Linguistics · The Click Consonant
The Q in our name is San.
Bantu languages do not have click consonants. The Nguni people — Xhosa, Zulu — picked up the Q, C and X clicks from centuries of living alongside San people. That process of contact is exactly how the Thembu became a creolised San-Bantu population.
Qithi. Mqithi. These core names in the clan hold a palatal click. In the ancient !Ui-Taa (!Xam) and Central Khoe language groupings, these names carried authentic click symbols. European administrators who could not spell the click wrote: Kiti, Chiti, Xiti, Tshiti. If you search for AmaQithi in old archives, search for those too.
!Qhiti → ‡Qiti → ||Giti
Qwabi follows a related but separate etymology line in family tradition: from axab, meaning son, adapted in local speech and records as Qwabi/Qhwabi.
You can change a name on paper. You cannot change the sound in the mouth of someone who has spoken it their whole life.
What the San Brought
The roles our San ancestors carried.
The archives and oral tradition show a mixed history of alliance and incorporation. We read AmaQithi as a San-descended people whose role in Thembu history included both partnership and later folding into larger political structures. Their knowledge, ritual authority, and land reading remained central in that process.
Rainmakers
The AmaQithi were described in historical records as "Royal San" who served as ritual specialists and rainmakers for the Thembu kings. Called upon during droughts to ensure the survival of royal cattle — drawing on their ritual seniority as original inhabitants of the land.
The Royal Lineage and San Heritage of the abaThembu, PDF pp. 2 [History, 126]
Elite Marksmen
San marksmen served as elite units alongside Thembu and Xhosa forces during the War of Mlanjeni (1850–1853). In 1879, San bowmen fought alongside Moorosi, while local villagers in Quthing replenished mountain food supplies by night. The password to Moorosi's stronghold was "Moroa" (Bushman).
King & Challis (2017), p. 233; Marion How via King & Challis
Frontier Scouts
Their superior knowledge of the Xonxa and Cacadu mountain terrain made them irreplaceable for tracking colonial movements. No outsider could find their way through those paths without San guides.
Oral history; Stanford (Macquarrie 1962:31)
Rock Artists
The White Kei basin was a hub of San rock art activity. San painter 'Gcu-wa (brother of chief Mada'kane) was still recorded in the area as late as 1869 — one of the last practising San artists in the Eastern Cape.
update1.md §3; colonial records cited in who-we-are page
Herbalists
Holders of medicinal knowledge from local flora. The First People of the land carried the deepest knowledge of what grew in it — knowledge that sustained both their own people and their Thembu allies.
Oral history tradition
Counsellors to Royalty
The AmaQithi held a position at the Rhodana court comparable to senior counsellors. Early Thembu chiefs gave San hunters precedence at large game kills, recognising their authority as original landowners.
The Royal Lineage and San Heritage of the abaThembu, PDF pp. 2 [32, 34, 35]
San Leadership · Eastern Cape & Lesotho
The San leaders of the AmaQithi world.
The AmaQithi were not alone. They were part of a wider network of San leaders navigating the same pressures — colonial expansion, Nguni settlement, and the loss of land they had held for millennia. These are the leaders the archives record.
Quthing (Lesotho) → White Kei River Basin
AmaQithi — the search for Qithi
Oral tradition says Ntande had twins, Qithi and Cube, accepted through black-cow slaughter rites. We have not yet found a matching colonial record confirming that twin detail in writing. New oral history also says Quthing is linked to Quu, not named from AmaQithi.
The San-Phuti Matrix (AmaQithi Research Archive, 2026); Stow, The Native Races of South Africa, Ch. IX, p. 170; Stanford (Macquarrie 1962:31)
Glen Grey · White Kei River Basin
Madolo (Madura · Madoor)
Chief of a powerful San tribe originally occupying the Klipplaats and Upper Black Kei Rivers. Relocated to Glen Grey around 1835, settling near the Bushman School on the White Kei River. Led 200 levies (San, Khoe, Mfengu, and Thembu) for the British in the War of the Axe (1846). Retreated to White Kei caves around 1850 after conflict with Thembu chief Ndhela. Last recorded at age approximately 80 in 1856, withdrawing into the Maloti-Drakensberg.
Colonial frontier records; update1.md §4
Lower Black Kei · White Kei Junction
Mada'kane
Chief of a San tribe in the valley of the Lower Black Kei, down to its junction with the White Kei. His final stronghold was an inaccessible glen near that junction which bears his name. His brother, 'Gcu-wa, was a noted San painter still active in 1869 — one of the last recorded practising San artists in the Eastern Cape.
