Deconstructing Zulu-Centric Narratives of the Mfecane

Non-Zulu African people held a crucial role in how we understand the Mfecane. Experts have researched and studied how non-Zulu African peoples participated in, described and reconstructed the Mfecane over time. The second-hand accounts of neither Zulu nor British authors provide key insights into the Mfecane, and without them, our historical knowledge of this crucial event would be incomplete. I argue that the diversity of perspectives and the correction of biases that non-Zulu African people bring to the conversation surrounding the Mfecane are essential in understanding this historical event. 

Although the Zulu state played an important role in the creation of the Mfecane, other various groups and African regions experienced, participated and were heavily influenced by the Mfecane. When looking at non-Zulu figures, we are provided with a crucial perspective on the events that led to the Mfecane. Shaka, arguably the most influential Zulu leader, is one of the causes of the Mfecane due to his genocidal warfare. However, if historians were to only research Shaka and/or Zulu, they would completely miss, in my opinion, the most influential person in Shaka’s life, who heavily impacted the actions and life of Shaka, Dingiswayo. 

Dingiswayo was an African chief and king of the Mthethwa. Mthethwa incorporated Zulu into its territory but also had many other surrounding regions of South Africa. Dingiswayo became a second father to Shaka, and taught and trained him over the course of a couple years. I would argue that Dingiswayo is the main reason as to why Shaka became the leader of the Zulu nation. Without Dingiswayo’s encouragement for Shaka to overcome his brother and become the Zulu Chief, the Mfecane would not be nearly the same event as we know of it today. It is of utmost importance to note that this was not the only influence Dingiswayo had on Shaka. Shaka reconstructed the Zulu military, which helped to lead to the Mfecane. Shaka’s military tactics and strategies can be traced back to his training by Dingiswayo. Furthermore, second hand accounts lead us to believe that after the death of Dingiswayo, Mthethwa troops joined Shaka, which I would testify to the notion that those troops gave Shaka the strength and power to cause genocidal wars and eventually lead to the Mfecane. All in all, without studying the life, military tactics, and death of Dingiswayo, a crucial part of how we understand the creation of the Mfecane would be lost. 

If historians were to only examine the work of Zulu African people or British authors, our knowledge of the Mfecane would be extremely skewed and biased. People fail to realize that those two groups of people were not the only people involved in the Mfecane and in reality, it consumed the majority of South Africa. Thomas Mofolo’s novel, “Chaka”, provides historians with further insight into the life of Shaka and what led to the Mfecane. Thomas Mofolo was a non-Zulu novelist, who spent three years writing his work on Shaka. Although his book is considered to be a novel, that does not mean that all of his research and information is distorted. Mofolo describes in detail the gruesome acts of Shaka and the madness that Shaka fell into slowly over the course of his life. Despite the fact that Mofolo’s reason as to why Shaka fell into madness is most likely false, Shaka did still in fact plunge into a deep madness that led to the Mfecane. Something that I find to be so important about Mofolo’s novel is how he does not shy away from painting Shaka in a negative light. Second hand accounts from non-Zulu African peoples allow us to gain an unbiased perspective of what happened leading up to the Mfecane. 

In conclusion, historical experts seek to understand non-Zulu African people’s perspectives and participation in the creation of the Mfecane. Their aim in doing so is to broaden the overall historical knowledge surrounding the event by diversifying the participants, as the Mfecane did not just engulf Zulu territory, and by stripping the Zulu led research of biases and challenging Zulu-centric accounts. These experts were able to do so by incorporating the work of Thomas Mofolo’s novel and heavily attending to the actions of Dingiswayo.