| "More
destruction was caused by those whom Shaka defeated, than by his
own forces. Such was the case of the Hlubi and the
Ngwane. Bereft of all social order, these refugees
took to looting and pillaging wherever they went. They
reduced the landscape in the Natal and much of the Orange Free
State into a wasteland.
This period of change became
known as the "Mfecane", which is said to derive originally
from a Zulu word meaning 'crushing'. For the past ten
years, the word and ideas behind it have aroused much debate and
argument.
Many South African historians
now believe that Europeans, and slave traders in particular, played
a much larger part in upheaval in the region in the first quarter
of the 19th century than was previously thought, and that too
much emphasis has been put on Shaka's impact." |