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

approach to history in general and the mfecane narrative in particular. However,
only three of these are relevant in analysing his approach to the mfecane
narrative. First, he was an empiricist who regarded history as a science and
saw, according to Schreuder, the ‘historian as an impartial observer’ 74 who
based his work on evidence contained in written documents. Theal claimed in
the preface to his Progress of South Africa in the Century that the work
contained ‘the indisputable truths of South African history’. 75 Second, a mixture
of social Darwinism and racism pervaded his works, as he held that Europeans
were the superior race with all others destined to become ‘crushed bones’ or
ruled by colonial Europeans, as Schreuder stated. 76 Theal had a ‘partially
articulated yet fundamental set of beliefs, in a variety of racial theoretics. His
whole mentalité was so veined by a concern for “race”, “colour” and “ethnicity”
that it is almost impossible to isolate for analysis’ according to Schreuder. 77
Orpen felt that the longer Theal published the more he pandered to south
African racial prejudices in his works. 78 Third, he believed, as indeed did many
other authors on mfecane history, that the only chance that Africans had of
becoming civilised was through contact with Europeans over a long period. He
saw the administration of Africans as the “white man’s burden”, the price that
had to be paid to create a prosperous and peaceful south Africa. He contrasted
the perceived “peaceful” existence enjoyed by Africans under colonial rule with
the ‘image of black barbarism’ that had existed during ‘the wars of Tshaka’, as
Saunders put it. 79 He believed that the loss of life occasioned by the wars
between Europeans and Africans in the nineteenth century paled into
insignificance against the horrors of inter-African wars of earlier periods. 80
74 Schreuder, 'Imperial Historian’, 117.
75 Theal, Progress of South Africa, VI.
76 Schreuder, 'Imperial Historian’, 122.
77 Schreuder, 'Imperial Historian’, 123.
78 (CA) A302, 1, J.M. Orpen, letter to D.F. Ellenberger, 16 March 1905, 1.
79 Saunders, ‘Pre-Cobbing Mfecane', 22-3.
80 Ibid., 22-3, 33.41. Schreuder, 'Imperial Historian’, 134-5, 138-40. Wright, 'Political Mythology’,
279. Schreuder, Scramble for Southern Africa, 61.
132