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REVITALIZATION THROUGH EXPANSION IN SOUTHERN AFRICA, C. 1750-1840: A REAPPRAISAL OF THE 'MFECANE'
Abstract
The emergence of Shaka's Zulu kingdom between 1818 and 1828 remains one of the most remarkable and enigmatic events in the history of southern Africa. The period of the Shakan wars is known among the northern Nguni people as the Mfecane (literally, "the crushing"), and is significant not only for the suffering it provoked but also for its role in the dispersal and redistribution of African ethnic groups throughout southern, central, and eastern Africa. Historians and anthropologists have offered a variety of explanations for the origins of the Mfecane: that it was the culmination of population pressure building in southeastern Africa from the seventeenth century; that the struggle was an effort by northern Nguni chiefdoms to monopolize the trading network to Delagoa Bay; or that it was a consequence of the application of European military techniques to traditional Nguni fighting practices. For the Shakan wars per se, scholars have conventionally emphasized the exploits of the Mthethwa leaders conventionally emphasized the exploits of the Mthethwa leaders Dingiswayo and Shaka, the military institutions that these men supervised, and the "revolutionary" nature of the phenomenon. The traditional explanations are subjected to a variety of criticisms. Among them, (1) too little attention has been given to the distinctive attributes of Nguni culture and agricultural economy; (2) the "military" veils a broader socioeconomic basis to the Mfecane and is probably the product of an overreliance on traditional sources and on early missionaries and administrators seeking to justify their "civilizing" missions; and (3) the overworked "revolutionary" characterization distorts the gradual, symbiotic, and synthetic nature of the changes in precolonial Zululand. This study reassesses the nature of the Mfecane by focusing on the period c. 1750-1840. The model used in this respect is Anthony F. C. Wallace's "cultural revitalization" sequence--stress, distortion, revival, routinization--because it provides a sufficiently generalizable explanation for this complex political, socioeconomic, and religious event. The sources used include a variety of contemporary studies by archaeologists, anthropologists, and historians; published and unpublished accounts by European and American traders, travellers, hunters, and missionaries; conventional collections of Nguni and Sotho oral traditions; and the two recently published volumes of the valuable James Stuart Archive, a collection of traditional accounts by Nguni informants. Up to approximately the mid-eighteenth century, the resources of Zululand accommodated the agricultural economy of the Nguni. Decentralized political units were also ideally-suited to the requirements of hoe-cultivators and cattle-keepers, as it was possible for a chiefdom in Zululand to graze, cultivate, and hunt within a reasonable distance of the major kraal sites. By approximately 1750 a worsening ecological imbalance, created by overgrazing, improper cropland management, and perhaps rainfall shortages, conceivably gave rise to a socio-political crisis. Specifically the traditional Nguni economic exploitation patterns became increasingly ineffective and the ritual means to control the environment, a function of the ruling establishment, was clearly impaired. The response by Nguni leaders was a reorganization process that was designed to (1) expand their chiefdom's territorial potential and (2) revitalize their own power, prestige, and ritual authority. The gradual transformation of the traditional circumcision sets into multi-functional amabutho provided the perfect mechanism for these objectives. By 1818, Shaka was able to synthesize the socio-political changes that had been building for at least a half a century into an integrated Zulu kingdom. However, in comparison with Mzilikazi's Ndebele, one of the principal "offshoots" of the Shakan wars, Shaka's effort represents the less impressive achievement.
Subject Area
African history
Recommended Citation
GUMP, JAMES OLIVER, "REVITALIZATION THROUGH EXPANSION IN SOUTHERN AFRICA, C. 1750-1840: A REAPPRAISAL OF THE 'MFECANE'" (1980). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8101217.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8101217