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

and republics for the next half century. It is thus not surprising that, while this
text treated Africans in the same hostile vein of Godlonton, it went one step
further when it stated, without offering any new evidence, that the Ngwane were
‘a large horde of cannibals’. 69 Although the idea of cannibalism in the greater
Caledon Valley area had been in the literature since the 1840’s, the 1860’s saw
a new fascination with the subject, with all reports on cannibalistic activities in
the past being accepted as fact. 70 In this first general history of the Cape
Colony, the authors summarised the hitherto separately narrated mfecane
accounts pertaining to the Cape Colony and the Transkei, such as the story of
the Ngwane or the Fingo. Their lucid account reflected the colonists’ view of
mfecane history, solidifying and popularising the pre-existing mfecane narrative.
Two authors attempted to construct a coherent picture from the increasing body
of information on chiefdoms, their wars and their movements in this geographic
region. The first was Holden, who wrote a condensed overview of mfecane
historiography in the Transgariep region. He described a sequence of collisions
of chiefdoms, starting with the Zulu state under Shaka as the first, and
culminating in the expulsion from the area of certain chiefdoms, which then
clashed with peoples further away, resulting in the migration of yet other states.
This process occurred repeatedly across the highveld. According to Holden, the
Zulu attacked the Mantatees in 1825, who in turn struck at the Sotho, who then
attacked the Tswana, who finally attacked the San. It was a mechanistic model,
describing a multitude of wars, violence and bloodshed that led to many
chiefdoms fragmenting and migrating to avoid extermination. At the end of this
series of events, fragments of chiefdoms were to be found in new geographic
areas, often with no clear indication as to how they came to be there. 71
69 Wilmot et al., History of the Cape Colony, 295. 'Cannibalism in South Africa', The South
African Magazine 3 (1869), 195-96. 'The Cave Cannibals of South Africa', The South African
Magazine, 2 (November 1868), 641-45.
70 Ibid., 641-45. 'Cannibalism in South Africa', 195-6.
71 W.C. Holden, 'Brief History of the Orange-River Sovereignty, South Africa', Appendix to
Holden, History of Colony of Natal, 342.
93