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

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Moshoeshoe’s people; and how Moshoeshoe’s leadership abilities enabled him to create a stable state that offered security to affected chiefdoms despite the terrible environment. In the Transvaal, the focus is on the incorporation of the Kololo by the Tlokwa with the latter subsequently becoming known as the Mantatees. Their destructive progress across the interior took them to the Dithakong area, where they were defeated by a missionary-led Griqua and Tlhaping army in mid-1823. The Kololo thereafter broke away from the Tlokwa, leaving ruin in their wake as they migrated from Dithakong to today’s south- western Zambia. The Mantatees, after further causing destruction in the Transvaal then returned to the same part of the greater Caledon Valley area from which they had started. Another state expelled from Zululand, the Ndebele, also carried death and destruction into the interior until the survivors there were saved by boers of the Great Trek, with the Ndebele being expelled in 1837 to today’s Zimbabwe. As a result of the focus on these main geographical areas and actors, others had to be relegated to the background, such as the Swazi, Pedi, Gaza, Ngoni, Rolong, Tlhaping and Qwabe. The flight of Mantatee survivors to the Cape Colony, where they were apprenticed to farmers, and their subsequent return after D’Urban declared their apprenticeships legally over in 1835, was left out of this thesis, as the authors examined had very little to say about this issue. Difaqane and Mfecane The origin of the term “Mfecane”, used by Walker for the first time in 1928, is unclear. Tracing its antecedents starts with Arbousset’s term, Lifakani, which he used in 1846, meaning ‘those who hew down’, 38 the Sotho-speaker’s nickname for the amaZaze, or lowlanders from Natal. This seems to be the root word from which all further terms stem. Christol in 1897 used ‘Difaqane di hlaho’, which he translated as ‘ancienne guerres’ - wars of long ago. 39 He made the transition of meaning from people from a specific geographic area, as in Arbousset, to an association with war. Macgregor in 1905 redefined Difaqane to mean ‘a war 38 T. Arbousset and F. Daumas, Narrative of an Exploratory Tour to the North-East of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope (Cape Town, 1846), 134. 39 Personal translation from the French. F. Christol, Au Sud de l'Afrique (Paris, 1897), 48. 13
waged by nomadic tribes accompanied on the warpath by their women and children and property [above all livestock], as distinct from ordinary kind of warfare’. 40 In Ellenberger’s book of 1912, Lifaqane was defined not very differently as a forced state of migratory existence. Ellenberger’s Lifaqane is Macgregor’s Difaqane in linguistic disguise in that the sound “D” is, to this day, represented with an “L” in the Sotho orthography of Basutoland/Lesotho, while in South Africa with a “D”. 41 All these definitions lack references to extermination, depopulation or cannibalism. Orpen at the time thought that Difaqane/Lifaqane was possibly influenced by the Xhosa word for ‘the scatterer or scattered from the word Faca or Faga to scatter’. 42 This seems to be a mere clutching at straws as in the literature there was negligible contact between the people of the greater Caledon Valley area and the Transkei. Difaqane/Lifaqane may have influenced Walker in his invention of the term “Mfecane” in 1928 and so might also the Xhosa verb ‘nKu-faca’ (Orpen’s underlining), which meant ‘to kill or to stab with a short assegai’. 43 Orpen thought this word was at the root of the concept Fetcani, which referred to invaders who migrated from the Transgariep to the Transkei and were directly associated with wars in the Transgariep in the 1820’s. There is no certainty in any of this, other than that ”Mfecane” does not appear in any Xhosa dictionaries, including Kropf’s, before 1928. Modern views on the origin of the terms Difaqane and Mfecane are equally confused and have never clearly defined them, as Keen noted. 44 Marks 40 J.C. MacGregor, Basuto Traditions (Cape Town, 1905), 8. 41 D.F. Ellenberger, History of the Basuto: Ancient and Modern (London, 1912), 117. Personal communication from A. Brütsch, Archivist of the Lesotho Evangelical Church, Morija, Lesotho, 1989 and correspondence with S. Gill, Archivist of the Lesotho Evangelical Church, Morija, Lesotho, May 2004. 42 (CA) A302, J.M. Orpen, Memorandum: Remarks Which Occur to me While Reading Mr. Macgregor's Book, Basuto Traditions, 1905, 1. 43 Ibid., 1. 44 A. Kropf, A Kaffir-English Dictionary, ([originally Lovedale, 1899], 2nd. edition, Lovedale, 1915). K. Keen, 'Analysis of D.F. Ellenberger's Book, History of the Basuto, Ancient and Modern', in K. Keen, Two Decades of Basotho Development, 1830-50 (Gothenburg, Sweden, 1975), p. 306-07 n.12. W.F. Lye, 'The Difaqane: The Mfecane in the Southern Sotho Area, 1822-1824', Journal of African History, 8 (1967), 111. M. Legassick, ‘The Sotho-Tswana People before 1800’, in Thompson, L.M. (ed), African Societies in Southern Africa: Historical Studies 14
Page 1 and 2: The Historiographical Development o
Page 3 and 4: General Histories 172 Chapter 6: Co
Page 5 and 6: his expulsion of several chiefdoms;
Page 7 and 8: The Graphics Services Unit, S. Abra
Page 9 and 10: The Library of the Rand Afrikaans U
Page 11 and 12: List of Maps Map 1 - Geographical R
Page 13 and 14: Chapter 1 Introduction Then you wil
Page 15 and 16: century was caused by the “mfecan
Page 17 and 18: produce a tradition, or what Michel
Page 19 and 20: which were to dominate Western thou
Page 21 and 22: was the "baggage" in the European w
Page 23: leader runs the risk of writing wit
Page 27 and 28: exaggerate in their talk, and we fe
Page 29 and 30: incorporated the remaining people i
Page 31 and 32: history’. 63 Consequently, libera
Page 33 and 34: Bantu settled in various blocks in
Page 35 and 36: ‘From the 1970s it was the radica
Page 37 and 38: While Cobbing and the historians in
Page 39 and 40: illustrates, in part, the weddednes
Page 41 and 42: Map 2 - mfecane in the 1823 to 1838
Page 43 and 44: during this period, as it took the
Page 45 and 46: concepts of a theoretical equality
Page 47 and 48: tortuous, but information regarding
Page 49 and 50: However, this contradiction was not
Page 51 and 52: were murky and secretive, but were
Page 53 and 54: first assault out onto the highveld
Page 55 and 56: Map 3 - Thompson’s Map, 1827 This
Page 57 and 58: major implications for the later de
