THE HISTORY OF FINGO VILLAGE
Monday, 23rd September 2024
Distinctly dilapidated in parts, beset by grim, persistent poverty that cannot be denied, the Fingo Village is nonetheless vibrantly alive. To focus constantly on the downside somehow negates the spirit of the inhabitant, who have survived decade after decade of trials and tribulations and still managed to retain an innate dignity and gentleness, even joy. Be it ever so humble, there is no place like home, and hope springs eternal that better days are on the way. They have been a long time coming.
Part of Greater Grahamstown’s wide township belt which girdles Makana’s Kopa and beyond, the Fingo Village is the oldest example in southern Africa of a Black settlement established under a European system of land ownership. Tradition has it that the grant of freehold titles was made in recognition of services performed in the defence of the Cape Colony by the Mfengu levies in the frontier wars of 1846 and 1850-53, but the first proposals for its establishment predate both.
As early as the 1830’s Grahamstown had already developed its three-way split- the White town stretching between the Drostdy Gateway, the Cathedral and the present Market Square, the beginnings of a “Hottentot” settlement beyond the Old Cemetery and over the Kowie spruit the Fingo area, largely to the right of what is now the main road to Bisho. Nobody knows just how much the Fingoes contributed to early Grahamstown as labourers of every description.
Controversy surrounds the identity of the Mfengu, as they were called. One version holds that they were initially refugees, small tribes fleeing Natal, some driven out by Shaka Zulu in the 1820’s. Many were given sanctuary by Hintsa, Chief of the Gcaleka Xhosa, and became known as Mfengu from the Xhosa siyamfenguza maning “we are hungry”. Broken and detribalized as a result of their experiences,they had a stronger incentive than those bound by tradition to adopt the customs of the Whites with whom they came into contact.
They moved into the Cape Colony in 1835 and 1847 with the agreement of the Governor, Sir Benjamin D’Irban, assisted the British in the wars against the Xhosa in 1846 and 1850-53. In the former, Grahamstownian had the bright idea of getting local Fingoes to defend their homes while they slept snugly in their beds at night. A body of 90 Fingoes was accordingly armed to form a ring of pickets round the town, relieving the slumbering citizens of "this irksome duty".
There is no evidence that freehold title deeds issues in 1856 by the Governor acting "in the name and on behalf of her Majesty Victoria" were for services rendered, but this belief continues today and a number of village famalies treasure the original documents. Even though the Mfengu element in Grahamstown has been diluted over the years by inter-marriage, there is still a distinctive style about typical Fingo villagers and a special sort of relationship between them and the wider community.
St Philip's Church was consecrated in 1867 as part of the Anglican mission. A fine brick building, it formed a parallel parish to St Bartholomew's Church in Market Street, both ran schools. Princess Emma, daughter of Ngqika Chief Sandile, trained in Cape Town and taught at the Fikizolo (arrived yesterday) School, the remains of which survived.
The Lobengula graves are stranded forlornly in a plot where pigs root and donkey’s stray. The most legible headstone is that of Rhodes Njube Lobengula, a grandson of King Lobengula, Chief of Ndebele of Zimbabwe who was born in Grahamstown in 1903, died at nearby Peddie 1937.
Pictures: Roddy Fox
