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

Walker’s contribution to the mfecane narrative could easily be dismissed, as he
only devoted one page to it, had he not coined the most important Xhosa
neologism, Mfecane, which he defined as “the crushing” and which had not
been recorded elsewhere prior to this. 101 The development of mfecane history
made a quantum leap with Walker, when he turned the Zulu-centric,
geographically-integrated mfecane narrative, which was already larger than the
sum of its part, into an event by giving it a name. Walker may have been
influenced by Macgregor and Ellenberger’s terms Difakane/Lifaqane. Orpen’s
suggestion was that Difakane came from ‘Im Fecani’ (Orpen’s underlining),
another spelling of the Fetcani invaders, who migrated from the Transgariep to
the Transkei. He also stated that the Xhosa root was the verb ‘nKu-faca’, which
meant ‘to kill or to stab with a short assegai’. 102 Although Walker only used the
word Mfecane three times in his book, its use in the following sentence defined
its purpose: ‘the trekkers [were] masters of the open country which had been
cleared of most of its inhabitants by either death or displacement during the
Mfecane’. 103
The general history texts assessed in this section were all influenced by Theal’s
racist approach to African history and mostly ignored the other works analysed
1938-1988', South African Historical Journal, 21 (November 1989), 19-37. E.A. Walker, ‘A Zulu
Account of the Retief Massacre’, The Critic, 3 (January 1935), 68-74. E.A. Walker, The Cape
Native Franchise (Cape Town, 1936). E.A. Walker, 'The Formation of the New States, 1835-
1854’ in E.A. Walker, South Africa, Rhodesia and the Protectorates (Cambridge, 1936),
Volume VIII of J. Holland Rose, A. P. Newton and E. A. Benians, (eds), The Cambridge History
of the British Empire, 8 Vols. (Cambridge, 1929-1959), VIII. E.A. Walker, A History of South
Africa (London, 1928), which ran into several editions. He expanded it to E.A. Walker, A History
of Southern Africa (London, 1957), which had its last edition in 1968. Theal, History of South
Africa, Third Series. Theal, Basutoland Records. Theal, Records of the Cape Colony. Theal,
Records of South East Africa.
101 Walker, History of South Africa, x, 210, 226.
102 (CA) A302, J.M. Orpen, Memorandum: Remarks Which Occur to Me While Reading Mr.
MacGregor's Book Basuto Traditions, 1905, 1.
103 Walker, History of South Africa, 210. See also pages x and 182. Kropf, Kaffir-English
Dictionary, both in the first edition of 1899 and the second of 1926.
174