Emma Sandile (1842–1892), also known as Princess Emma, was the daughter of the Rharhabe Xhosa King

Mgolombane Sandile Mgolombane Sandile (1820–1878) was a ruler of the Right Hand House of the Xhosa Kingdom. A dynamic leader, he led the Xhosa armies in several of the Xhosa-British Wars. Having recently been equipped with modern fire-arms, Sandile's forces succ ...

. She was educated by the British in the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with t ...

, and later became a landowner possibly the first black woman to hold a land title in South Africa.

Biography

The

Ngqika The Ngqika people are a Xhosa monarchy who lived west of the Great Kei River in what is today the Eastern Cape of South Africa. They were first ruled by Rarabe kaPhalo who died with his son Mlawu, who was destined for chieftaincy. The clan would ...

chief

sent his daughter Emma and his two sons to Cape Town to be educated, although they were referred to by Anglican bishop Robert Gray as "hostages for the peace and prosperity of their country". At the time, the

Xhosa people The Xhosa people, or Xhosa-speaking people (; ) are African people who are direct kinsmen of Tswana people, Sotho people and Twa people, yet are narrowly sub grouped by European as Nguni ethnic group whose traditional homeland is primarily t ...

, of which the Ngqika were a part, had fought with the British Empire and the

in the

Xhosa Wars The Xhosa Wars (also known as the Cape Frontier Wars or the Kaffir Wars) were a series of nine wars (from 1779 to 1879) between the Xhosa Kingdom and the British Empire as well as Trekboers in what is now the Eastern Cape in South Africa. T ...

over land rights. The children first stayed with Gray and his wife, then attended

Zonnebloem Zonnebloem (Dutch for sunflower) is a suburb in City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality in the Western Cape province of South Africa, previously part of District Six. It was a farming estate until the early 19th century, when it became a su ...

College. The British hoped that both Emma and her older brother Gonya, who was Sandile's heir, would prove to be influencers to their people. She took to writing about her experiences, the first known writing in English by a Xhosa woman. She arrived at the College at the age of 16, alongside two other girls as company and 18 boys. Initially there was no specific education for the girls, who took to cooking and sewing. After a year a teacher was hired for them, and Emma was baptised six months after. She sought to return to the Xhosa for brief periods, but these were turned down as there were concerns by

George Grey Sir George Grey, KCB (14 April 1812 – 19 September 1898) was a British soldier, explorer, colonial administrator and writer. He served in a succession of governing positions: Governor of South Australia, twice Governor of New Zealand, Go ...

Governor of the Cape Colony This article lists the governors of British South African colonies, including the colonial prime ministers. It encompasses the period from 1797 to 1910, when present-day South Africa was divided into four British colonies namely: Cape Colony (p ...

, that she would be married to a non-Christian. However, Grey did grant her ownership of a farm. She may have been the first black women in Southern Africa to have land registered in her name. There was then a struggle between her father, who wished for her to marry a neighbouring Chief and Bishop Melusi Gray. Eventually there was agreement that she would be betrothed to Ngangelizwe of

Thembuland Thembuland, af, Temboeland, is a natural region in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Its territory is the traditional region of the abaThembu, one of the states of the Xhosa nation. It was formerly also known as "Tamboekieland" or "Tam ...

as he was a Chief who was interested in Christianity. The marriage was called off, after disagreements about both the marriage and wedding practices, and because Ngangelizwe wished to use a

Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan– Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charle ...

minister instead of an Anglican priest. Emma became a teacher, at a mission in

Grahamstown Makhanda, also known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 140,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Port Elizabeth and southwest of East London. Makhanda is the largest town in the Makana ...

and became the second wife of Chief Stokwe Ndlela, a chief of the AmaQwathi. Although she was the second wife, because of her lineage, she was also his primary wife. However, he was killed by the British during a revolt in 1881, and the Thembu claimed that she had helped to cause this. Her husband (Junior Joaquim) left her further land, and Emma successfully petitioned the land commission to receive the land in her name. The farm was in Ciskei in the south east of modern

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. Emma died in 1892, leaving the land to her four daughters and one son, none of which were brought up Christian. There continued to be legal disputes about the land owned by her into the 1980s.

Notes

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sandile, Emma 1842 births 1892 deaths 19th-century women landowners Xhosa people 19th-century landowners