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ZIGGURAT
of arable land as Xhosa land holdings diminished and the population
became more crowded. This meant that women had to work increasingly
harder on increasingly less available and less fertile land—making it likely
that women would welcome the suggestion that there was help on the
way. Although initially suggesting that the Cattle-Killing movement “cut
right across the spectrum of divergent interests in Xhosa society,” Peires
ultimately recognizes that it was women who “seem overwhelmingly to
have supported the believers.” 26 It is not insignificant that it was largely
women who followed Nongqawuse’s teachings. As women gave up
laboring in the fields, the loss of grain dramatically reduced food supplies.
Many scholars consider this to be the most substantial factor leading
to the following mass starvation, which led to 40,000 Xhosa deaths. 27
Understanding the appeal of Nongqawuse’s prophecies to women is
crucial to understanding their effects—the cessation of female labor in
the fields, far more so than the slaughter of cattle, is largely responsible
for the devastation to the Xhosa population caused by the Cattle-Killing
movement.
By exploring beyond the ungendered and therefore incomplete
analyses of the Cattle-Killing movement that have been produced
until now, the complexity of this millennial movement, as well as the
logic behind it, is revealed in full force. Moving past the assumption
that the Cattle-Killing movement had a “widespread and spontaneous
appeal for the overwhelming majority of Xhosa,” it becomes clear
that the “overwhelming support” for the Cattle-Killings came from
women, who were likely to benefit most from the permission—and in
fact, encouragement—to abandon the toilsome labor of cultivation. 28
Additionally, as colonial intrusion diminished the borders of Xhosaland,
because of their centrality to the productivity and survival of Xhosa
families and communities, it was women who suffered most directly under
the increasing loss of and competition over arable land. Furthermore,
the shrinking of the cattle herds of the Xhosa because of European
colonization as well as the lungsickness epidemic remarkably affected
women. The threatened loss of the wealth, namely cattle, fundamental
to the creation of marriages and families endangered their status, which
was ultimately linked to marriageability, fertility and the continuation
of the patrilineal line. Exploring the implications of the language and
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