Chief Kama: the Christian collaborator

The Ann Shaw Mission Church in the Eastern Cape’s former Ciskei is known in Xhosa as KwaKama (Kama’s place) in reference to the nearby grave of the 19th century Xhosa chief William Kama. Mike Burgess tells the story of this devout Christian and controversial collaborator with the British.

- Mike Burgess

Chief Kama (1798 to 1875) of the Gqunukhwebe Xhosa was baptised in 1825 and remained a devout Wesleyan Methodist until his death in the mid-1870s.

His dedication to Christianity was deeply resented by other Xhosas, including his older brother and Gqunukhwebe paramount, Phato. This tension eventually prompted Kama and his followers not only to flee their ancestral homeland along the Eastern Cape coast, but to also collaborate with the British in two successive Anglo-Xhosa wars in the 1840s and 1850s.

As a reward for his loyalty, the British gave Kama a tract of conquered Ngqika Xhosa land in 1853 on which the Ann Shaw Mission Church, named in honour of the wife of the Reverend William Shaw, was built.

KAMA’S BAPTISM