Mfecane - Controversies

Controversies

In 1988, Rhodes University professor Julian Cobbing advanced a controversial new hypothesis on the rise of the Zulu state; he contended the accounts of the Mfecane were a self-serving, constructed product of apartheid politicians and historians. According to Cobbing, apartheid historians had mischaracterized the Mfecane as a period of internally induced black-on-black destruction. Instead, Cobbing argued that the roots of the conflicts could be found exclusively in the labor needs of the Portuguese slave traders operating out of Delagoa Bay, in modern-day Mozambique, and of the British colonists in the Cape. The resulting pressures led to massive displacement, famine, and war in the interior, allowing later Afrikaner settlers to seize control of most land. Among those involved were European adventurers such as Nathaniel Isaacs (who was later accused of slave trading)

Cobbing's hypothesis (now known by many historians as the "Cobbing Controversy") remains controversial. Many agree that Cobbing's analysis offered several key breakthroughs and insights into the nature of early Zulu society. Some critics assert that revisionist theories such as Cobbing's placed too much weight on environmental factors and ignored the key roles played by dynamic human agents such as the Zulu king Shaka. The historian Elizabeth Eldredge challenged Cobbing's thesis on the grounds that there is scant evidence of the resumption of the Portuguese slave trade out of Delagoa Bay before 1823, a finding that undermines Cobbing's thesis that Shaka's early military activities were a response to slave raids. Moreover, Eldredge argues that Griqua and other groups, rather than the British colonists, were primarily responsible for the slave raids coming from the Cape. Eldredge also asserts that Cobbing downplays the importance of the ivory trade in Delagoa Bay, and the extent to which African groups and leaders sought to establish more centralized and complex state formations in order to control ivory routes and the wealth associated with the trade. She suggests these pressures created internal movements, as well as reactions against European activity, that drove the state formations and concomitant violence and displacement.

Zulu expansion was a major factor of the Mfecane. Aggressive Zulu military activities sparked a tremendous ferment of change. Other factors include population pressures; the effect of corn crops from Europe; and white encroachment and expansion in the general area, including slaving and Portuguese activities in Mozambique.

After the defeat of Phungashe by a combination of Khohlwa house of the Buthelezi, The Zulu under Shaka and The Mthethwa, Ngqengelele the son of Phungashe's brother Mvulane became an eminent person in Zululand. His brother Khoboyela who was sick when they came from Mcakwini to live with Senzangakhona, had died. Ngqengelele excelled in medicine and military and brewery and food processing and coocking and as a result the Khohlwa house of the Buthelezis was given land between Ulundi/Mahlabathini, Babanango, Vryheid, Nongoma and Phongola bordering Nongoma and Vryheid and neighboring, The Zulus of Usuthu in Nongoma, The Ntshangases in Dlomodlomo, the BaQululusis in Vryheid, the Zulus of Gazini in Ceza, the Zondos in Gluckstad, the Mpungoses in Ulundi, the Zungus in Mahlabathini, the Mbathas in Mahlabathini and the Zulus of Hhamu at Ngenetsheni in Ngotshe.

The Buthelezi land of the Khohlwa house of Mvulane can be divided into Ngome also known as Bathenjini or Dibikazi under the eldest son of Ngqengelele, Mahlabathini also known as Kushumayeleni or Madaka under Mnayamana to great grand father of Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Gluckstad also known as Mpithimpithini under Mnyamanda's son Maphovela and Ngotshe also known as Mbongombongweni under Khoboyela's son Klwana.

Mbangambi was married to 80 wives excluding maidens and he build his great place in Ngome and named it Bathenjini. many houses came out of Bathenjini, namely and one of them is Dibikazi. Many houses also came out of Dibikazi and one of the is Thathela. Many houses came out of Thathela and one of them is Landinkomo. Gibisizungu the son of Mbangambi was converted into Christianity and he became a priest towards late 1800. He was a phefeni regiment and brother Mthandeni was Uve regiment and they built their house above referred to as Landinkomo.

Gibisizungu worked as a priest in Ngome and the house in which he lived is still visible in Sihlengeni, from Sihlengeni he moved to Babanango with his sons. and his brothers' sons. to Babanabgo and from Babanango to Mahlabathini and from Mahlabathini to Maphophoma in Nongoma. This movement was after his father's(Mbangambi) land was taken by the boer after the Mandlakazi Usuthu war.

His son Josiah Built his homestead in Nkonjeni Mahlabathini and he named it Kwabhekindoda. Buthelezi gave birth to Shenge, Shenge gave birth to Ndaba, Ndaba gave birth to Ngwane, Ngwane gave birth to Mvulane, Mvulane gave birth to Ngqengelele and Khoboyela, Ngqengelele gave birth to Mbangambi, Santinga, Mnyamana and others, Bangambi gave birth to Gibisizungu, Mthahdeni and others, Gibisizungu gave birth to Santshuntshu (Josiah), Josiah was married to Mahlatshwayo okaMhlaza and they gave birth to Gcinumona (Romanus), Gcinumona gave birth to Senzo (Senzosenkosi Lawrence), Manafuthi (Alexius), Bongumusa (Zaire) and Phathakahle. All the sons of Gcinumona are still alive and Senzo has given birth to Daluxolo (Ziyanda), Aviwe and Lukhanyo.

A claim for Mbangambi's land has been instituted and the documents for it return has recently been signed and his descendent who are scarred in Mahlabathini, Babanango, Vryheid, Mtubatuba and other areas are expected to return to their ancestral land and probable claim their chieftainship which was placed under Mpithimpithini by white regime.