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

the societies found to be cannibalistic lived in Africa. 47 She did not seem to be
aware of the Sotho practice of including some human material in the Sangoma’s
ritual material, commonly referred to as muti. 48 Beyond that both agree the idea
of cannibals hunting and eating humans for food during the mfecane years is a
myth.
How then were these nineteenth century European authors deceived? A
number of different aspects come together to form a coherent explanation. Most
societies have a fear of a ‘cannibal monster’ 49 and this, combined with a human
tendency to think the worst of ones’ rivals, easily led people to construct their
rivals and others with whom they were in conflict as cannibals. Another
explanation seems to be based on the difficulty of mfecane authors’ translation
of African information, especially where their African language proficiency was
limited or non-existent. Thus misunderstandings could easily occur and once
these were incorporated into the dominant discourse of the mfecane narrative
they usually remained, such as the mis-identification of the Mantatees with the
Tlokwa state discussed above. Idioms are always the most difficult aspect of
any language to translate and are thus often interpreted literally which tends to
create misunderstandings. Various southern African languages contain the
idiom of somebody being “eaten up”, which Europeans translated literally as
cannibalism. The concept was used in two very different ways in African
languages. Dingane was reported to have ordered several prominent men to be
“eaten up”, meaning that they were to be stripped of all their possessions,
47 C. Marx, ‘Der Afrikareisende George Schweinfurth und der Kannibalismus’, Wiener
Ethnohistorische Blätter, 34 (1989), 69-97. Arbousset et al., Narrative of an Exploratory Tour,
54-79, 271, 287, map. Sanday, Divine Hunger, xi, 9-10, 28, 217. Arens, Man-Eating Myth.
F.J.P. Poole, 'Cannibals, Trickster and Witches' in P. Brown and D. Tuzin (eds), The
Ethnography of Cannibalism (Washington D.C., 1983), 6-8.
48 1951, X (Cmd. 8209). Basutoland Medicine Murder, April 1951. See also news items of the
twentieth century and the twenty-first century’s of so-called muti murders.
49 Sanday, Divine Hunger, 102, 217. See also South African Folklore, such as in H. Callaway,
Nursery Tales, Traditions and Histories of the Zulu (Pietermaritzburg, 1866-7). M. Martin,
Basutoland, its Legends and Customs (London, 1903). ‘Book Review of M. Martin, Basutoland,
its Legends and Customs, 1903 (London)’, Folk-Lore, 14 (June 1903), 230-42. Jacottet, Ba-
Sotho Lore. See also Footnotes no. 53 and 54.
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