Black Womanism in South Africa

Princess Emma, as she became known in colonial circles, was the eldest daughter of the Rharhabe chief Mgolombane Sandile, leader of the Ngqika tribe - western amaXhosa in the 19th Century. This book focuses on the life of Emma Sandile from her early years to her adulthood. Her story reads like a novel except that it is all true, based on archival sources, press reports and fieldwork. After the Cattle Killing in 1857 Governor Sir George Grey and Bishop Robert Gray planned to educate the children of the Xhosa elite as English gentlemen and women loyal to the Empire. This included Emma and her brother Gonya, Sandile's heir, who were sent to Cape Town in 1858. Emma attended the Anglican Zonnebloem College until 1863; her school mistress described this time in an unpublished journal. In 1859, Grey granted Emma and Gonya farms in the Eastern Cape to cover their schooling, making Emma the first black woman private landowner in Southern Africa. As the first black woman landowner in Southern Africa, as the earliest black woman writer in English, as the only woman to attend the Land Commission, Emma was one of the pioneers of black womanism in our country. Her courage in bridging her African tradition and the imposed western culture was without precedence. It is hoped that this window on Emma's world will give some understanding of the problems involved in religious and social change. Perhaps her courage in fighting for her rights as she weathered the storms of fluctuating fortunes will be an inspiration to those who are following in her footsteps today.