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

positive changes into Zululand as a result of European influences. The mfecane
narrative was also augmented with the history of the Kololo and the Rolong
states. These decades also saw a fascination with cannibalism which was
alleged to have occurred in Transgariep in general and the greater Caledon
Valley area in particular, as well as in the otherwise depopulated Natal. Lastly,
the synthesising of the various regional and ethnic histories into a Zulu-centric
whole was a first effort to come to grips with the wider geographic picture of the
mfecane narrative. These attempts were taken up in the next period and cast
into a very definitive, Zulu-centric shape.
1870 to 1876 – The Shepstone Factor
While no actual wars between colonial and African states took place in southern
Africa from 1870 to 1876, tensions between indigenous and European polities
were growing considerably, culminating in a series of wars from 1877 to 1881.
During the early 1870’s only two works of significance are found, both of which
focused exclusively on Natal and the Zulu state. One was by Shepstone, the
controversial Secretary of Native Affairs for Natal and the other by Brooks,
whose book promoted the colony of Natal to prospective British settlers and
investors. He included a popularised history of Natal and Zululand before British
annexation, largely following Shepstone’s article, ‘The Zulus’. 74
Although Shepstone was instrumental in shaping and implementing Natal’s
“native policy” for a generation, he only published for the first time in 1875. 75 He
was not merely a chronicler, but a participant in mfecane-related historical
events. The son of a Methodist missionary in the eastern Cape and Transkei,
he learnt to speak Xhosa fluently. At the age of seventeen, he was directly
involved in the 1834/35 war as an interpreter at D’Urban’s headquarters. His
involvement with the Fingo was even closer, as he was the officer-in-charge of
Ayliff’s Fingo trek to the Cape Colony in 1835. He never disagreed with
74 H. Brooks and R.J. Mann, Natal: A History and Description of the Colony (London, 1876). T.
Shepstone, 'The Zulus', The Cape Monthly Magazine, 9 (1875), 95-104.
75 Ibid., 95-104. Also published in Britain as T. Shepstone, 'The Early History of the Zulu-Kafir
Race of South-Eastern Africa', Journal of the Society of Arts, 23 (January 1875).
95