The idea that the period of social turbulence in the nineteenth century was a consequence of the emergence of the powerful Zulu kingdom under Shaka has been written about extensively as a central episode of southern African history.
Considerable dynamic debate has focused on the idea that this period – the 'mfecane'- left much of the interior depopulated, thereby justifying white occupation. One view is that 'the time of troubles' owed more to the Delagoa Bay Slave trade and the demands of the labour-hungry Cape colonists than to Shaka's empire building. But is there sufficient evidence to support the argument?
The Mfecane Aftermath investigates the very nature of historical debate and examines the uncertain foundations of much of the previous historiography.

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Was the ""mfecane"" a figment of historians' imagination? How large a responsibility do Shaka and the Zulu people bear for the social turbulence in South-central and South-east Africa in the early decades of the 19th century? These are some of the issues explored in this collection.
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Preface

Acknowledgements

Notes on Orthography and Names

Contributors

Introduction


Part One: Historiography and Methodology Putting the Mfecane Controversy into Historiographical Context

Chapter 1. Pre-Cobbing Mfecane Historiography

Chapter 2. Old Wine in New Bottles The Persistence of Narrative Structures in the Historiography of the Mfecane and the Great Trek

Chapter 3. Hunter-Gatherers, Traders and Slaves The ‘Mfecane’ Impact on Bushmen, Their Ritual and Their Art

Chapter 4. Language and Assassination Cutural Negationas in White Writers’ Portrayal of Shaka and the Zulu


Part Two: The South-Eastern Coastal Region Beyond the concept of the ‘Zulu Explosion’ Comments on the Current Debate

Chapter 5. Sources of Conflict in Southern Africa c. 1800-1830 The ‘Mfecane’ Reconsidered Chapter 6. Political Transformations in the Thukela-Mzimkhulu Region in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries

Chapter 7. ‘The Character and Objects of Chaka’ A Reconsideration of the Making of Shaka as Mfecane Motor

Chapter 8. Matiwane’s Road to Mbholompo A Reprieve for the Mfecane?

Chapter 9. Unmasking the Fingo The War of 1835 Revisted

Chapter 10. The Mfecane Survives its Critics Part Three: The Interior ‘The time of troubles’ Difaqane in the Interior

Chapter 11. Archaeological Indicators of Stress in the Western Transvaal Region between the Seventeenth and Nineteenth Centuries

Chapter 12. Prelude to Difaqane in the Interior of the Southern Africa c.1600-c. 1822

Chapter 13. Conflict in the Western Highveld/Southern Kalahari c.1750-1820

Chapter 14. ‘Hungry Wolves’ The Impact of Violence on Rolong Life, 1823-1836

Chapter 15. The Battle of Dithakong and ‘Mfecane’ Theory

Chapter 16. Untapped Sources Slave Exports from Southern and Central Namibia up to c.1850 Glossary

Abbreviations

Bibliographer’s Note

Bibliography

Complete List of Papers Presented at the Colloquium

Index

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..". a very useful introduction to the major questions confronting historians of nineteenth-century South Africa. It represents the end of the beginning of a new stage in historical research and writing." -- International Journal of African Historical Studies
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781868142521
Publisert
1995-01-01
Utgiver
Vendor
Wits University Press
Vekt
907 gr
Høyde
229 mm
Bredde
152 mm
Aldersnivå
UU, UP, P, 05, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
512

Redaktør

Biografisk notat

Carolyn Hamilton is the South African Research Chair in Archive and Public Culture at the University of Cape Town. She is the author of Terrific Majesty, and co-editor of Refiguring the Archive, The Cambridge History of South Africa and Babel Unbound.

Carolyn Hamilton is the South African Research Chair in Archive and Public Culture at the University of Cape Town. She is the author of Terrific Majesty, and co-editor of Refiguring the Archive, The Cambridge History of South Africa and Babel Unbound.

Thomas Dowson was a Researcher in the Rock Art Research Unit, Department of Archeology, University of the Witwatersrand. He is currently Rock Art Research Fellow in the Department of Archeology at the University of Southampton.

Elizabeth Eldredge is Asscciate Professor of History at Michigan State University.

Norman Etherington is Professor of History at the University of Western Australia and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.

Jan-Bart Gewald is Professor of African History and Director of the African Studies Centre Leiden Leiden University.

Simon Hall is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Archaeology at UCT.

Guy Hartley is a PhD candidate in the Department of History at the University of Cape Town.

Margaret Kinsman is an educationalist working in Cape Town. Her research interest is in the southern Tswana 1780-1880, with a particular focus on the social history of the period and the changing position of women

Andrew Manson is Research Professor in the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, North-West University

John Omer-Cooper was Professor of History at the University of Otago.

Neil Parsons is a freealance writer and former co-editor of the Journal of Southern African Studies.

Jeff Peires is Professor of History at the University of Fort Hare and a former Member of Parliament.

Christopher Saunders is Emeritus Professor in the History department at the University of Cape Town and is involved with the Archive and Public Culture Research Initiative.

Alan Webster was a teacher Stirling High School in East London and at Rhodes University.

John Wright is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and a research associate in the Archive and Public Culture Research Initiative at the University of Cape Town.

Dan Wylie is a lecturer in the English Department at Rhodes University, Grahamstown. He has published three books on the Zulu leader Shaka; a memoir, Dead Leaves: Two years in the Rhodesian war (2002); and several volumes of poetry.