Zulu Terror

Zulu Terror

Author: Robin Binckes

Publisher: Casemate Publishers

Published: 2019-07-30

Total Pages: 130

ISBN-13: 1526728923

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The historian and author of The Great Trek recounts the devastating period of violence among indigenous peoples in early 19th century southern Africa. From 1815 to 1840, southeastern Africa experienced a devastating period of warfare between the Zulus, the Matabele, and other indigenous peoples. Though the causes of the unrest—which the Zulu called the Mfecane—are still debated by historians, we know that hundreds of thousands of lives lost. Some estimate the total number of deaths to be near two million. At the center of the turmoil was the Zulu Kingdom and its King Shaka, whose wars of expansion sparked mass migrations among smaller tribes. One of Shaka’s lieutenants, Mzilikazi Khumalo, escaped execution and began a trail of destruction from Zululand north to the Highveld. Refugees from Mzilikazi’s warpath then formed their own alliance—including with the Dutch-speaking Voortrekkers, arriving on their own “Great Trek” to escape British control. Finally defeated in 1836 by the Voortrekkers in a nine-day battle, Mzilikazi and his followers crossed the Limpopo River and founded the kingdom of the Matabele in what is now Zimbabwe.


Mfecane Aftermath

Mfecane Aftermath

Author: Carolyn Hamilton

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 518

ISBN-13: 9781868142521

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A guide for interpreting the mfecane's role in history Was the mfecane a figment of historians' imagination as Julian Cobbing contends? 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, which is designed as a response to the radical critique of Dr. Cobbing and other scholars. The mfecane, suggests Cobbing, must be seen as a myth lying at the root of a set of interlinked assumptions and distortions that have seriously twisted our understanding of the main historical processes of late 18th- and early 19th-century Southern Africa. Contributors to this collection assess the implications of this critique for scholars from a range of disciplines, notably history, anthropology, archaeology, history of art and African languages. But the book is not only about the debate over Cobbing's work; it is also an indicator of the state of current scholarship in Southern Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries and, because it raises questions about the nature of sources and, indeed, about the nature of historical debate itself, it is also about historiography. This book should provide a useful guide for students starting out in this field, as well as a resource for established scholars seeking their way through the textual intricacies of varied editions and secondary texts that become the primary sources for historiographical debate.


The Mfecane and Its Effects

The Mfecane and Its Effects

Author: Emmanuel Twum Mensah

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2016-03-18

Total Pages: 12

ISBN-13: 3668177767

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Essay from the year 2016 in the subject History - Africa, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (Department of History and Political Studies), course: Ba. History, language: English, abstract: Mfecane is an Nguni word which means ‘crushing’ and was used by the Nguni to describe the violent wars that tore apart Central and Southern Africa between 1820 and1835. The Sotho refers to the Mfecane as the Defecane or Lifaquane, which means forced migration. This forced migration was caused by a series of wars that engulfed the area between different states over land and resources.This event has been dominant in the history of the Southern and Central Africa because of the areas it affected which stretched from the Tugela River in modern day South Africa to areas in modern day Botswana, Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia. This essay tries to explain the point that the Mfecane is the single event that made the most profound effect on Central and Southern Africa in the nineteenth century. It will first discuss why the Mfecane is seen as single event, then move on to discuss its causes and effects and later conclude on the question based on the findings of the research.


The Great Treks

The Great Treks

Author: Norman Etherington

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-06-06

Total Pages: 395

ISBN-13: 1317883136

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The mass migration of the Boer farmers from Cape Colony to escape British domination in 1835-36 - the Great Trek - has always been a potent icon of Africaaner nationalism and identity. For African nationalists, the Mfecane - the vast movement of the Black populations in the interior following the emergence of a new Zulu kingdom as a major military force in the early 19th century - offers an equally powerful symbol of the making of a nation. With their parallel visions of populations on the move to establish new states, these two stories became part of divided South Africa’s separate mythologies, treated as unconnected events taking place in separate universes. For the first time, in this groundbreaking book, accounts of both migrations are brought together and examined. In uniting these separate visions of African and Afrikaaner history, Norman Etherington provides a fascinating picture of a major turning point in South African history, and points the way for future work on the period.


History of Southern Africa

History of Southern Africa

Author: John D. Omer-Cooper

Publisher:

Published: 1988

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 9780852550106

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History of South Africa. Includes information about Namibia and the native races.


