No Xhosa cattle-killing movement

[walmart]

The great Cattle-killing was a millennialist movement which began among the Xhosa in 1856, and led them to destroy their own means of subsistence in the belief that it would bring about salvation by supernatural spirits. In April, two girls, one named Nongqawuse, went to scare birds out of the fields. When she returned, she told her uncle Mhlakaza that she had met three spirits at the bushes, and that they had told her that all cattle should be slaughtered, and their crops destroyed. On the day following the destruction, the dead Xhosa would return and help expel the whites. This movement drew to an end by early 1858. By then, approximately 40,000 people had starved to death and over 400,000 cattle were slaughtered.

Say Nongqawuse doesn't have her visions of spirits and the great Cattle-killing doesn't happen

What would be the impact on the Xhosa

What would be the impact on British colonization without the Xhosa killing their cattle

History of the Cape Colony from 1806 to 1870 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Grey Wolf]

Interesting! I did not know about this weirdness!

 

[leopard9]

The only reason why the Xhosa decided to kill their cattle was because they were desperate to stop the Boer people's northern advance and military conflicts between the two groups were almost always very lopsided in favor of the Boers. It reminds me of the Ghost Dance movement, though the Native Americans were in a much worse spot than the Zulus and Xhosas were. If the cattle killing doesn't happen then you have larger native populations that are able to militarily and socially resist British colonization to a greater degree and maybe are able to negotiate a better political place for themselves under British colonization. Colonization would happen either way, 40k Xhosa aren't making the difference.