A great gathering of Xhosa chiefs occurs in King Williams Town, where Cape Governor Sir Harry Smith explains his Eastern Frontier policy
Date: 7 January, 1848
Phatho, chief of the mixed Xhosa-Hottentot (Khoi-Khoi) people the Gqunukwebe, Xhosa chief Sandile and others attend a great gathering of Xhosa chiefs at King William's Town, where Cape Governor Sir Harry Smith explained his eastern frontier policy. Chief Sandile pledged allegiance to the British crown at this gathering.
The backdrop for this meeting was the Xhosa Wars, also known as the Cape Frontier Wars. These were a series of nine wars between the amaXhosa people and European settlers from 1779 to 1879 in what is now the Eastern Cape in South Africa. The wars were responsible for the amaXhosa people's loss of most of their land, and the incorporation of its people. At the time of this gathering the seventh Xhosa War had just ended. At the end of this war 1847, the Keiskamma to upper Kei region was annexed as a British Colony with King William's Town as capital.
Sources:
- Kruger, D.W. (ed)(1972). Dictionary of South African Biography, Cape Town: Human Sciences Research Council, v. 3, p. 685.
- Wallis, F. Unpublished manuscript.
- The Xhosa Wars. wikipedia.org
