Mfecane, series ofZulu and otherNguni wars and forcedmigrations of the second and third decades of the 19th century that changed thedemographic, social, and political configuration of southern and central Africa and parts ofeastern Africa. The Mfecane was set in motion by the rise of the Zulu military kingdom underShaka (c. 1787–1828), who revolutionizedNguni warfare. The rise of Shaka’s kingdom, which took place during a time of drought and social unrest, was itself part of a wider process of state formation in southeastern Africa, which probably resulted from intensified competition over trade atDelagoa Bay. The pattern of the Mfecane, in which tribe was set against tribe over an ever-increasing radius, was highly successful in areas weakened by overpopulation and overgrazing.

InSouth Africa itself the Mfecane caused immense suffering and devastated large areas asrefugees scrambled to safety in mountain fastnesses or were killed, thus easing the way for white expansion intoNatal and the Highveld. In theCape Colony it greatly increased pressures on the eastern frontier as refugees known asMfengu crowded in on the peoples of theTranskei. At the same time, however, as a result of the Mfecane, some of the mostformidable kingdoms to oppose white penetration were created—the Sotho,Swazi, andNdebele, as well as the Gaza ofMozambique.

The impact of the Mfecane was felt far beyond South Africa, as peoples fled from Shaka’s armies as far as Tanzania and Malawi in the northeast (theNgoni) and Barotseland, in Zambia, to the northwest (the Kololo).

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