Maqoma a symbol of African struggles against invaders
Premier Oscar Mabuyane says Nkosi Jongumsobomvu Maqoma is a recognised figure in the titanic battles waged by African people against the invasion by colonial armies throughout the 100 years of wars between 1779 and 1879.
“His name therefore stands as an important symbol, a national memory to permanently remember that ours was a freedom delivered in blood and tears,” Mabuyane said.
He said starting from this year the government would embark on a programme to commemorate the frontier wars annually, working with the House of Traditional Leaders.
“The president [Cyril Ramaphosa] has agreed to come and do the inaugural lecture on this one, whatever the date. [We are] looking at symbolic dates for that and it’s going to be a big one for the people of our province,” he said.
Mabuyane said the country still had the scars of colonialism and apartheid. He said the current crop of leaders drew aspirations from the likes of Maqoma and others.
“Fighting wars over 100 years cannot be child’s play,” the premier said.
Mabuyane said in 100 years the humanity of Africans had been systematically denied.
He said the substance of the battles of successive generations was for Africans to defend their natural claim to determine their own affairs as a people.
“This was in the context of the colonial oppression waged by the Dutch and the British against Africans,” he said.
Over centuries, the British and Dutch sought to annex to their control the lands, livestock and political institutions of Africans with a view to subordinating them “and on that basis build a reality here in SA that African was an inferior race”, Mabuyane said.
The premier stressed the importance of ensuring that SA history was told properly.
He said Africans were made to believe that all things done by the colonisers were the best.
“We must disabuse [ourselves] from colonialism mentally as Africans,” he said.
“We have been indoctrinated not to trust ourselves and that we are better off in all these westernised arrangements.”
Mabuyane said Maqoma had gallantly refused to submit to what was evidently the powerful army of the British under successive commanders.
Although the British enjoyed a superiority of arms, Maqoma retained a defiant spirit on the grounds that no power on earth could easily win the right to turn proud people into slaves.
“Chief Maqoma repeatedly sought to inspire his people to rebellion during the birth of the sixth and eighth frontier wars,” the premier said.
“These actions earned him two stints of imprisonment on Robben Island, the last ending in his death at the age of 73.”
Mabuyane said a singular message that must be carried as gallant freedom fighters were remembered was the need to constantly promote the interests and welfare of the people as a whole.
“The greatest tribute to Nkosi Maqoma and successive generations of freedom fighters is to never dishonour the cause of freedom and remember clearly that their ambition was to afford Africa and all her children an opportunity to live with dignity, selfdetermination and mutual recognition by other fellow human beings as equals.”
Mabuyane said the current generations had an obligation to wage a relentless struggle of memory over forgetting.
“We must keep alive the memories of the past as an immovable reminder of the misdeeds of yesterday and heroics struggles of justices that gave birth to today,” he said.
Mabuyane wished participants a successful and enlightening engagement. He said, ideally, he would have wanted to see more people attending the event to learn more about “where we come from, where we are and where we are supposed to be going”.
Family representative Nkosi Jongikwezi Maqoma, from the Jongumsobomvu Maqoma Legacy Trust, said they appreciated the efforts by the government to recognise Maqoma.
He appealed to researchers to consult the family when doing research on Maqoma.
“Nobody know his story better than his family,” Jongikwezi said.
He applauded the role played by various government officials to preserve the legacy of Maqoma and singled out community safety and transport MEC Xolile Nqatha as one of the officials who had worked tirelessly.
“I wish he was here so that I can thank him,” Jongikwezi said.
The Maqoma initiative was in safe hands in the steering committee involving the premier’s office, Jongikwezi said.