FAKU
- 3 Min Read
Faku (circa 1780-1867) was the paramount chief of the Mpondo, a southern Nguni people, from about 1820-67.
His father was Chief Ncqungqushe, whom Faku succeeded just at the time that Shaka was coming to power in Zululand. Under Faku, the Mpondo were the dominant power on the southern periphery of the Zulu state.
Faku was chief of the Mpondo during the push southward by the northern Nguni, who were fleeing Shaka. Faku and his people also found themselves squeezed from the south by the Xhosa and the Thembu who were being pushed northward by settlers from the Cape Colony.
In 1828, the Mpondo came under a particularly devastating attack by the Zulus who destroyed Mpondo settlements on both sides of the Mzimvubu River. Faku restored the strength of the tribe by replenishing the herds and tightening defenses by arranging settlements closer together. Gradually the Mpondo became the most powerful group to the south of the Zulu state.
By the late 1830s, Boer settlers pushing into Natal presented another threat to the Mpondo. Late in 1840, the Boer leader A.W.J. Pretorius launched a surprise attack on a neighboring tribe, the Bhaca. The Boers had settled in some of the areas abandoned by people fleeing the Zulus. When the Zulu chief Dingane died in 1841, many refugees returned and resettled abandoned kraal (stockaded village) sites. The Boers claimed the land and passed a law to have the remaining Africans removed.
Meanwhile Faku feared for Mondo safety and asked for protection from the British governor of the Cape, G.T. Napier. The British then occupied Natal and formed an alliance with Faku in 1844. Their alliance was based on an understanding that Faku would support the British against the Xhosa.
Faku, however, failed to support the British in two frontier wars with the Xhosa, fought in 1846-47 and in 1850-53. In 1856, however, when the Xhosa came under the spell of the prophetess Nongqawuse, they were devastated by the killing of many of their cattle. After this the British were less threatened by the Xhosa, which made Faku less important to them.
In 1861 the British forced him to turn over to them his land to the west, called “No Man’s Land,” which lay between the Cape and Natal. The British then settled the Griqua there, establishing Griqualand East.
Faku’s strength waned and by the time of his death in 1867 his two sons had quarreled and split the chiefdom into two independent states.
VIRGINIA CURTIN KNIGHT
