The Mfecane/Difaqane Problem from the Documentary Record

Summary

The historical discourse about the forces underlying the Mfecane/Difaqane has focused on the standard story, a Zulucentric version of African internal dynamics. Explanations have emphasized various anthropogenic environmental “causes” like ecological and demographic change. Vindicationist arguments from scholars of the African diaspora differed from their European counterparts in accentuating pride in Shaka’s military accomplishments and some recognition of European agency. Trade advocates, with the exception of Cobbing, maintained Zulucentric explanations that recognized African-European interaction but emphasized African conflictual relations over European-controlled commodities imported from Delagoa Bay.

Despite the variance in the range of debate over the Settler Model, the major shape of the arguments remains clear. The Mfecane/Difaqane was precipitated by Zulu state formation and was the result of African internal dynamics. Even those who consider external interaction keep the variation minimal by not looking beyond Delagoa Bay. I have tried to show that there is only minor variation among explanations for the Mfecane/Difaqane and all the variance is rooted in the standard Settler Model. In Chapter 3, I describe the key issues in the standard story to generate the archaeological implications.