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

people became cannibals, first by necessity and later, having developed a taste
for human meat, by choice. Then, Harris and Moffat established that Mzilikazi
was not related to Shaka, but merely chief of an ex-Zulu vassal chiefdom,
fleeing from the bloodthirsty “monster” and taking Shaka’s barbarous methods
with him to the highveld. The “blank space” further shrunk when news became
available of the existence of the Pedi chiefdom in the eastern Transvaal, which,
like so many others in that area up to that point, had been vassals of the
Ndebele state. Lastly, Moffat reported on fantastic rumours on Mantatee
devastation in the “blank space”, which predated the battle of Dithakong by a
year. Works published during the 1840’s reflected the expansion of geographic
and ethnographic ideas, however flawed, of southern Africa’s interior, which
took place during the intervening decade as a result of travellers, missionaries
and Dutch colonists trekking far beyond the Gariep River. Information from
Africans on events in the early years of the nineteenth century was so
compelling that additional geographic areas and chiefdoms, as well as
alternative explanations of events, were incorporated into the developing
mfecane narrative.
1850’s and 1860’s - The Missionary Years
The number of missionaries in southern Africa increased dramatically from the
mid-1830’s, with many publishing their experiences in the 1850’s and 60’s.
These two decades saw so many missionary publications on southern Africa
that Wylie aptly named them ”The Missionary Years”. 37 Some had operated in
southern Africa during the mfecane years, but most arrived afterwards.
Missionary writers were regarded by historians as reliable authors until well into
the second half of the twentieth century due to the insights they obtained from
their close association with African society. In addition to theological, medical,
linguistic and practical training, missionaries were provided with geographic and
historical information on the people they were assigned to serve. 38 Missionaries
thus never arrived with a clean slate regarding their mission field and always
interpreted any information they received from “their” people in terms of this
37 Ibid, 137.
38 Von der Heyden, ‘Schrifttum’, 128. Gallienne, Thomas Arbousset, 34.
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