Colonial records; Stanford field notes (Macquarrie 1962)
White Kei River Basin
Flux
Close associate of Madolo. Fought alongside him against the immigrant Thembu chief Ndhela around 1850. When colonial authorities moved against them, Flux and Madolo fled together to the caves on the White Kei River banks.
Colonial frontier records
Maloti Mountains · Sehonghong Cave
Soai
The last major San leader of the Maloti mountains. A close friend and ally of Phuthi chief Moorosi — the same Moorosi after whom Qwabi Joka named his son Molosi. Soai's people frequently intermarried with the Phuthi. Killed by Sotho forces in 1871–1872 in an ambush near a pool.
update1.md §4; oral history
Difaqane-era Mountains
Quu
San leader in oral history. Current oral account says Quu was Moorosi's father-in-law and that Quthing is linked to Quu. We are holding this as oral evidence pending audio publication.
update1.md §4
Xuka & Mooi Rivers · Drakensberg Base
Nqabayo (Ngqabayi)
Led a band of 43 men near the Xuka and Mooi Rivers. Oral history places Glen Grey San groups under Ngqabayi in the same period as nearby Madolo groups. Oral memory also says conflict with Jumba-linked Thembu groups broke out during drought when San rainmakers were blamed for no rain.
update1.md §4; Stanford records
Tsolo District
Luhayi
Head of a main San family in the Tsolo district and the official rainmaker for Mpondomise chief Mditshwa. Photographed by Sir Walter Stanford in 1888 — one of the few photographic records of a San leader in this region. Held the same dual role the AmaQithi held at Rhodana: San ancestry performing rainmaking and healing for a neighbouring Nguni chief.
Stanford (Macquarrie 1962); photograph collection
Chronology
The San presence in the White Kei — the written record.
≥ 10,000 BCE
San First People occupy the White Kei River basin, Xonxa mountains, and Cacadu rock shelters. Their rock art is among the oldest in southern Africa.
c. 1835
San chief Madolo relocates his tribe from the Klipplaats and Upper Black Kei to the Glen Grey area near Lady Frere.
1839
Missionary James Read establishes a Bushman School on the White Kei (Cacadu) River. By 1842 fifteen San families live there. Chief Madolo attends services.
1841
Queen Nonesi establishes the Thembu Great Place at Rhodana. San people are documented in the White Kei basin. Qithi Village sits directly adjacent to the royal residence. Whether AmaQithi were present at Rhodana at this date, or arrived later after 1879, is not settled — the Qwabi and Joka lines are documented only after the 1879 war.
1842
Qwabi Joka is born near Agnes, White Kei River, in the heart of documented San territory.
c. 1850
Sir Walter Stanford records Silayi's testimony: Thembu groups on the White Kei are on "comparatively friendly terms with San families and clans" in the area. Source: Macquarrie 1962:31.
1850–1853
War of Mlanjeni. San marksmen serve as elite units alongside Thembu forces defending the Xonxa and Rhodana mountains.
1856
Chief Madolo, aged approximately 80, retreats into the Maloti-Drakensberg with the remnant of his San band. They disappear from the colonial record.
1869
San painter 'Gcu-wa (brother of chief Mada'kane) is still recorded living in the White Kei area, carrying paint pots on his belt. One of the last recorded practising San artists in the Eastern Cape.
1879
Moorosi's War. San bowmen fight alongside Moorosi, and local villagers in Quthing replenish food on the mountain by night. Basotho auxiliaries fight with colonial forces. The password is "Moroa" (Bushman). New oral-history wording also gives Moorosi's San name as Qengha (Qenya in isiXhosa).
1888
Sir Walter Stanford photographs San leader Luhayi in the Tsolo district — one of the last photographic records of a San leader in the Eastern Cape.
Izibongo
The praise names of AmaQithi — in our own voices.
UMQITHI, NDINGA, RHADU, MNONO, UMLEBE,
NOMSOBONDWANA,
U NKOMO AYIZALI IZALA NGOKU MISELWA,
SOPITSHO, YEM YEM, NGQOLOMSILA,
VELA BAMBHENTSELE, AMANTANDE,
NGAMAQITHI AMAHLE NEENZIPHO ZAWO.
“The AmaQithi — beautiful, with their nails.” You say this when you introduce yourself. You say it when you arrive somewhere and need to be known.
Izibongo are praise poems — the clan's memory spoken aloud. Names, events, the character of the people who came before. They were not written first. They were spoken. Passed from parents to children, said at gatherings, said to strangers who needed to know who you were.
The AmaQithi izibongo survived the colonial years, the forced moves, and everything done to make San people forget who they were. They are still being said today. That counts for something.
See full iziduko authority pageThe San heritage in your blood is real. Let us help you trace it.
Join the AmaQithi register, connect with family, and be part of the DNA research initiative to document our San ancestry.