The Return of Makhanda

Makhanda was a Xhosa leader and warrior-prophet who lived in the early nineteenth century and led a massive attack on the British in Grahamstown in 1819. His clarity of thinking and personal charisma propelled him into the position of leading spiritual adviser to the powerful Chief Ndlambe of the Rharhabe.

Although he was portrayed in the written record as a religious fanatic and millinarian prophet who led his own people to destruction, this evocative account demonstrates that the popular heroic view of Makhanda as one of South Africa’s early freedom fighters is far more justified. With meticulous chronology, Julia C. Wells offers a major revision of our understanding of the life of this often controversial figure.