cattle and burned their produce so that the “Forefathers” could cast the Mlungu into the sea.
  
  What this Cretin needs to understand is that when a war is being fought, the death of the political head is almost guaranteed if he is captured. The ability to read History Books would make this evident, but once again the “Black Victim Mentality” kicks in and the White descendants of the victorious colonial forces must be made to grovel pleading for forgiveness for winning the war.
  
  It is confounding that he does not ask the Zulu nation to apologise for all the death and mayhem that Shaka’s Impi visited upon all the tribes that lived in the area now known as the Eastern Cape.
  - aweness
    
    you have your facts wrong Shaka never came to the Eastern Cape its a pity that african history is never read using african literature but none the less
    - http://twitter.com/Njongozethu R.S.J.Prestwich
      
      Somewhat splitting hairs. Shaka came as far south as the Mzimvubu river where he met up with Henry Francis Fynn, an adviser and notorious elephant hunter.
      
      Have you never heard of the Mfecane? Or Mdhlaka Shaka’s General who in 1828 invaded the land between the Mzimvubu and the Kei up to the Mtata? Or Matiwane of the Ngwane. Or Nqeto of the Qwabe?
      
      “From the Intongati River (25k north of Durban) to the Umzimvubu, I did not find a single tribe….. there were neither kraals,huts, people nor corn. Occasionally I saw a few stragglers, mere living skeletons, obtaining a precarious existence on roots and shell-fish.”
      (Fynn’s journal 1823)
      
      per
Corrupt_comrade_JACOB

xhosa’s has a king? why? What for? Not that I have an idea why the British clings onto it either. But then,jacob and king twat from Swaziland also thinks they are the chosen Get rid of these leaches!

And to add to this,jacob accepted a reward for bravery…? HAHA
http://twitter.com/Njongozethu R.S.J.Prestwich

The mutilation of Hintsa’s body needs an apology. This probably was a result of Smith and Southey’s racial resentment, in that his mother, Nomsa, was the product of her father Bomvana Ntshunge and a white castaway, most likely British.
This aside, one would think our good King would be asking for an apology for the mass murder and genocide of the Amapondo, Amatembe and nurmerous others by the armies of the Zulu King Shaka a decade or so earlier.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Mo-Haarhoff/725686926 Mo Haarhoff

Get over yourself!

More importantly, if you don’t have enough accommodation for your newest wife, where on earth would you put the British royal family?
Platanna

I want the French to apologise for persecuting the protestants and forcing us to leave and come to live in South Africa, I want my ancestral land back! Thats on one side of the family, then I want the British to apologise for treating the Irish badly and forcing that branch of the family to come and live here and while we are about it the life other ancestors had in England was hard, apologies there too.
SickDemocraticSA

Dream on little boy! From what I’ve seen the Nqandu Great Place is nothing but a hut in the dust.
http://www.facebook.com/pisciotta Phil J Pisciotta

He should apologize for his people being so stupid, spreading AIDS and draining the world of support for what he as King should resolved himself. Or get of the throne. Go sit on a toilet.
doc Hoosen

Imagine that ! dressed in a 19voetsak model coat nogal…..
somuchricherthanyou

dont forget william the conquerer. he was a ruthless bastard too. the queen would rather eat her own fingers than say sorry to these idiots. time to catch up. its 2013 africa.

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