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

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to the civilized, Christian settler heroes. 74 While working with Dundas, Godlonton was directly involved in the Ngwane debacle and also fought actively during the 1834/5 war as a captain in the Grahamstown burger force. 75 D.C.F. Moodie felt that, ‘Mr. Godlonton, [was] an universally acknowledged colossal authority and veritable Herodotus of the eastern Province history’, 76 due to Godlonton’s history of the 1834-35 colonial war against the Ngqika and Gcaleka chiefdoms. The author prefaced his volume on the war with three introductory sections, wherein he described the build-up to the war. He also attempted to sum up all knowledge acquired by Europeans on African societies inside the “blank space”, as far as they were of any importance to the colony. It was in this context that he developed his mfecane narrative, which he regarded as being connected with three monsters - Shaka, the inKosi of the Zulu state, Matiwane, inKosi of the Ngwane state, and Mzilikazi, inKosi of the Ndebele chiefdom - and with the Mantatees. He regarded them as monsters of equal stature, even though he blamed Shaka for the expulsion of the other two to the highveld where they carried out their devastations. His vicious anti-African stance led him to select only the most negative facts and descriptions of these amaKhosi and their states, confirming his particular version of the European “Image of Africa”. His treatment of Shaka, the Zulu state and Natal, as well as the Mantatees at Dithakong, was a repetition of already accepted standard ideas. He was sympathetic to the Natal traders and their lobbying for British annexation. 77 He devoted a significant amount of space to the history and destruction of the Ngwane state, because of its importance to the eastern Cape and his perceived need to defend the conduct of Grahamstown officialdom (of which he was part) 74 M.J. McGinn, 'J.C. Chase - 1820 Settler and Servant of the Colony', M.A. thesis, Rhodes University, 1975, 61. Wilmot, ‘Robert Godlonton', 14 75 De Kock et al. (eds), Dictionary S. A. Biography (1972), II, 263-6. Potgieter (ed), Standard Encyclopaedia (1972), V, 217. 76 D.C.F. Moodie, The History of the Battles and Adventures of the British, the Boers and the Zulu, 2 Vols. (Cape Town, 1888), I, 241. 77 Godlonton, Introductory Remarks, I, 53; II and III, 158-166. 53
and the gallant settlers from their “liberal” detractors. The more he showed Matiwane to be a monster, the more honourable was the behaviour of the settler “heroes”. Godlonton introduced new information on early Ngwane history. He invented the mfecane “railway shunting sequence” of various chiefdoms in motion and in conflict: Shaka defeated Zwide, inKosi of the Ndwandwe state, who in turn fell on the Ngwane state, which in turn attacked the Zizi and Hlubi chiefdoms, destroying them and moving on to assault the Highveld chiefdoms. The implication was that, in order to recover from their shock defeat by Zwide, the Ngwane immediately had to adopt the elements of the Zulu military revolution. ‘It is impossible to paint in colours sufficiently dark the atrocities committed by these cruel and blood-thirsty miscreants’, 78 wrote Godlonton. He also credited the Ngwane state with the execution of thirty chiefs in the area from Natal to the Gariep and a total body toll of 100 000. This in effect meant that the depopulation of Natal was carried out not only by the Zulu state, an idea he took much further in his discussion of the origin of the Fingo. 79 Godlonton’s writing was less self-contradictory than other publications examined in this chapter, but he manipulated texts in order to make them fit into his anti-African scheme. He used information he found in articles by travellers to the Caledon Valley area in the 1830’s, who referred to bones and skulls littering the shores of the river, without identifying the culprits. Godlonton turned this into proof of Ngwane responsibility for murder, mayhem and depopulation in that area. 80 However, he disregarded these same authors’ reports that all the chiefdoms in the area complained about the constant raiding by armed and mounted raiders, such as Griqua and Kora, who kept the livestock and sold the women and children to the colony as slaves. 81 He also disregarded information in these articles that the Ngwane were pushed south by the very same raiders, 78 Godlonton, Introductory Remarks, I, 52. 79 Ibid., 51-3. 80 ‘Investigatus’, Graham's Town Journal, 6 February 1834. J. Edwards, ‘Extract from a Letter, with the Mantatees, 17 March 1836', Missionary Notices, 8 (October 1836), 350. Godlonton, Introductory Remarks, I, 51. 81 [Wesleyan Minister], 'Letter of 10 December 1833', Graham's Town Journal, 30 January 1834. ‘Investigatus’, 30 January and 6 February 1834. 54
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The Historiographical Development o
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General Histories 172 Chapter 6: Co
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his expulsion of several chiefdoms;
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The Graphics Services Unit, S. Abra
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The Library of the Rand Afrikaans U
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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 and 24: leader runs the risk of writing wit
Page 25 and 26: waged by nomadic tribes accompanied
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: Godlonton had come to the eastern C
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
