Emma Sandile
Emma Sandile | |
---|---|
Resting place | Eastern Cape |
Nationality | Ngqika people |
Spouse | Chief Junior Joaquim |
Parent | (father) |
Emma Sandile (c. 1842–1892), also known as Princess Emma, was the daughter of the
Biography
The
She took to writing about her experiences, the first known writing in English by a Xhosa woman.[2] She arrived at the College at the age of 16, alongside two other girls as company and 18 boys. Initially there was no specific education for the girls, who took to cooking and sewing. After a year a teacher was hired for them, and Emma was baptised six months after. She sought to return to the Xhosa for brief periods, but these were turned down as there were concerns by George Grey, Governor of the Cape Colony, that she would be married to a non-Christian.[3] However, Grey did grant her ownership of a farm.[4] She may have been the first black woman in Southern Africa to have land registered in her name.[1]
There was then a struggle between her father, who wished for her to marry a neighbouring Chief and Bishop Melusi Gray.
Her husband (Junior Joaquim) left her further land, and Emma successfully petitioned the land commission to receive the land in her name.[2] The farm was in Ciskei in the south east of modern South Africa. Emma died in 1892, leaving the land to her four daughters and one son, none of which were brought up Christian.[2] There continued to be legal disputes about the land owned by her into the 1980s.[4]
Notes
- ^ a b Walker 1990, p. 505.
- ^ a b c d e f Daymond, Driver & Meintjes 2003, p. 92.
- ^ a b c d Daymond, Driver & Meintjes 2003, p. 91.
- ^ a b Sheldon 2005, p. 72.
- ^ Feni, Lulamile (7 September 2015). "Call for Grave of Chief to be Found". Daily Dispatch. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
References
- Daymond, Margaret J.; Driver, Dorothy; Meintjes, Sheila (2003). Women Writing Africa: The Southern Region. Feminist Press at CUNY. ISBN 978-1-55861-407-9.
- Sheldon, Kathleen (2005). Historical Dictionary of Women in Sub-Saharan Africa. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-5331-0.
- Walker, Cheryl (1990). Women and Gender in Southern Africa to 1945. Cape Town: D. Philip. ISBN 978-085255-205-6.