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Artworks
Paul Weinberg South African, b. 1956
The valley at the Gxarha River mouth is where 19th-century Xhosa prophetess Nongqawuse received her revelations from the ancestors, setting off a massive wave of ritualised cattle-killing, Gxarha mouth, Eastern Cape, 2019-21colour digital archival print on Hahnemühle Photo rag 308 gsm papersheet size: 59.4 x 84.1 cmedition 10+2APsigned and numbered in pencil in the marginIn the mid-19th century, the Xhosa prophetess Nongqawuse received revelations from her ancestors at the Gxarha river mouth valley that would have a profound impact on her people. Her prophecies...
In the mid-19th century, the Xhosa prophetess Nongqawuse received revelations from her
ancestors at the Gxarha river mouth valley that would have a profound impact on her people.
Her prophecies arose in a context where the colonial government persistently intruded on
Xhosa territories and where locals responsively resisted such aggression. At the time of her
visions, the region experienced a severe drought and bovine lungsickness. Nongqawuse
prohesised that the mass slaughter of their cattle would see the Xhosa ancestors rise from the
dead, defeat the colonists, and return the Xhosa nation to its former glory. Her prophesies
started a millennial movement that threw the Xhosa nation into a tragic spiral that hastened
the colonisation of the area.
