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

Hodgson, Broadbent, Thompson, Shaw, Kay and Ayliff, 8 formed the basis, and
to a large degree the “primary” material, for the study of the development of the
mfecane narrative. In the 1823 to 1838 period as covered in Chapter 2, the
mfecane narrative was a series of parallel stories of wars in various different
areas; the rise of the Zulu state in Zululand and the depopulation of Natal; first
the Mantatees and then the Ndebele depopulating the “blank space” of the
interior; the Ngwane migrating from Natal - via the Transgariep - to the Transkei
where they were defeated by a colonial army; and lastly the story of the Fingo,
with their origin in Natal, their enslavement by the Gcaleka and their liberation
by D’Urban. At this stage mindless repetition of previously published information
was already a salient feature. The writers of the 1839-1876 period as covered in
Chapter 3, many of them missionaries, focused only on one geographical area
or ethnic group, and incorporated information from beyond only when
necessary, above all accounts of Shaka and his Zulu state. The expansion of
both missionary endeavours and trekker settlement into the far corners of South
Africa filled in the “blank space”, revealing both the locations of, and some
information on, the histories of chiefdoms hitherto unknown to Europeans, such
as the Kololo. One consequence of this was that Arbousset’s English book
revealed the greater Caledon Valley area as a new and separate theatre of
mfecane war. 9 The mfecane narrative always depicted an ultimate Zulu cause
for specific migrations or regional wars, but only Shaw’s and Holden’s works
contain first steps towards integrating these regional narratives into a coherent
whole. 10 By 1876 repetition of previous authors, rather than the “primary”
material, was very common. The 1877-1904 period, covered in Chapter 4,
brought important changes. On the one hand this was the period of Theal’s
innovation of the Zulu-centric, geographically-integrated mfecane narrative,
whereby he went significantly beyond the tentative ideas of Shaw and Holden.
In Theal the mfecane narrative became an integrated set of events, as yet
without a name. 11 On the other hand the further expansion of the boer republics
8 See Chapter 2.
9 Arbousset et al., Narrative of an Exploratory Tour.
10 Shaw, Story of My Mission, 520-21. Holden, ‘Brief History of O.F.S.' , 342.
11 Theal, History of Boers.
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