Nongqawuse
(This appears to be the currently used spelling of her name: alternative spellings include Nongqause, Nonqause, uNongqawuse, :
The historic figure and theatrical character
A historic figure who has been the subject of numerous literary and artistic works. She was the Xhosa prophetess whose prophecies led to the Xhosa cattle-killing crisis of 1856–1857. Born in 1840 in the Kentani district and raised by her uncle (Mhlakaza a famed spirit-medium), the legend has it that as a young girl she was sitting on a rock at a pool near the Gxara River, when she saw the faces of her ancestors appearing in the pool. They told her that they would drive all the white settlers out of the country. A huge wind would come up and blow all the settlers into the sea. But first, as an act of faith to prove their belief in the world of the spirits, the Xhosa would have to kill all their cattle and destroy all their crops.
The plays
Among the stage and TV plays in which she features are:
U-Nongqause: Isiganeko so ku xelwa kwe nkomo 1857 (Mary Waters, 1924)
The Girl Who Killed to Save (Nongquase the Liberator) (H.I.E. Dhlomo, 1935)
The Cattle-Killing (D.L.P. Yali-Manisi/Jeff Opland, 1970)
Nongqawuse: A Treachery of Winds (Nigel Maister, 1988)
The Prophet (Brett Bailey and cast, 1999)
The Day of the Two Suns (Zakes Mda, 1999)
Red Earth / Umhlaba Obomvu (Saskia Janse, 2006)
The Poet and the Prophetess (Mats Larsson Gothe and Michael Williams, 2008)
Sources
http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/nongqawuse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nongqawuse
http://www.encounter.co.za/article/118.html
Andrew Offenburger (compiler): The Xhosa Cattle-killing Movement[1]
Sheila Boniface Davies (compiler): 2010. Creative accounts of the Xhosa cattle-killing[2]
