The Historiographical Development of the Concept “mfecane” and ...

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information on the mfecane history as English texts dealt with above, except that it contained a strong pro-boer bias. With some modifications, these works repeated ideas put forward in the previous period, and would become important in the next phase. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, these texts were highly regarded as original narratives on African history. These authors turned the mfecane narrative, especially on the depopulation of Natal, into a fixed sequence of themes, as Wright called it, which became universally accepted. 58 There were eleven writers on the mfecane in the Transgariep region and eastern Cape. The focus in the former was mainly on the greater Caledon Valley area. Contemporary politics and the wars between the Free State and the Basotho state influenced some to write in support of Moshoeshoe. Most claimed that their information came mainly from oral sources, but the literary antecedents are clearly evident in these texts. Their contribution to writing on the mfecane was based on their repetition of the dominant mfecane discourse with minor changes, some of which were to become important in later periods. Writers describing events in the Transgariep introduced two new actors, who emerged from the mists of the “blank space”. One of these authors was Livingstone, an LMS missionary who, when his book appeared in 1857, 59 was already famous in Britain due to the publication of extracts of his reports to the LMS head office in the popular press as well as in scientific and Christian publications. His unique contribution to mfecane historiography was the first account of Kololo history. Their Morena Sebetwane told Livingstone that the Kololo lived in the area of the sources of the Wilge River, in today’s north- 58 Wright, 'Political Mythology’, 278. 59 De Kock et al. (eds), Dictionary S. A. Biography (1972), II, 404-9. T. Holmes, David Livingstone: Letters and Documents, 1841-1872 (Lusaka, 1990), 344. J.D. Clark and G. Clay, ‘David Livingstone: Chronology', in B.W. Lloyd (ed), Livingstone, 1873-1973 (Cape Town, 1973), 90-91. I. Schapera (ed), Livingstone's Missionary Correspondence, 1841-1856 (Berkeley, 1961), 180. D. Livingstone, Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa (London, 1857), vii, 25-27, 34, 93. 89
eastern Free State. There they were conquered by and incorporated into the Tlokwa chiefdom which became known as the Mantatees. Livingstone then included the conventional story of the Mantatees’ tour of devastation through the highveld, destroying numerous chiefdoms until they reached Dithakong, where they were defeated in mid-1823 by a missionary-led Griqua/Tlhaping army. According to Livingstone, Sebetwane recounted how the defeated Kololo then separated from the Tlokwa, headed north and routed the combined army of the Ngwaketse, Hurutshe, Kgatla and a Kwena state. They settled in Litubaruba, the capital of the Kwena chiefdom for a time, until they were evicted by the Kwena owners, supported by gunmen. Cape newspapers identified these as members of the party of a Grahamstown trader, Bain. Sebetwane described how his people were thus forced to migrate again until they settled in today’s south-western Zambia, where they created the Lozi state and where Livingstone encountered them. 60 Broadbent, also a missionary, wrote in his autobiography about the short-lived Wesleyan mission he had established with his partner Hodgson amongst the Rolong chiefdom of Morena Sefunela in 1823/4. Describing mfecane events from what he perceived to have been a Rolong point of view, he reported on Mantatee depredations in the Free State and Transvaal, which also affected the Rolong people amongst whom he lived. While his report was based on information provided by Africans he met, other conclusions were based on his own experience. He described a sighting by himself and Hodgson in January 1823, when they were still south of the Vaal River, of large numbers of Mantatee warriors with large oval shields. Broadbent’s text thus lent authority to already existing intelligence on the widespread destruction caused by the 60 Ibid., 13, 71-75. [A.G. Bain] 'Extracts from the Journal of Mr. Andrew Geddes Bain Kept During a Visit to Some of the Interior Tribes of Southern Africa in the Year 1826', The South African Quarterly Journal, 1 (July-September 1830), 415-28. A.G. Bain, 'Journey to the North, 1826', in M.H. Lister (ed), The Journals of Andrew Geddes Bain: Trader, Explorer, Soldier, Road Engineer and Geologist (Van Riebeeck Society, Vol. 30, Cape Town, 1949), 2-74. 90
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The Historiographical Development o
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General Histories 172 Chapter 6: Co
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his expulsion of several chiefdoms;
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The Graphics Services Unit, S. Abra
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The Library of the Rand Afrikaans U
