CHAPTER 18: PRE-INDUSTRIAL SOUTHERN
AFRICA IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
KEY POINTS
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State-building and conflict: the mfecane/difaqane
and its effects
The ‘myth’ of the mfecane
The mfecane east of the Drakensberg
Shaka and the rise of the Zulu kingdom
The end of Shaka’s reign
The difaqane on the highveld
Moshoeshoe and the rise of the Sotho kingdom
The difaqane on the western highveld
Mzilikazi and the founding of the Ndebele kingdom
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The British at the Cape
Economic expansion
Labour
The eastern Cape frontier and the conflict with the Xhosa
 The Boer Trek and African resistance
The Boer Trek
The impact of the Boer Trek and African resistance
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Southern Africa in 1870
State-building and conflict: the mfecane/difaqane and its
effects
o Mfecane = ‘the crushing’ (Nguni of south-eastern lowveld)
o Difaqane = ‘the scattering’ (Sotho-Tswana of highveld)
o Both terms refer to the period 1816-1840
The ‘myth’ of the mfecane
 Traditional interpretation: violent ‘tribal conflict’ initiated by the
rise of Shaka’s Zulu kingdom created ‘vacant land’ in both lowveld
and highveld into which Boers migrated in the late 1830s
 This interpretation persistent in apartheid South Africa’s schools,
even into 1980s
 From 1880s some historians argued the whole mfecane concept was
a myth, invented to justify colonial occupation
 But the extreme version had already been under revision elsewhere
in southern Africa
 Nevertheless, the 1980s challenge has prompted much greater
research and attention to the evidence, and further revisions have
taken place
 There still was conflict, but there was also nation-building and
‘vacant land’ was indeed a myth
[For historiographical debate see “THE Mfecane DEBATE” in
Additional Debate for Chapter 18, p.263]
The mfecane east of the Drakensberg
 Roots of conflict: increased competition for limited resources
(grazing, hunting, trading)
 Formation of three main kingdoms: Mthethwa, Ndwandwe, Ngwane
 Initiation age-regiments: militarised
 Regiments brought under direct control of kings, small chiefdoms
sought protection of powerful
 Crisis of drought (1802-04), largely caused by military conflict
 1816-18: Sobhuza’s Ngwane expelled to north of Pongola;
Ndwandwe defeat Mthethwa in major battle (Dingiswayo killed)
 Shaka (Zulu chief), commander in Dingiswayo’s army, rallied
Mthethwa forces and defeated Ndwandwe, driving them northwards
out of region
Shaka and the rise of the Zulu kingdom
 By 1819, Shaka ruler of powerful ‘Zulu’ kingdom between Tugela
and Pongola
 Expanded kingdom during 1820s, south through modern Kwa-Zulu
Natal and east through Drakensberg foothills
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Military innovations for intensive warfare: disciplined, speed, short
spear
Ngoni and Ndebele took this north into central Africa
Centralised government: chiefs replaced by indunas, all regiments
subject to king
Male regiments tended royal herds and hunted ivory
Female regiments cultivated royal fields
Marriage and independent homesteads only allowed after regiments
disbanded
Regimental system weakened regional identity – everyone became
‘Zulu’
North of Zulu: Sobhuza’s Ngwane become Swazi kingdom
Ndwandwe offshoots: Soshangane founded Gaza state (southern
Mozambique); others become Ngoni of central Africa [Chapter 17,
pp. 254-6]
Zulu kingdom extended south towards Umzimkulu River, though
not ‘depopulated’ here as claimed
1821-2: Zulu raids push Matiwane’s Ngwane and Hlubi across
Drakensberg onto highveld
The end of Shaka’s reign
 1828 Shaka assassinated by his brother Dingane
 Inherent weakness of kingdom: built upon state of perpetual warfare
bringing in booty
 Dingane’s greatest problem: invasion by Boers from Cape Colony
[see below]
The difaqane on the highveld
 Numerous small chieftaincies, concentration in Caledon valley
 Regimental cattle raiding common but not hugely destructive
 1821-2: Hlubi and Ngwane - more destructive raids
 Coincided with worse raids from south by Griqua and Kora with
guns and horses, taking captives for slavery in Cape Colony
 Difaqane (‘the scattering’), also involved nation-building
 Boers from Cape in late 1830s caused most destruction
Moshoeshoe and the rise of the Sotho kingdom
 1821-3: Moshoeshoe (successful cattle-raider) took advantage of
disruption to gather chiefdoms of Caledon valley into defensive
kingdom
 Mountain-top capital, Thaba-Bosiu
 Loose federation of hereditary chiefdoms
 Moshoeshoe used royal marriage to build complex system of
alliances
 Raided cattle from weaker neighbours and sent tribute to powerful
ones (Matiwane’s Ngwane, Zulu and Ndebele)
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Threat from ex-Cape Griqua and Kora prompted Moshoeshoe to
invite Christian missionaries – hoping to cement an alliance with
powerful neighbour (Cape Colony)
1830s & 40s imports of horses and guns from Cape made Sotho
powerful kingdom
The difaqane on the western highveld
 Displaced Sotho attracted westwards to raid cattle of Tlhaping at
Dithakong
 LMS missionary Robert Moffat got Griqua to defend Tlhaping (and
the mission)
 1823: battle of Dithakong, Griqua (with guns and horses) defeated
Sotho raiders/refugees
 This battle enhanced prestige of missionaries among Tswana
generally
 One of these groups of Sotho raided further north, becoming the
Kololo under Sebetwane – ended by conquering Lozi kingdom on
