Her prophecies resulted in a millenarian belief that culminated in the Xhosa cattle-killing and famine of 1856–1857, in what is now Eastern Cape, South Africa.

Nongqawuse was born in 1841 near the Gxarha River in independent Xhosaland but close to the border of the recently established colony of British Kaffraria in Eastern Cape South Africa.

According to historian Jeffrey B. Peires, Nongqawuse stated in a deposition that "Mhlakaza was my uncle ... my father's name Umhlanhla of the Kreli tribe.

The orphaned Nongqawuse was raised by her uncle Mhlakaza, who was the son of a councillor of Xhosa King Sarili kaHintsa.

[4] Mhlakaza was a religious man, a Xhosa spiritualist, who left Xhosaland after his mother's death and spent time in the Cape Colony, where he became familiar with Christianity.

[4] In April 1856, 15-year-old Nongqawuse and her friend Nombanda, who was between the ages of 8 and 10, went to scare birds from her uncle's crops in the fields by the sea at the mouth of the River Gxarha in the present day Wild Coast region of South Africa.

[4] She claimed that the spirits had told her that the Xhosa people should destroy their crops and kill their cattle, the source of their wealth as well as food.

During this time, many Xhosa herds were plagued with "lung sickness",[citation needed] possibly introduced by European cattle.