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A young girl called Nongqawuse had seen a messenger from the realm of the
ancestors at a waterhole. She told her uncle Mhlakaza about her vision. As he was
an important Xhosa priest, his social rank granted a great impact to the prophecy he
derived from his niece's vision.
He announced that soldiers who were incarnations of the souls of dead Xhosa
warriors, would arrive on the 18th of February over the sea, come onto land through
the "Hole in the Wall" and defeat the hated British. But, he continued, the Xhosa had
to make a sacrifice to help the warriors by destroying all their cereals and killing all
their cattle. After the victory, there would be food in abundance for everybody.
The Xhosa followed the instructions in his prophecy and killed their whole stock of
cattle. The catastrophe took its course. Thousands of Xhosa starved and the British
had an easy time conquering the remaining people.
Near Coffee Bay is a prominent rock formation with a big hole in the middle, which
has become a symbol for the Xhosa of a great historical tragedy, the "Great Cattle
Killing".