Zambezi {Ch.17, p. 251]
Mzilikazi and the founding of the Ndebele kingdom
 1822: Khumalo clan from Nguni lowveld, avoided submission to
Zulu, by withdrawing onto highveld
 Become Ndebele under leadership of Mzilikazi
 Powerful, centralised, Zulu-style kingdom built on central highveld
 Absorbed Sotho-Tswana men and women and raided those who did
not send tribute
 Raids for tribute were widespread
 1837: suffered raids from Dingane’s Zulu and combined force of
Boer/Griqua/Rolong
 1838-40: withdrew northwards
 Overcame weakened Shona/Rozvi state
 Established powerful kingdom on western Zimbabwe plateau,
absorbing local Shona
The British at the Cape
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During European Napoleonic Wars, British seized Cape 1795,
handed it back to Dutch 1803, retook it permanently 1806
Useful British naval base and refreshment station
Introduced changes to make colony secure and profitable
Economic expansion
 Large British garrison provided local food market
 British market: Cape wine farmers, trekboers increased Merino
sheep (wool) and ivory hunting
Labour
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British abolition of slave trade (1807) – no more importations
‘free’ labour restricted by pass laws (‘Hottentot Code’)
Written labour contracts: labourers allowed access to courts
Circuit courts enforcing labour laws opposed by frontier Boers
British missionaries championed cause of oppressed Khoesan of
Cape
Mission influence: labour restrictions of ‘Hottentot Code’
suspended
Abolition of slavery (1834) to create a free wage labour force in
Colony
Wealthy slave owners complained of poor compensation for freed
slaves
Denied access to free or coerced labour, some Boers consider
northward migration
The eastern Cape frontier and the conflict with the Xhosa
 Colonists of the eastern Cape felt strengthened against the
independent Xhosa by presence of a British standing army in Cape
Town
 The British introduced the concept of ‘total warfare’ (1811-12,
1818-19) to what had hitherto been raid and counter-raid on the
eastern frontier
 1834-5: British annexed Xhosa territory as far as River Kei
 British decided security of new province too expensive to maintain
and handed the territory back to the Xhosa
 For eastern Cape Boers, eager for new land, this was final straw
The Boer Trek and African resistance
The Boer Trek
 Late 1830s several thousand Boer families from eastern Cape
trekked north of Orange River and out of Cape Colony
 Afrikaner historians glorify this as ‘The Great Trek’
 In practice it was a series of small, disunited treks
 Causes:
 British vigorous collection of rents;
 Boer ‘loan-farm’ system replaced by private property in land;
 Locally elected Boer officials replaced by British magistrates;
 Use of English in courts and education;
 British ‘free labour’ policies: Boer freedom to abuse labour
curtailed;
 Abolition of slavery (1834);
 British failure to provide additional ‘vacant land’ from victory over
Xhosa (1835)
The impact of the Boer Trek and African resistance
 The Boer treks (late 1830s, early 40s) extended permanent white
settlement beyond the Orange River
 Exactly where they settled was determined largely by patterns of
African settlement and resistance
 Initially headed for southern highveld (south of Vaal)
 Helped by Rolong against the Ndebele kingdom (just north of
middle Vaal)
 1837: joint Boer, Griqua, Rolong force Ndebele to withdraw
northwards
 Boers claim ‘right of conquest’ north of Vaal, settling at
Potchefstroom and making taxation and labour demands of local
Batswana
 Further Boer settlements north of Vaal: eastern highlands and
northern Soutspansberg
 These latter two faced considerable African resistance
 Main aim of Boer trekkers: settle south-eastern lowveld, just south
of Zulu heartland
 Zulu wiped out initial party, but were then defeated by disciplined
Boer force (Battle of Ncome River, 1838)
 Boers founded ‘republic of Natalia’ south of Tugela
 Dingane killed in civil war (1840), his brother successor (Mpande)
avoided further conflict with trekker ‘republic’
 British annexed Natal (1843), but 1852 and 1854 agreed to
recognise independence of Boer republic north of Orange and Vaal
Rivers
 1850s and 60s: Basotho fought series of wars against Boer
encroachment into Caledon valley
 Moshoeshoe accepted British ‘protection’ in 1868, to save remnants
of Basotho kingdom – most productive part of kingdom already lost
to Boer settlement
Southern Africa in 1870
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[see Map 18.4]
1840s-50s: British Cape Colony extended through Xhosa territory
to Kei River
System of ‘reserves’ – British unable to expel all Xhosa from their
land
‘Reserves’ inadequate for full subsistence, need for wage labour
Best land sold to whites for Merino sheep
Natal: African/white ratio: 15/1. Africans ‘reserved’ 15 per cent
Absentee landlords, Africans allowed to remain as rentiers or sharecroppers
In Boer republics of highveld: Africans forced to provide unpaid
labour services
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Across most of southern Africa black and white people lived from
mix of herding, small-scale cultivation and hunting
Besides wool, main profitable export was hunting produce
Balance between independent black states and white colonies and
republics
African importing guns and holding their against further land
encroachment
Mineral discoveries of 1870s and 80s would change all that
© Kevin Shillington, 2012