She was educated by the British in the Cape Colony, and later became a landowner possibly the first black woman to hold a land title in South Africa.
The Ngqika King Sandile kaNgqika sent his daughter Emma and his two sons to Cape Town to be educated,[1][2] although they were referred to by Anglican bishop Robert Gray (bishop of Cape Town) as "hostages for the peace and prosperity of their country".
The British hoped that both Emma and her older brother Gonya, who was Sandile's heir, would prove to be influencers to their people.
She sought to return to the Xhosa for brief periods, but these were turned down as there were concerns by George Grey, Governor of the Cape Colony, that she would be married to a non-Christian.
[1] There was then a struggle between her father, who wished for her to marry a neighbouring Chief and Bishop Melusi Gray.