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People: Peter Lacy
Topic: Xhosa Cattle Killings
Location: Qingyang Gansu (Kansu) China

Xhosa Cattle Killings

Years: 1856 - 1858

In April 1856, the sixteen-year-old amaXhosa prophetess Nongqawuse believes she has received a message from her ancestors that promises deliverance from their hardships if the amaXhosa destroy their cattle.

The return of the ancestors is predicted to occur on 18 February, 1857.

The amaXhosa, mainly chief Kreli of the Gcalekas, heeds the demand and enforces it on others, only to be disappointed on the destined day.

The cattle killings continue into 1858, leading to the starvation of thousands.

"{Readers} take infinitely more pleasure in knowing the variety of incidents that are contained in them, without ever thinking of imitating them, believing the imitation not only difficult, but impossible: as if heaven, the sun, the elements, and men should have changed the order of their motions and power, from what they were anciently"

― Niccolò Machiavelli, Discourses on Livy (1517)