Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T16:03:11.680Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Slavery, Social incorporation and surplus extraction; the nature of free and unfree labour in South-East Africa1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Patrick Harries
Affiliation:
University of Cape Town

Extract

This essay questions the generally held view that the northern Nguni were not involved in the slave trade. It is shown that elements of the Ngwane (Swazi), Ndwandwe (Gaza and Jere) and possibly Mthethwa (Zulu) confederations were involved in the sale of slaves captured in the hinterlands of Lourenço Marques and Inhambane. In the 1840s the terms of the slave trade turned against suppliers as British and anti-slavery activities caused a rise in slavers' overheads, a surfeit of saleable slaves on the coast and a consequent price drop. The export of slaves through Lourenço Marques and Inhambane became unprofitable as the two trading posts were unable to compete with the safer embarkation points north of the Zambezi. As the export of slaves from the coastal settlements south of the Zambezi declined, the trade from this area took on a new form as engagé labour for the Indian Ocean islands and as non-contracted and unprotected ‘migrant’ labour for Natal and Kimberley. Slave suppliers ceased to sell slaves for export through Lourenço Marques and Inhambane because far higher prices could be obtained from Transvaal Boers and from domestic purchasers. But it was the rise of domestic slavery in the Gaza state that finally ended the maritime export of slaves as by the 1860s, with the loss of labour through warfare and increasingly through migrant labour, it was more profitable to use slaves locally than to export them.

Domestic slavery in the Gaza state is treated as a dynamic social relationship in which the slave, as against the kinsman, had no rights and was consequently entirely dependent upon his master for his means of production and reproduction. It was this dependence which resulted in the extreme exploitation defined here as slavery. Slavery should not be seen merely in a functionalist sense as a form of socio-political incorporation aimed at expanding the size of the ruling group. In a society controlled by kinship rights and obligations, slavery provided a man with a means of accumulating wealth and attracting followers. Thus slave labour was realized in the form of repatriated wages; female children born of concubines provided their fathers with brideprices while male children had limited kinship rights and were therefore more exploitable than ