Factions and Fissions
Transvaal/Swazi Politics in the Mid-Nineteenth Century
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8977652 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Philip Bonner (University of the Witwatersrand, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1978 |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 219-238 |
| Publication date | 1978-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of African History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8537 • E-ISSN: 1469-5138 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0021853700027614 |
| OpenAlex | W2116781396 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 5 |
The writing of South African history has yet to catch up with many of the historiographical advances made north of the Limpopo. This is especially obvious in the tendency to view white and black states confronting one another in the pre-conquest era as irreconcilably hostile monolithic blocks. This essay attempts to examine the reality of that interaction by focusing on the eastern Transvaal republics and the Swazi in the mid-nineteenth century. The Swazi, it suggests, were not the integrated society that is often assumed, and were forced to enlist the support of Boer factions in the eastern Transvaal to survive internal dissensions and Zulu attack. The Transvaal republics themselves were similarly divided along constitutional, political and economic lines, with access to African resources, whether for labour, for hunting, or for military assistance, constituting a crucial determinant of political power. As a result a shifting kaleidoscope of factional relationships grew up, characterized by changing political alliances and by fissions from both parties concerned. Only once they were freed from the fear of Zulu invasion after 1852 were the Swazi able to proceed undisturbed with the process of internal consolidation, and to present a more unified front to their neighbours. For the Transvaal (by then the South African Republic) that process was postponed even longer, until after the civil wars of the early 1860s, and the discovery of gold a decade after that. Only then can one talk of the South African Republic or the Swazi as being states in any meaningful way
Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Colonialism · Consolidation (business · Historiography · History of Africa · Kaleidoscope · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Zulu · History · Law · South African History and Culture
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,09 |
| Citation span | 1983 - 2023 (41) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |