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

mfecane narrative and thus supported the dominant discourse. There were,
however, two works that contained aspects of a contradictory sub-discourse.
The question of the origin of the African population in Natal lay at the centre of
Bird’s publications. A Cape civil servant seconded to the Natal Civil Service in
1845, he worked as a surveyor, magistrate and judge, and used his talents as a
writer to promote the interests of the Natal settlers. During the agitation for
responsible government in Natal, the colonial elite, as Pridmore noted, were
concerned to portray ‘their own colonial history, and the need for a “collective
historical pedigree”’. 23 The Natal government thus sponsored Bird, in his
retirement, to write The Annals of Natal. So he compiled official documents from
archives, but also included items from newspapers, missionary publications and
correspondence, as well as documents from Port Natal traders and related
commercial sources, such as Smith’s ’Précis’ of 1834. 24 Bird received
permission from H.F Fynn’s son to publish some of his father’s papers for the
first time. H.F Fynn, after his cameo role during the Natal Native Affairs
Commission in 1853 (see chapter three), had decided to write the memoirs of
his early years in Natal. Unable to proceed on his own, he obtained the help of
four or five others, in particular his new secretary who wrote most of the
material in 1858/9. 25 However, as Wylie has noted ‘with reference to Bird’s
Colony, Kafraria and Basutoland with Special Reference to Native Tribes
(London, 1877). A. Trollop, South Africa ([originally London, 1878], reprinted,
Cape Town, 1973). C.W. Hutton, The Autobiography of the Late Sir Andries
Stockenstrom 2 Vols. (Cape Town, 1887). B.E. Frere, ‘Historical Sketch of
South Africa', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 4 (1889), 237-59. G.
Lacy, 'Southern African Exploration: Pioneer Hunters, Traders and Explorers of
Southern Africa', South Africa, 25-27 (1895). A. MacKenzie and A. Stead, South
Africa: Its History, Heroes and Wars (London and Chicago, 1900).
23 J. Pridmore, 'The Production of H.F. Fynn c. 1830-1930', Paper - University of Natal,
Pietermaritzburg, October 1990, 16.
24 Bird, Annals of Natal, I, 252-269. See also Smith, ‘Historical Précis of Natal’, 157-72. De Kock
et al. (eds), Dictionary S. A. Biography (1972), II, 63. Potgieter (ed), Standard Encyclopaedia
(1970), II, 336.
25 Bird, Annals of Natal, I, 395-429. Chase, Natal. Pridmore, 'Production of Fynn’, 16-7.
Pridmore, 'Hunter, Trader and Explorer?’, 50, 53. B.J.T. Leverton, 'The Story of the Fynn
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