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

The writing of African history in this period must be analysed against the
backdrop of the rapid settlement by colonists of many new areas of Natal and
the Transgariep. 7 The area under direct or indirect rule by Europeans, including
most African chiefdoms, had roughly tripled in the years from the Great Trek to
the 1870’s, decades before the same fate befell the remaining African societies
in southern Africa and to the north of the Limpopo. This outward movement of
colonists from the Cape Colony originated in the actions of both the Dutch and
English colonists of the eastern Cape. Through their participation in
commandos and wars against neighbouring African states, they became aware
that they were able to defeat Africans with the use of firearms and their horse-
back mobility, knowledge which made them extremely confident. The Great
Trek, 8 which took place over wide areas of Natal and Transgariep, can thus be
seen as a movement of conquest and settlement by a new ruling elite, out of
which grew the several Boer republics. Schreuder conceptualised this process
as follows, ‘the white advances into the interior of Southern Africa thus moved
forward in a highly complex manner: subjecting the weaker African groups, co-
existing with the stronger chiefdoms, or depending on the character of African
politics to provide the suitable preconditions for frontier expansion through
collaborative mechanisms and divided counsels’. 9 In these Boer republics the
commandos ensured the serfdom of the local African population and a steady
flow of African slaves and livestock from chiefdoms further away. Natal was
annexed to Britain in 1843 and settled by colonists from both the Cape and
Britain, with most Boers leaving for the highveld in protest. Only the strongest
African states, such as the Zulu, Sotho, Swazi, Pedi and the Transkeian states,
were able to offer resistance to the encroachment from the Cape and Natal
colonies, as well as from the Boer republics. All this took place despite
“reluctant imperialism”, a policy of successive British governments through
which they sought to limit colonial territorial expansion. Colonies had to be
7 In general: Wilson et al. (eds), South Africa to 1870. Davenport, South Africa. Peires, House of
Phalo. Keegan, Colonial South Africa. Etherington, Great Treks.
8 Named the Great Trek only in the 1870’s. P. Silva (ed), Dictionary of South African English on
Historical Principles (Oxford, 1996), 265.
9 D.M. Schreuder, The Scramble for South Africa, 1877-95: The Politics of Partition
Reappraised (Cambridge, 1980), 53.
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