DNA testing may be the only solution to the furore surrounding the ‘skull’ of Chief Hintsa, recently discovered in Scotland. Eddie Koch reports
The controversial “head” of Chief Hintsa, which has been brought back to South Africa, will become the subject of an intriguing scientific study mixing high-tech genetic analysis with Xhosa oral history.
Hintsa was killed 161 years ago, in what most Xhosa people regard as the worst atrocity in their colonial history. Controversial sangoma, Chief Nicholas Gcaleka went to Britain and found a skull in Scotland he says belongs to Hintsa.
Researchers plan to use methods from a celebrated 1991 case when forensic scientists identified the skeletons of Tsar Nicholas and his family, by matching them with DNA taken from the Tsarina’s most famous descendant, Prince Philip.
Officials in the Eastern Cape government have consulted with paleo-anthropologist Philip Tobias and forensic geneticist Trevor Jenkins to set up an inquiry aimed at ending the heated row that broke out when Gcaleka returned from Scotland with the skull.
Professor Jenkins this week sent a detailed memorandum to the office of Eastern Cape Premier Raymond Mhlaba outlining an approach to the proposed study. This involves a series of preliminary steps designed to establish if the skull from Scotland is from a male or female and whether the hole in it is consistent with the wounds inflicted on Hintsa.
It is believed parliamentarians from the Transkei have also arranged for Alan Morris, one of Tobias’s doctoral students and author of a new book called Skeletons of Contact, to study the skull in Cape Town before a final decision is made to send it for DNA testing.
The legendary warrior chief was shot dead in 1835, during one of the Cape frontier wars, and his body mutilated by a British militia, giving rise to a popular belief that Hintsa was beheaded and that, because his body was not buried intact, his spirit is still at large and restless.
Xhosa chiefs loyal to Xhosa paramount Chief Xoliliswe Sigcau, a direct successor to Hintsa’s throne, say the sangoma with a Scottish skull is a charlatan out to make money and reputation by playing on Xhosa sensitivities. They confiscated the skull at an imbizo held early this month at the paramoun-chief’s great palace near Willowvale, Transkei, and have lodged it under guard at a police mortuary.
If the cranium passes the rudimentary tests outlined by Jenkins it will then be subjected to more advanced DNA analysis. This will involve taking DNA from the cranium and matching it with samples taken from direct living descendants of Hintsa.
“We have already identified people who are willing to have the tests done on them. Even Chief Hintsa is willing to provide DNA so that we can resolve this very serious matter,” royal representative Mda Mda told the Mail & Guardian this week.
Jenkins and Tobias say it will be most reliable to take blood samples of women who have descended from the matrilineal line in Hintsa’s direct family, as this allows access to a special kind of DNA found only in female cells — known as mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid — that is more reliable as it lasts much longer than the more common substance found in unisex chromosomes.
Jenkins has suggested to the Eastern Cape government that investigations using mitochondrial DNA should then be supplemented by a study of samples taken from male descendants of Hintsa. It will also be necessary to locate the skeleton of Hintsa so that a comparative analysis can be done on chromosomal material taken from the bones and the cranium.
The only similar study to the one proposed was carried out in 1991 by an Anglo-Russian team of scientists after two amateur Russian historians found a communal grave near Ekaterinburg containing the remains of Tsar Nicholas, his wife Tsarina Alexandra and their four daughters.
A group of British and Russian scientists matched mitochondrial DNA from a living maternal relative of the Romanov family with that of a female skeleton and three child remains and also took samples from the Duke of Edinburgh, a direct descendant of Tsarina Alexandra’s family, to confirm the identity of the mother and her children in the grave.
“This matter is of immense importance to us which is why we are prepared to go to such lengths to decide, once and for all, whether this is the skull of King Hintsa,” says Mda. “South African history has no more burning episode with us Xhosa. The way in which Hintsa was killed and the treatment meted out to him is still a running sore.”
Mda said the Eastern Cape government will make low-key diplomatic approaches to the British government to discuss the possibility that some remains of Hintsa are now located in England.
Historical records show that Hintsa’s ears were cut off and efforts were made to extract some of his teeth as war trophies, a practice common among British troops during wars of colonial conquest in South Africa. Popular belief has it that these body parts and the skull — if it was taken from the chief’s body — need to be properly buried for peace to prevail in the Eastern Cape.
It is believed the premier’s office is handling the row over the skull carefully as it could become embroiled in a wider set of tensions between traditional leaders from the Transkei, who lost their power after the 1994 election, and Mhlaba’s secular government in the new province.