Page 75 and 76: despondency bordering on despair, o
Page 77 and 78: state at their various locations on
Page 79 and 80: cruel monster’ 127 along with oth
Page 81 and 82: Map 4 - mfecane in the 1839 to 1876
Page 83 and 84: depopulating all areas within their
Page 85 and 86: The writing of African history in t
Page 87 and 88: Map 5 - Harris’s Map, 1839 Harris
Page 89 and 90: Arbousset began the convention of g
Page 91 and 92: prove to their pro-mission readers,
Page 93 and 94: were the depopulators of the highve
Page 95 and 96: people became cannibals, first by n
Page 97 and 98: exercise, and the commission’s re
Page 99 and 100: him to reorganise the Mthethwa mili
Page 101 and 102: eastern Free State. There they were
Page 103 and 104: these authors followed their consci
Page 105 and 106: The second author, Shaw, had introd
Page 107 and 108: D’Urban’s, Godlonton’s and Ay
Page 109 and 110: of eight chiefdoms which, fleeing f
Page 111 and 112: Zulu” and the Natal African chief
Page 113 and 114: 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
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1.6 Killie Campbell Library, Durban
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Frost, P.J. A Bibliography of Missi
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Seligman, R.A. and Johnson, A. (eds
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3.3 Orange Freestate (Republic) ‘
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Précis of Information Concerning S
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Bank, A. 'The Great Debate and the
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Eldredge, E.A. ‘Sources of Confli
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Maloka, E.T. 'Missionary Historiogr
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Stapleton, T.J. 'Oral Evidence in a
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Wylie, D. 'A.T. Bryant's Inexplicab
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'Instructions Addressed to the Dire
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'The Orange Freestate Forty Years A
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Atmore, A. and Marks, S. 'The Imper
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Brill, J. 'Een Gedenkskrift over de
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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
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Okoye, F.N.C. 'Tschaka and the Brit
Page 261 and 262:
Reyburn, H.A. 'Piet Retief to Dunca
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Scully, W.C. 'Fragments of Native H
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Thompson, J.N. 'William Rowland Tho
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Vivian, 'Expedition Into Central Af
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Wylie, D. 'Proprietor of Natal: Hen
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Evangelical Missionary Society, on
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Beloff, M. Britain's liberal empire
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Bourne, H.R.F. Blacks and Whites in
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Bryant, A.T. Olden Times in Zululan
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Carlyle, J.E. South Africa and its
Page 281 and 282:
Churchill, W.S. The River War ([ori
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Cory, G.E. The Rise of South Africa
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Dieterlen, H. Adolphe Mabille [1836
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Eldredge, E.A. 'Sources of Conflict
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Fraser, A. Boadicea's Chariot: The
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Gledhill, E. and J. In the Steps of
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Haggard, H.R. Cetshwayo and His Whi
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Henige, D.P. Oral Historiography (L
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Ireland, W. Historical Sketch of th
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Kiernan, V.G. The Lords of Human Ki
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Lehmann, E. and Reckwitz, E. 'The D
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Lucas, L. 'Historical Geography of
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Malan, J.H. Die Opkomst van 'n Repu
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Moffat, R. A Life's Labours in Sout
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Murray, H., Prof. Jameson and Wilso
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Orpen, J.M. Some Principles of Nati
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Plaatje, S.T. Mhudi: An Epic of Sou
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Reynolds, E. Stand the Storm: A His
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Saunders, C.C. The Making of the So
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Smith, K.W. From Frontier to Midlan
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Tatlow, A.H. Natal Province: Descri
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Thompson, G. Travels and Adventures
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Vail, L. ‘Ethnicity in Southern A
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Visagie, J.C. Die Trek uit Oos-Riet
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Webb, C. de B. The Mfecane, Centre
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Wright, J. 'Political Transformatio
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