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

developed by earlier authors was accepted and repeated with little change.
Documents and collected African oral testimonies were used in such a way as
to bolster these time-honoured ideas. English remained the dominant language
in which the mfecane narrative continued to develop. Deference to African oral
sources by writers was commonplace in the works of this period. However,
even where oral accounts of some length were ostensibly written by Africans,
the above detailed analysis has shown that these texts were edited to a large
degree by European authors. Those articles that appeared in African language
magazines made no impact on the development of the mfecane narrative.
There were many other authors who published texts on mfecane history in
Dutch, German and French in this period. However, they merely followed the
lead of the English publications without exerting any influence on them.
There were a few ideas, such as those expressed by Bird and Fynney, which
ran counter to the dominant discourse and these were just ignored by other
authors. During this period the minor additions noted at the end of chapter three
were included in the dominant discourse. Of significance was the division of the
African past into three periods, in both Natal and the greater Caledon Valley
area - the ancient peaceful period, the devastation caused by Shaka or
chiefdoms expelled by him, and the new era of peace heralded by colonists and
missionaries. The hagiography of Moshoeshoe was also a significant new
addition, with his universal acceptance as the only African ruler who was a
positive, almost saintly figure. The converse happened with the demonising of
chief Sekonyela and his Tlokwa chiefdom as the Mantatees, who destroyed
much of the Transgariep. These and other minor additions became an integral
part of the mfecane narrative during the period considered in this chapter. A
number of general histories of south Africa were published after 1885, but these
were just simply overshadowed by Theal’s main work. 107
107 For Example: W.A. Greswell, Our South African Empire, 2 Vols. (London, 1885). A. Wilmot,
The Story of the Expansion of Southern Africa (Durban, 1895). Mackenzie et al., South Africa.
H.R.F. Bourne, Blacks and Whites in South Africa (2nd. edition, Cape Town, 1900). H.A.
Bryden, A History of South Africa (London, 1904).
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