Kentani Chief

Kentani Chief
Actor
Principal country concerned : Column : Theater, Cinema/tv

Biographical information lacking.
According to The Bioscope (25 September 1919, 21), Kentani was "ruler of a Fingo tribe" and "brother of the man who started the last Kaffir War" a reference to the Ninth Cape Frontier War (1877-8) in which the Fingo (Mfengu) were British allies ranged against amaXhosa fighting to regain their lands from white colonists and Mfengu chiefs. While he may have been Mfengu by ethnicity, the name Kentani (Centane) does not appear on lists of Mfengu chiefs. As the name of both a hill and a nearby colonial village in the Butterworth district of the Transkei, Kentani had prestige as the place where Mfengu soldiers, with British support, had held off Gcaleka and Nqaika Xhosa attackers in February 1878. Kentani, who was probably a headman rather than a chief, evidently associated himself with the place or the battle, but whether he came from there is an open question. The fact that The Rose of Rhodesia was filmed at the Bawa Falls in the Butterworth district would also suggest that Kentani and Yumi had a homestead in the vicinity or were on particularly good terms with the local headman.

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