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

and were also present at the battle of Dithakong. Thereafter the Kololo were
supposed to have broken away and fled north, ultimately settling in the upper
Zambezi river. The alternative view was held mainly by authors who focused on
the greater Caledon Valley area. They depicted the Tlokwa as a local player
only who, after being dislodged by the Hlubi, gyrated through the area battling it
out with the latter, the Ngwane and the small Sotho-speaking chiefdoms. The
Tlokwa were thus regarded as partly responsible for depopulation and the
creation of cannibals in the greater Caledon Valley area. Ellenberger was an
exception who combined both views, with some other variations.
The Ndebele had a fierce reputation as great exterminators in all accounts. At
first Mzilikazi was regarded either as a brother of Shaka or as one of his
generals. In the late 1830’s Mzilikazi was recast as the son of a vassal, who
became a general of Shaka, before being compelled to flee to the highveld.
Grout was the first to state that Mzilikazi’s chiefdom was called Khumalo. It was
only in the mid-1870’s that the Khumalo were first believed to be part of the
Ndwandwe state and only after the latter’s defeat did the Khumalo become
vassals of Shaka. 35 Generally authors regarded the impact of the Ndebele
migrations as catastrophic for the local population of the Transvaal, causing
depopulation, abandoned homesteads, with bleaching skulls and bones being
reported. In contrast other authors reported on a variety of chiefdoms settling in
the Transvaal during and after the reported ravages by the Mantatees, Ndebele
and Swazi. One of the earliest was Broadbent’s list of chiefdoms that settled in
1824 in the interior (see Chapter 2), as well as Harris’ map discussed in
Chapter 3. The most comprehensive studies of Transvaal chiefdoms were
undertaken by Stow, Macgregor, the Transvaal (Colony), Native Affairs
Department, the Great Britain War Office in 1905 and Molema in 1920 (see
Chapter 5). 36 This contrasting image describes the history of the chiefdoms of
the Transvaal as an endless time of war and migration. However, the invasions
of the Mantatees and Ndebele were described as a period of intensified war,
35 Ibid., II and III, 183-84. Harris, Wild Sports, 39-40, map 356. Moffat, Missionary Labours and
Scene, 544-45. Grout, Zulu-Land, 229. Fynney, ' Rise and Fall of Zulu Nation', 1-7.
36 See Footnote no. 65.
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