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List of Maps Map 1 - Geographical R
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Chapter 1 Introduction Then you wil
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century was caused by the “mfecan
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produce a tradition, or what Michel
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which were to dominate Western thou
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was the "baggage" in the European w
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leader runs the risk of writing wit
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waged by nomadic tribes accompanied
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exaggerate in their talk, and we fe
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incorporated the remaining people i
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history’. 63 Consequently, libera
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Bantu settled in various blocks in
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‘From the 1970s it was the radica
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While Cobbing and the historians in
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illustrates, in part, the weddednes
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Map 2 - mfecane in the 1823 to 1838
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during this period, as it took the
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concepts of a theoretical equality
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tortuous, but information regarding
Page 49 and 50: However, this contradiction was not
Page 51 and 52: were murky and secretive, but were
Page 53 and 54: first assault out onto the highveld
Page 55 and 56: Map 3 - Thompson’s Map, 1827 This
Page 57 and 58: major implications for the later de
Page 59 and 60: Association”, for the British ann
Page 61 and 62: also applied to refugees from north
Page 63 and 64: Godlonton had come to the eastern C
Page 65 and 66: and the gallant settlers from their
Page 67 and 68: ecently abandoned mission station a
Page 69 and 70: travelled to Britain where he becam
Page 71 and 72: Make them [Zulu] out as blood thirs
Page 73 and 74: hand, to gather geographical, biolo
Page 75 and 76: despondency bordering on despair, o
Page 77 and 78: state at their various locations on
Page 79 and 80: cruel monster’ 127 along with oth
Page 81 and 82: Map 4 - mfecane in the 1839 to 1876
Page 83 and 84: depopulating all areas within their
Page 85 and 86: The writing of African history in t
Page 87 and 88: Map 5 - Harris’s Map, 1839 Harris
Page 89 and 90: Arbousset began the convention of g
Page 91 and 92: prove to their pro-mission readers,
Page 93 and 94: were the depopulators of the highve
Page 95 and 96: people became cannibals, first by n
Page 97 and 98: exercise, and the commission’s re
Page 99: him to reorganise the Mthethwa mili
Page 103 and 104: these authors followed their consci
Page 105 and 106: The second author, Shaw, had introd
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Page 109 and 110: of eight chiefdoms which, fleeing f
Page 111 and 112: Zulu” and the Natal African chief
Page 113 and 114: which there was a preponderance of
Page 115 and 116: state. Authors who focused only on
Page 117 and 118: Map 6 - mfecane in the 1877 to 1904
Page 119 and 120: The concept ”imperial”, as in t
Page 121 and 122: Cape Colony back to Britain in 1884
Page 123 and 124: supposed mythological roots of race
Page 125 and 126: Late Victorian Authors Numerous boo
Page 127 and 128: treatment of the Fynn papers, a sel
Page 129 and 130: Aboriginal?, 33 had already betraye
Page 131 and 132: Articles on African history publish
Page 133 and 134: European editors. Thus, these texts
Page 135 and 136: State. 53 The aim of this article w
Page 137 and 138: Europeans as well as Dutch and Engl
Page 139 and 140: Babrow’s acknowledgment of Theal
Page 141 and 142: defeat and desperate escape from Zu
Page 143 and 144: approach to history in general and
Page 145 and 146: his use of some archival documents,
Page 147 and 148: initial shock of this assault fled
Page 149 and 150: etween fiction and fact. 98 An exam
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mfecane narrative. He regarded Shak
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The most important changes in the h
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Chapter 5 The South African Period:
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economically stable until the onset
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latest British methodology of a-his
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Natal and Zululand During this peri
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Both were imbued with Theal’s rac
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of Moshoeshoe and served to uphold
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fortress attracting many chiefdoms.