Page 59 and 60: Association”, for the British ann
Page 61 and 62: also applied to refugees from north
Page 63 and 64: Godlonton had come to the eastern C
Page 65 and 66: and the gallant settlers from their
Page 67 and 68: ecently abandoned mission station a
Page 69 and 70: travelled to Britain where he becam
Page 71 and 72: Make them [Zulu] out as blood thirs
Page 73 and 74: hand, to gather geographical, biolo
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despondency bordering on despair, o
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state at their various locations on
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cruel monster’ 127 along with oth
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Map 4 - mfecane in the 1839 to 1876
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depopulating all areas within their
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The writing of African history in t
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Map 5 - Harris’s Map, 1839 Harris
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Arbousset began the convention of g
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prove to their pro-mission readers,
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were the depopulators of the highve
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people became cannibals, first by n
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exercise, and the commission’s re
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him to reorganise the Mthethwa mili
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eastern Free State. There they were
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these authors followed their consci
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The second author, Shaw, had introd
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D’Urban’s, Godlonton’s and Ay
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of eight chiefdoms which, fleeing f
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Zulu” and the Natal African chief
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which there was a preponderance of
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state. Authors who focused only on
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Map 6 - mfecane in the 1877 to 1904
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The concept ”imperial”, as in t
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Cape Colony back to Britain in 1884
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supposed mythological roots of race
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Late Victorian Authors Numerous boo
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treatment of the Fynn papers, a sel
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Aboriginal?, 33 had already betraye
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Articles on African history publish
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European editors. Thus, these texts
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State. 53 The aim of this article w
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Europeans as well as Dutch and Engl
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Babrow’s acknowledgment of Theal
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defeat and desperate escape from Zu
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approach to history in general and
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his use of some archival documents,
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initial shock of this assault fled
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etween fiction and fact. 98 An exam
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mfecane narrative. He regarded Shak
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The most important changes in the h
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Chapter 5 The South African Period:
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economically stable until the onset
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latest British methodology of a-his
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Natal and Zululand During this peri
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Both were imbued with Theal’s rac
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of Moshoeshoe and served to uphold
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fortress attracting many chiefdoms.
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[Moshoeshoe] consisted of the intro
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Macgregor was more the editor than
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doubtful whether at any time in the
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English Methodist minister who, whi
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the material differently or have em
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the War Office put it, by the boers
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Winter, he joined the Pioneer Colum
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impinged on the history of the Cape
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Walker’s contribution to the mfec
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Afrikaner history. The few European
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Ellenberger resuscitated Arbousset
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Chapter 6 Conclusion If the white m
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Hodgson, Broadbent, Thompson, Shaw,
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than Shaka. The only surprising exc
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year after slavery was finally abol
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from Natal directly, like the Qwabe
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and were also present at the battle
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Godlonton and Arbousset. 42 These w
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including their livestock and somet
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century under review there were wri
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Shepstone’s four-wave theory, 66
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discourse, which was never able to
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Interior - 1829: Shepstone to Col.
