Xhosa

The Xhosa kingdom arose among Nguni communities in what is now South Africa's Eastern Cape. Oral tradition credits Tshawe, ancestor of the ruling clan, with overthrowing his brother and bringing other chiefdoms under his authority before the fifteenth century.

In 1779 the Cape Colony set the Great Fish River as its eastern boundary, despite Xhosa communities already living west of it. The first frontier war began that year; colonial commandos attacked Xhosa chiefdoms and seized cattle, while further fighting broke out in 1789.