Polity AmaPondo

If you are looking for the page with the statistics about this polity you can find it here: All Statistics

Was a precolonial indigenous chiefdom or kingdom of the Mpondo people in modern-day South Africa. It is unclear whether the Pondoland (amaPondo) depicted on maps was a separate country from amaPondomise, or the two were one unique continuum. For this reason amaPondo and amaPondomise are depicted as two separate polities,.

Summary

Mpondo (Pondo) NGUNI people who have inhabited

the area between the Mtata and Mtamvuna rivers in present-

day SOUTH AFRICA for nearly two centuries. The

Mpondo were forced to flee their homelands during the

MFECANE, a series of ZULU military campaigns begun in

the 1820s. Chief Faku reorganized the Mpondo and established

an agricultural state west of the Mzinvubu River

between present-day Durban and Port Edward.

Good trade relations with the Europeans coupled

with increased agricultural productivity created a seemingly

stable Mpondo nation. However, internal conflict

among rival clans made the Mpondo vulnerable to European

conquest. Mpondo territories, coveted for their

agricultural richness as well as for grazing lands, were

overtaken by the British and incorporated into CAPE

COLONY in 1894.

Establishment

  • January 1816: In 1815, after the defeat of the Xhosa people in the Fifth Xhosa War, Xhosa chief Ngqungqushe's territory was annexed by the AmaPondo people.
  • January 1816: Ngqungqushe a Nyanza becomes the first king of the chiefdom of AmaPondo.

Chronology

Interactive Chronologies with maps are available in the section Changes Navigation

1. Events

  • January 1863: A group of Griquas who had left the Cape of Good Hope in the 18th century, and had settled in the area around present-day Philippolis in 1826 faced the prospect of their area coming under the control of the emerging Orange Free State. Therefore they founded the independent state of Griqualand East in the are of modern-day Kokstad.
  • March 1894: amaPondo was incorporated into Cape Colony.

Disestablishment

  • March 1894: amaPondo was incorporated into Cape Colony.