Mfecane
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Mfecane (Zulu), also known as the Difaqane or Lifaqane (Sesotho), is an African expression which means something like "the crushing" or "scattering". It describes a period of widespread chaos and disturbance in southern Africa during the period between 1815 and about 1835.
The Mfecane resulted from the rise to power of Shaka, the Zulu king and military leader who conquered the Nguni peoples between the Tugela and Pongola rivers in the beginning of the nineteenth century, and created a militaristic kingdom in the region. The Mfecane also led to the formation and consolidation of other groups — such as the Matabele, the Mfengu and the Makololo — and the creation of states such as the modern Lesotho.
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[edit] Causes of the Mfecane
There are varying theories on the ultimate causes of this catastrophic, bloody migration of many different tribes in the area. Populations had increased greatly in Zululand. The introduction of maize (corn) from the Americas through the Portuguese in Mozambique was a factor. Maize produced more food than indigenous grasses on the same land, and thus could sustain the larger population, at the price of greater water usage. It also allowed Shaka to raise a standing army, growing crops not being a part of their duties. By the end of the 1700s much of the arable land was now occupied. Declining rainfall, and ten-year drought in the early 1800s meant that a battle for land and water resources began in earnest.
In about 1817, Dingiswayo of the Mthethwa group in the south near the Tugela River, entered into an alliance with the Tsonga controlling the trade routes to Delagoa Bay (now Maputo). This alliance encroached on the existing routes used by the Ndwandwe alliance, who occupied the region in the north, near the Pongola River. Battles between Dingiswayo and Zwide of the Ndwandwe probably mark the start of what became the Mfecane.
[edit] Rise of the Zulu
After the Mthethwa were beaten by Zwide, and Dingiswayo killed, many of the Mthethwa leaders formed a confederation with the Zulu clan, under the leadership of Shaka. The Zulus conquered and assimilated smaller clans in the area, and the Battle of Gqokli Hill marked the start of his conquest of the Ndwandwe.
Often just the women and young men of a clan or village were welcomed by the Zulus. The elderly and men of fighting age were often either killed or escaped. Escapees quickly learned the tactics of the Zulus, and in turn descended upon more distant clans unfamiliar with the new order.
[edit] Consequences of the Mfecane
To the east, escapees were assimilated into the Xhosa-speaking groups in present day Eastern Cape Province, becoming the Mfengu. They were subjected to successive waves of attack, and were pressed from the West by the British.
Moshoeshoe I of Lesotho gathered the mountain clans together, and from mountain forts and with fine diplomacy fought back against the aggressors, to eventually form the kingdom of Lesotho.
Soshangane, one of Zwide's generals, fled to Mozambique with the remainder of the Ndwandwe after their defeat by Shaka at the battle of Mhlatuze River in 1819. They oppressed the Tsonga living there, some of whom fled over the Lebombo Mountains into the Northern Transvaal.
Zwangendaba of the Jere or Gumbi clan, a commander of the Ndwandwe army, fled north with Soshangane after his defeat in 1819. He founded an Ngoni state in the region between Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika.
The Ngwane people lived in present-day Swaziland, settled in the southwest, and warred periodically with the Ndwandwe. Ngwane leader Sobhuza led his people to higher elevations around 1820 to escape Zulu attacks. In this period the Ngwane became known as the Swazi, and Sobhuza established the Swazi kingdom in what is now central Swaziland.
A Zulu general Mzilikazi broke away from Shaka and established the Ndebele kingdom in the Orange Free State/Transvaal area. When white trekboers in the Great Trek moved into the area in 1837, defeats in several clashes convinced Mzilikazi to move north of the Limpopo River and establish an Ndebele state there in an area now known as Matabeleland, in an area which is today in the south Zimbabwe.
[edit] Controversies
In 1988, Rhodes University professor Julian Cobbing advanced a controversial new hypothesis on the rise of the Zulu state, which contended the 'Mfecane' to be a self-serving constructed product of Apartheid politicians and historians. According to Cobbing, the Mfecane has been mischaracterized by Apartheid historians as a period of internally-induced black-on-black destruction. Instead, argued Cobbing, the roots of the conflicts can be found in the actions of European slave traders.
Cobbing's hypothesis (now known by many historians as the "Cobbing Controversy") remains controversial, although many agree that Cobbing's analysis offered several key breakthroughs and insights into the nature of early Zulu society. Some critics assert that revisionist theories like Cobbing's place too much weight on environmental factors and ignore the key roles played by dynamic human actors like the Zulu king Shaka.
A balanced view of the massive upheaval of the Mfecane would certainly point to Zulu expansion as a major factor. It seems clear that aggressive Zulu military activities sparked a trememdous ferment of change. Other factors must be added into the mix, including population pressures; corn crops from Europe; and white encroachment and expansion in the general area, including slaving and Portuguese activities in Mozambique.
[edit] See also
[edit] Sources
One outstanding example of the traditional view of the Mfecane is J.D. Omer-Cooper's "The Zulu Aftermath".