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[Moshoeshoe] consisted of the intro
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Macgregor was more the editor than
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doubtful whether at any time in the
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English Methodist minister who, whi
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the material differently or have em
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the War Office put it, by the boers
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Winter, he joined the Pioneer Colum
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impinged on the history of the Cape
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Walker’s contribution to the mfec
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Afrikaner history. The few European
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Ellenberger resuscitated Arbousset
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Chapter 6 Conclusion If the white m
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Hodgson, Broadbent, Thompson, Shaw,
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than Shaka. The only surprising exc
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year after slavery was finally abol
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from Natal directly, like the Qwabe
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and were also present at the battle
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Godlonton and Arbousset. 42 These w
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including their livestock and somet
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century under review there were wri
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Shepstone’s four-wave theory, 66
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discourse, which was never able to
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Interior - 1829: Shepstone to Col.
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A378 (D) G.E. Cory, A Short History
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1.6 Killie Campbell Library, Durban
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Frost, P.J. A Bibliography of Missi
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Seligman, R.A. and Johnson, A. (eds
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3.3 Orange Freestate (Republic) ‘
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Précis of Information Concerning S
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Bank, A. 'The Great Debate and the
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Eldredge, E.A. ‘Sources of Confli
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Maloka, E.T. 'Missionary Historiogr
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Stapleton, T.J. 'Oral Evidence in a
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Wylie, D. 'A.T. Bryant's Inexplicab
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'Instructions Addressed to the Dire
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'The Orange Freestate Forty Years A
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Atmore, A. and Marks, S. 'The Imper
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Brill, J. 'Een Gedenkskrift over de
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Cobbing, J. 'A Tainted Well: The Ob
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Ellenberger, D.F. 'History of the B
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Hamilton, C. 'An Appetite for the P
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Hyam, R. 'African Interests and the
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Kennedy, R.F. 'Historical Accuracy'
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Lewis, L. ‘Book Review of: An Acc
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Milne, J. 'Major Warden: Early Life
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Okoye, F.N.C. 'Tschaka and the Brit
Page 261 and 262:
Reyburn, H.A. 'Piet Retief to Dunca
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Scully, W.C. 'Fragments of Native H
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Thompson, J.N. 'William Rowland Tho
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Vivian, 'Expedition Into Central Af
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Wylie, D. 'Proprietor of Natal: Hen
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Evangelical Missionary Society, on
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Beloff, M. Britain's liberal empire
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Bourne, H.R.F. Blacks and Whites in
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Bryant, A.T. Olden Times in Zululan
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Carlyle, J.E. South Africa and its
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Churchill, W.S. The River War ([ori
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Cory, G.E. The Rise of South Africa
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Dieterlen, H. Adolphe Mabille [1836
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Eldredge, E.A. 'Sources of Conflict
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Fraser, A. Boadicea's Chariot: The
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Gledhill, E. and J. In the Steps of
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Haggard, H.R. Cetshwayo and His Whi
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Henige, D.P. Oral Historiography (L
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Ireland, W. Historical Sketch of th
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Kiernan, V.G. The Lords of Human Ki
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Lehmann, E. and Reckwitz, E. 'The D
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Lucas, L. 'Historical Geography of
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Malan, J.H. Die Opkomst van 'n Repu
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Moffat, R. A Life's Labours in Sout
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Murray, H., Prof. Jameson and Wilso
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Orpen, J.M. Some Principles of Nati
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Plaatje, S.T. Mhudi: An Epic of Sou
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Reynolds, E. Stand the Storm: A His
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Saunders, C.C. The Making of the So
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Smith, K.W. From Frontier to Midlan
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Tatlow, A.H. Natal Province: Descri
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Thompson, G. Travels and Adventures
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Vail, L. ‘Ethnicity in Southern A
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Visagie, J.C. Die Trek uit Oos-Riet
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Webb, C. de B. The Mfecane, Centre
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Wright, J. 'Political Transformatio
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