Emma Sandile

Emma Sandile (1842–1892), also known as Princess Emma, was the daughter of the Ngqika chief Mgolombane Sandile. She was educated by the British in the Cape Colony, and later became a landowner, possibly the first black woman to hold a land title in South Africa.

Emma Sandile
NationalityNgqika people
Spouse(s)Stokwe Ndela
Parent(s)

Biography

The Ngqika chief Mgolombane Sandile sent his daughter Emma and his two sons to Cape Town to be educated,[1][2] although they were referred to by Anglican bishop Robert Gray as "hostages for the peace and prosperity of their country".[3] At the time, the Xhosa people, of which the Ngqika were a part, had fought with the British Empire and the Cape Colony in the Xhosa Wars over land rights. The children first stayed with Gray and his wife, then attended Zonnebloem 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.[3]

She took to writing about her experiences, the first known writing in English by a Xhosa woman.[2] 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, Governor of the Cape Colony, that she would be married to a non-Christian.[3] However, Grey did grant her ownership of a farm.[4] She may have been the first black women in Southern Africa to have land registered in her name.[1]

There was then a struggle between her father, who wished for her to marry a neighbouring Chief and Bishop Gray.[3] Eventually there was agreement that she would be betrothed to Ngangelizwe of Thembuland as he was a Chief who was interested in Christianity.[2] The marriage was called off, after disagreements about both the marriage and wedding practices, and because Ngangelizwe wished to use a Wesleyan minister instead of an Anglican priest. Emma became a teacher, at a mission in Grahamstown and became the second wife of Stokwe Ndela, a chief of the Mqwathi. 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,[5] and the Thembu claimed that she had helped to cause this.[2]

Her husband left her further land, and Emma successfully petitioned the land commission to receive the land in her name.[2] The farm was in Ciskei in the south east of modern South Africa. Emma died in 1892, leaving the land to her four daughters and one son, none of which were brought up Christian.[2] There continued to be legal disputes about the land owned by her into the 1980s.[4]

Notes
  1. Walker 1990, p. 505.
  2. Daymond, Driver & Meintjes 2003, p. 92.
  3. Daymond, Driver & Meintjes 2003, p. 91.
  4. Sheldon 2005, p. 72.
  5. Feni, Lulamile (7 September 2015). "Call for Grave of Chief to be Found". Daily Dispatch. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
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References
  • Daymond, Margaret J.; Driver, Dorothy; Meintjes, Sheila (2003). Women Writing Africa: The Southern Region. Feminist Press at CUNY. ISBN 978-1-55861-407-9.
  • Sheldon, Kathleen (2005). Historical Dictionary of Women in Sub-Saharan Africa. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-5331-0.
  • Walker, Cheryl (1990). Women and Gender in Southern Africa to 1945. Cape Town: D. Philip. ISBN 978-085255-205-6.
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