Makhanda , also spelled Makana and also known as Nxele ("the left-handed"), (c. 1780 – 25 December 1820[1][failed verification][a]) was a Xhosa indigenous doctor.

After Makhanda's father died when he was a young boy, he was brought up by his mother strongly influenced by her village's Khoi traditions.

Missionary Dr James van der Kemp had established a mission station in Bethelsdorp in 1799, and Makhanda may have met him.

Makhanda and all of the amaXhosa were opposed to the encroachment of European settlers in the region, which had begun when Afrikaner trekboers from the Cape Colony started migrating into their lands, and culminated in the expulsion of 20,000 Xhosa from the Zuurveld in 1812.

[4] In 1818 at the Battle of Amalinde, Makhanda fought alongside a combined force of the Xhosa against Chief Ngqika, who was considered to be selling out his people in return for personal gain as an ally of the British Cape Colony.

Defeated by superior British firepower and poor tactics[citation needed] by the amaNdlambe leadership, Makana surrendered.

The British colonial government imprisoned him on Robben Island, but treated him with great respect, giving him private accommodation, food and furniture.

[3] Dawn, the monthly journal of the uMkhonto we Sizwe, credited his actions with having inspired the multiculturalism of the African National Congress (ANC) upon its founding.