Chief Jongumsobomvu Maqoma

Born in 1798, he was the right hand son of Ngqika, King of the Rharhabe division of the Xhosa nation. Implacable opposed to his father’s ceding of the land between the Fish and Kieskamma river to the Cape Colony, Maqoma became committed to regaining his ancestral home. Chief Maqoma’s grave is located on the south east periphery of the site of the Ntaba ka Ndoda National Monument. Chief Maqoma was a reluctant warrior, who was also tactically astute and strategically brilliant. He conducted several hugely successful guerrilla campaigns against British forces and colonialists in the Amathole Mountains region during the Frontier Wars, also known as the Xhosa Wars of Dispossession.