Nongqawuse (; c. 1841 – 1898) was the Xhosa prophet whose prophecies led to a millenarian movement that culminated in the Xhosa cattle-killing movement and famine of 1856–1857, in what is now Eastern Cape, South Africa. Early life Nongqawuse was born in 1841 near the Gxarha River in independent Xhosaland but close to the border of the recently established colony of British Kaffraria in Eastern Cape South Africa. She was Xhosa. Little is known of Nongqawuse's parents as they died when she was young. According to historian Jeffrey B. Peires, Nongqawuse stated in a deposition that "Mhlakaza was my uncle....my father's name Umhlanhla of the Kreli tribe. He died when I was young." Nongqawuse’s parents died during the Waterkloof campaigns of the Eighth Frontier War (1850–1853). Nongqawuse is believed to have been quite conscious and aware of the tensions between the Xhosa and the Cape Colony. During this period, the Xhosa were facing increasing encroachment of their traditional lands by European settlers. The orphaned Nongqawuse was raised by her uncle Mhlakaza, who was the son of a councillor of Xhosa King Sarili kaHintsa. Mhlakaza was a religious man, a Xhosa spiritualist, who left Xhosaland after his mother's death and spent time in the Cape Colony, where he became familiar with Christianity. He returned to Xhosaland in 1853. Mhlakazi was to have a major influence in Nongqawuse's life acting as an interpreter and organiser of her visions. Spiritual experience In April 1856, 15-year-old Nongqawuse and her friend Nombanda, who was between the ages of 8 and 10, went to scare birds from her uncle's crops in the fields by the sea at the mouth of the Gxarha River in the present day Wild Coast region of South Africa. When she returned, Nongqawuse told Mhlakaza that she had met the spirits of two of her ancestors. She claimed that the spirits had told her that the Xhosa people should destroy their crops and kill their cattle, the source of their wealth as well as food. Nongqawuse claimed that the ancestors who had appeared to them said: The dead would arise. All living cattle would have to be slaughtered, having been reared by contaminated hands. Cultivation would cease. New grain would have to be dug. New houses would have to be built. New cattle enclosures would have to be erected. New milk sacks would have to be made. Doors would have to be