The Road to Democracy in South Africa, Volume 8, Part 1: South African Diaspora in southern and eastern Africa in Precolonial times

Description

This book provides a regional perspective of the South African diaspora’s involvement in the
history of southern and eastern Africa, specifically in the countries known today as Tanzania,
Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. It positions the 19th century migrations and
interaction with other people in the region within the broader regional demographic, political and
economic dynamics of the nineteenth century. Accordingly, the book reinforces the assertion that
the migrations are better understood as a regional or continental phenomenon rather than as an
external intrusion into the societies concerned. The regional perspective is explained by making
reference to the dynamic and changing nature of all the societies in southern and eastern Africa
during the nineteenth century. It is argued that the migrations were an integral part of those
dynamics, even though the Ndebele, Ngoni and ‘Shangaan’ originally came from an area which is
now called KwaZulu-Natal in the Republic of South Africa. This is, however, not to discount or
belittle the phenomenal character of the movement in question, especially as defined by the
coverage of a vast territory which extends from southern to eastern Africa in just over one
generation.

ISBN: 978-1-943533-51-0 Ι Published 2020 Ι Pan-African University Press