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

had been forcefully abducted by the British army and moved under armed guard
to the eastern Cape. This army was aided by a colonial militia consisting of
boers and settlers with their Khoi servants who also amassed a war booty of
about 60 000 head of cattle. 24 Britain used Xhosa-speaking allies as auxiliary
troops in the war and they as well as their dependants were also called Fingo
and were seen as part of the Fingo people. When the war of attrition against the
Ngqika sub-chiefs created famine, more and more of them surrendered and
were added to the Fingo groups. During the disastrous colonial wars against
Xhosa speakers in the decades following the 1834-35 war many more Xhosa,
out of desperation, declared themselves Fingo in order to become eligible for
government food and land. 25
The fifth group were the Fetcani, who originated in Natal and Zululand. Fetcani
was a Xhosa word applied to raiders and refugees from north of the Gariep.
Europeans noted them among many Transkeian chiefdoms in the 1820’s where
Fetcani informed them that they were of Zizi, Sotho, Hlubi, Mbo, Fingo and
other 26 ethnic origin and arrived in the Transkei via the Transgariep. At that
stage Fingo was just one of many ethnic identities. In 1829 the Qwabe
chiefdom, a vassal of the Zulu state, declared UDI in pursuit of their own
sovereignty and migrated through Natal to settle south of the Mzimkhulu River,
where they came in conflict with the Mpondo state. In the Transkei this
development caused considerable anxiety and the Qwabe were significantly,
but for no apparent reason, referred to as Fingo. It may be that this was a term
which was used to refer to raiders from Natal, as was Fetcani. A study of
historical Xhosa terms is urgently required to clarify this and other historical
concepts. A survey of the literature shows that at the same time there was a
shift in the definition of the Fetcani. From 1829 onwards they were referred to
as Fingo and their origin was changed from Natal via the Transgariep to coming
24 Webster, ‘Unmasking Fingo', 250-53, map 252.
25 Ibid., 259. Webster, 'Land Expropriation’. Moyer, ‘History of Mfengu’. R.J. Bouch, ‘The
Colonialization of Queenstown (Eastern Cape) and its Hinterland, 1852 – 1886’, Ph. D. thesis,
University of London, 1990.
26 'Presbyterian Mission of Chumie, 3 July 1824'. ‘ Extract from a Letter, Hadley, 2 January 1833 ’ , 305-308. [Philipps], Scenes and Occurrences,
36, 208. The Colonist, 29 July 1828. ‘Letter to The Colonist, Grahamstown , 7 August 1828’, The Colonist, 19 August 1828.
187