Kingdoms and Chiefdoms of Southeastern Africa

Kingdoms and Chiefdoms of Southeastern Africa

Author: Elizabeth A. Eldredge

Publisher: Boydell & Brewer

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 450

ISBN-13: 1580465145

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History and oral traditions in southeastern Africa -- Oral traditions in the reconstruction of southern African history -- Shipwreck survivor accounts from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries -- Founding families and chiefdoms east of the Drakensberg -- Maputo Bay peoples and chiefdoms before 1740 -- Maputo Bay, 1740-1820 -- Eastern chiefdoms of southern Africa, 1740-1815 -- Zulu conquests and the consolidation of power, 1815-21 -- Military campaigns, migrations, and political reconfiguration -- Ancestors, descent lines, and chiefdoms west of the Drakensberg before 1820 -- The Caledon River valley and the Basotho of Moshoeshoe, 1821-33 -- The expansion of the European presence at Maputo Bay, 1821-33 -- Southern African kingdoms on the eve of colonization.


A Companion to African Literatures

A Companion to African Literatures

Author: Olakunle George

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2021-03-22

Total Pages: 512

ISBN-13: 1119058171

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Rediscover the diversity of modern African literatures with this authoritative resource edited by a leader in the field How have African literatures unfolded in their rich diversity in our modern era of decolonization, nationalisms, and extensive transnational movement of peoples? How have African writers engaged urgent questions regarding race, nation, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality? And how do African literary genres interrelate with traditional oral forms or audio-visual and digital media? A Companion to African Literatures addresses these issues and many more. Consisting of essays by distinguished scholars and emerging leaders in the field, this book offers rigorous, deeply engaging discussions of African literatures on the continent and in diaspora. It covers the four main geographical regions (East and Central Africa, North Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa), presenting ample material to learn from and think with. A Companion To African Literatures is divided into five parts. The first four cover different regions of the continent, while the fifth part considers conceptual issues and newer directions of inquiry. Chapters focus on literatures in European languages officially used in Africa -- English, French, and Portuguese -- as well as homegrown African languages: Afrikaans, Amharic, Arabic, Swahili, and Yoruba. With its lineup of lucid and authoritative analyses, readers will find in A Companion to African Literatures a distinctive, rewarding academic resource. Perfect for undergraduate and graduate students in literary studies programs with an African focus, A Companion to African Literatures will also earn a place in the libraries of teachers, researchers, and professors who wish to strengthen their background in the study of African literatures.


Five Hundred Years Rediscovered

Five Hundred Years Rediscovered

Author: Natalie Swanepoel

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2008-08-01

Total Pages: 521

ISBN-13: 1776142284

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In the age of the African Renaissance, southern Africa has needed to reinterpret the past in fresh and more appropriate ways. The last 500 years represent a strikingly unexplored and misrepresented period which remains disfigured by colonial/apartheid assumptions, most notably in the way that African societies are depicted as fixed, passive, isolated, un-enterprising and unenlightened. This period is one the most formative in relation to southern Africa’s past while remaining, in many ways, the least known. Key cultural contours of the sub-continent took shape, while in a jagged and uneven fashion some of the features of modern identities emerged. Enormous internal economic innovation and political experimentation was taking place at the same time as expanding European mercantile forces started to press upon southern African shores and its hinterlands. This suggests that interaction, flux and mixing were a strong feature of the period, rather than the homogeneity and fixity proposed in standard historical and archaeological writings. Five Hundred Years Rediscovered represents the first step, taken by a group of archaeologists and historians, to collectively reframe, revitalise and re-examine the last 500 years. By integrating research and developing trans-frontier research networks, the group hopes to challenge thinking about the region’s expanding internal and colonial frontiers, and to broaden current perceptions about southern Africa’s colonial past.


The Covenant

The Covenant

Author: James A. Michener

Publisher: Fawcett

Published: 1980

Total Pages: 1250

ISBN-13: 0449214206

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Volume 2 of 2; The story begins 1500 years ago. The Bushmen are facing a crisis. the beautiful lake, long the center of their lives, is drying up, and they must move across a hostile African desert to seek better conditions.


African Military History

African Military History

Author: John Lamphear

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-05-15

Total Pages: 600

ISBN-13: 1351960377

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This collection of essays on pre-colonial sub-Saharan African military history is drawn from a number of academic journals and includes some which are considered milestones in African historiographical discourse, as well as others which, while lesser known, provide remarkable insight into the unique nature of African military history. Selections were made so as to produce an introduction to the understudied field of pre-colonial African military history that will be useful to specialists and non-specialists alike. The volume also contains an introduction which presents one of the first significant reviews of pre-colonial African military historiography ever attempted.