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A378 (D) G.E. Cory, A Short History
Page 217 and 218:
1.6 Killie Campbell Library, Durban
Page 219 and 220:
Frost, P.J. A Bibliography of Missi
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Seligman, R.A. and Johnson, A. (eds
Page 223 and 224:
3.3 Orange Freestate (Republic) ‘
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Précis of Information Concerning S
Page 227 and 228:
Bank, A. 'The Great Debate and the
Page 229 and 230:
Eldredge, E.A. ‘Sources of Confli
Page 231 and 232:
Maloka, E.T. 'Missionary Historiogr
Page 233 and 234:
Stapleton, T.J. 'Oral Evidence in a
Page 235 and 236:
Wylie, D. 'A.T. Bryant's Inexplicab
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'Instructions Addressed to the Dire
Page 239 and 240:
'The Orange Freestate Forty Years A
Page 241 and 242:
Atmore, A. and Marks, S. 'The Imper
Page 243 and 244:
Brill, J. 'Een Gedenkskrift over de
Page 245 and 246:
Cobbing, J. 'A Tainted Well: The Ob
Page 247 and 248:
Ellenberger, D.F. 'History of the B
Page 249 and 250:
Hamilton, C. 'An Appetite for the P
Page 251 and 252:
Hyam, R. 'African Interests and the
Page 253 and 254:
Kennedy, R.F. 'Historical Accuracy'
Page 255 and 256:
Lewis, L. ‘Book Review of: An Acc
Page 257 and 258:
Milne, J. 'Major Warden: Early Life
Page 259 and 260:
Okoye, F.N.C. 'Tschaka and the Brit
Page 261 and 262:
Reyburn, H.A. 'Piet Retief to Dunca
Page 263 and 264:
Scully, W.C. 'Fragments of Native H
Page 265 and 266:
Thompson, J.N. 'William Rowland Tho
Page 267 and 268:
Vivian, 'Expedition Into Central Af
Page 269 and 270:
Wylie, D. 'Proprietor of Natal: Hen
Page 271 and 272:
Evangelical Missionary Society, on
Page 273 and 274:
Beloff, M. Britain's liberal empire
Page 275 and 276:
Bourne, H.R.F. Blacks and Whites in
Page 277 and 278:
Bryant, A.T. Olden Times in Zululan
Page 279 and 280:
Carlyle, J.E. South Africa and its
Page 281 and 282:
Churchill, W.S. The River War ([ori
Page 283 and 284:
Cory, G.E. The Rise of South Africa
Page 285 and 286:
Dieterlen, H. Adolphe Mabille [1836
Page 287 and 288:
Eldredge, E.A. 'Sources of Conflict
Page 289 and 290:
Fraser, A. Boadicea's Chariot: The
Page 291 and 292:
Gledhill, E. and J. In the Steps of
Page 293 and 294:
Haggard, H.R. Cetshwayo and His Whi
Page 295 and 296:
Henige, D.P. Oral Historiography (L
Page 297 and 298:
Ireland, W. Historical Sketch of th
Page 299 and 300:
Kiernan, V.G. The Lords of Human Ki
Page 301 and 302:
Lehmann, E. and Reckwitz, E. 'The D
Page 303 and 304:
Lucas, L. 'Historical Geography of
Page 305 and 306:
Malan, J.H. Die Opkomst van 'n Repu
Page 307 and 308:
Moffat, R. A Life's Labours in Sout
Page 309 and 310:
Murray, H., Prof. Jameson and Wilso
Page 311 and 312:
Orpen, J.M. Some Principles of Nati
Page 313 and 314:
Plaatje, S.T. Mhudi: An Epic of Sou
Page 315 and 316:
Reynolds, E. Stand the Storm: A His
Page 317 and 318:
Saunders, C.C. The Making of the So
Page 319 and 320:
Smith, K.W. From Frontier to Midlan
Page 321 and 322:
Tatlow, A.H. Natal Province: Descri
Page 323 and 324:
Thompson, G. Travels and Adventures
Page 325 and 326:
Vail, L. ‘Ethnicity in Southern A
Page 327 and 328:
Visagie, J.C. Die Trek uit Oos-Riet
Page 329 and 330:
Webb, C. de B. The Mfecane, Centre
Page 331:
Wright, J. 'Political Transformatio
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