The Mfecane and its impact on southern and central Africa

Causes

Interpretations differ: population pressure and drought; competition for trade (ivory and slaves at Delagoa Bay); the military revolution under Dingiswayo and Shaka; and revisionist views (Julian Cobbing) that blame European slave raiding and settler expansion.

The Zulu state

Shaka's military reforms: age regiments, short stabbing spear (iklwa), the "bull's horn" formation, and centralised power.

Migrations and new states

• Ndebele under Mzilikazi: Transvaal, then settled near present-day Bulawayo around 1840.
• Gaza (Soshangane) in southern Mozambique; Kololo (Sebetwane) in Barotseland; Ngoni groups to Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania.
• Defensive states: Lesotho (Moshoeshoe) and Swaziland.

Effects

Depopulation of some areas, political centralisation, new military techniques, cultural assimilation, and areas left vulnerable to later European occupation.

The Ndebele state

Centralised under the king; regiments (amabutho); incorporation of Sotho-Tswana (Enhla) and Shona (Hole) groups; raiding and tribute relations with neighbours have been reinterpreted by recent historians.

Check yourself

1. Name one revisionist historian of the Mfecane.
2. Give two military reforms of Shaka.
3. Name two states formed during the Mfecane.