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

impinged on the history of the Cape Colony. Most of these general works will be
considered together, with two being scrutinized in more detail. The seven-page
historical summary of the SANAC report of 1905 placed African history in the
hands of the segregationists by implying that Africans, left to themselves,
tended towards uncontrolled bloodshed as seen in mfecane history. A racist
mfecane narrative infiltrated the minds of both black and white young people
through Godee-Molsbergen’s school texts. A more specialised publication was
by Du Plessis, the NG Kerk’s first general mission secretary, who wrote a
history of missions in South Africa, which was a compilation of missionary texts
based on the pre-Theal model of the mfecane narrative. 95
In 1904 George Cory became one of the first four professors of the newly-
created Rhodes University College. He was passionate about South African
history and ‘very consciously saw himself as following in Theal’s foot steps’, 96
writes Saunders. The racist and anti-African stance in his multi-volume main
work can be attributed to Theal’s influence. Not surprisingly, Cory worked with
Theal’s Zulu-centric, geographically-integrated mfecane narrative and repeated
the ideas from secondary literature without adding any of his own. His treatment
of the mfecane narrative was contradictory. Wylie maintains that while ‘Shaka’s
“irresistible onslaughts” are credited with massive historical significance by
Cory, textually they are merely an appendage, given very little focussed, critical
or detailed treatment’. 97 Cory also believed that,
95 1905, LV (Cd. 2399). Rept. of the South African Native Affairs Commission, 1903-1905. A.
Boeseken, 'Lewe en Werk van E.C. Godee-Molsbergen', South African Historical Journal, 8
(November, 1976), 119-131. E.C. Godee-Molsbergen, A History of South Africa: For Use in
Schools (London, 1910) is also E.C. Godee-Molsbergen, Geskiedenis van Zuid-Afrika voor
School Gebruik (Amsterdam, 1910). E.C. Godee-Molsbergen, South African History Told in
Pictures (Amsterdam, 1913). He also published non-school histories such as E.C. Godee-
Molsbergen, Geskiedenis van die Minahassa (Weltevreden, 1928). E.C. Godee-Molsbergen,
Reizen in de Hollandse Tijd, 4 Vols. (s’Gravenhage, 1916-1932). De Kock et al. (eds),
Dictionary S. A. Biography (1968), I, 262-63. Du Plessis, History of Christian Mission, 159-162,
178-79, 189-196. See also, F.R. Cana, South Africa: From the Great Trek to the Union (London,
1909). For Cana see Smith, Changing Past, 48-49.
96 Saunders, South African Past, 41.
97 Wylie, Savage Delight, 192. Cory, Rise of South Africa.
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