The Cape Frontier Wars (1779-1878)
The Cape Frontier Wars consisted of nine wars over one hundred years and arguably had as big an impact on the shaping of South Africa and the British Empire as the Anglo-Zulu (1879) and Boer Wars (1880-81, 1899-1902). But, the Cape Frontier Wars have a much lower profile and are far less well understood by many.
Despite the full resources of the British Army, colonial settlers and Empire, the indigenous Khoisan and amaXhosa refused to be subdued, and adapted their military resistance in consecutive bloody conflicts, moving from open combat around colonial towns to guerilla tactics from mountain or bush strongholds. The price on both sides was heavy. The British Government and Cape administration were crippled by the mounting costs of military and administrative intervention. The amaXhosa were crippled by the loss of land, dignity and livestock.
Hatred between the colonial settlers and indigenous tribes mounted as the wars continued, decade after decade. How would the intractable problem of the Cape be solved? Military might alone did not seem to solve matters. It was a Gordian knot.
The conflict threw-up huge characters and epic events that represent the zeitgeist of the time: Sir Harry Smith and Lady Smith (the darlings of Queen Victoria and the Duke of Wellington); Richard Gush (a pacifist who saved a settler town); Mkhanda Nxele (the mercurial prophet who came within a whisker of defeating the colonial forces); King Hintsa (killed trying to escape British forces); 1820 Settlers (5,000 ordinary British people settled in the Cape to anglicise a volatile region of disgruntled Dutch Boers and amaXhosa); Chief Maqoma (Xhosa warrior who devised and implemented guerrilla tactics) and Lord Chelmsford (participant in the Anglo-Zulu war).
These events and the aftermath were to shape the thinking and philosophy of the region’s most famous son, Mr Nelson Mandela. In this engaging evening talk Dr Treive Nicholas brings these events to life.
Dr Treive Nicholas
Treive has lived, worked and researched in the Cape of South Africa, starting in 1980. He has written two books on the region, A Nun And The Pig. Tales From South Africa and The Girl Who Killed A Nation. These explore personal experiences of working with the Black community during apartheid and his field-based research into the 19th century history of the Eastern Cape. In 2025 he was invited to present some of his historical research to the Border Historical Society and the Franschhoek Literary Festival in South Africa.
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