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Updated: May 1, 2025
This Kafir, although not a chief, rose to power by the force of a superior intellect and a strong will. He was well-known in Grahamstown, having been in the habit of paying it frequent visits, on which occasions he evinced great curiosity on all subjects, speculative as well as practical. Makana appears to have been an apt scholar.
It has been thought by some that Makana was a "noble" savage, and that although he imposed on the credulity of his countrymen, his aim was to raise himself to sovereign power in order to elevate the Kafir race nearer to a level with Europeans.
One who was an eye-witness of the fight tells us that the bodies of about 2000 Kafir warriors strewed the field of battle, and that many others perished of their wounds in the rivulet leading down to the Cape Corps' barracks. Nuka, the faithless interpreter, was shot, but Makana escaped. A few months afterwards, however, he delivered himself up, and the other chiefs sued for peace.
With Makana's surrender the war of 1819 ended. The Lynx himself was sent prisoner to Robben Island. After nearly two years' confinement he attempted to escape in a boat with some other prisoners, but the boat was upset in the surf on Blueberg beach, and Makana was drowned, while his companions escaped.
Makana had taken care to provide himself with a spy and informer, in the person of Klaas Nuka, the Government Interpreter to Colonel Wilshire, who was at that time in command of the troops. Three days previous to the attack, this villain well aware of Makana's approach informed the Colonel that Kafirs had been seen in the precisely opposite direction.
For these ends, as well as the recovery of stolen cattle, a strong force was sent into Kafirland. While the troops were absent, a body of Kafirs assembled in the bush of the Great Fish River, from which they issued to attack Grahamstown. They were led by a remarkable man named Makana. He was also styled the Lynx.
But whatever be the truth regarding his objects, the invasion of Kafirland by the white men gave Makana an opportunity of which he was not slow to avail himself.
His followers had suffered, with others, from the proceedings of the troops, and his soul was fired with a desire to be revenged and "drive the white men into the sea," a favourite fate, in the Kafir mind, reserved for the entire colonial family! Makana was general enough to perceive that nothing effective could be accomplished by the mere marauding habits to which his countrymen were addicted.
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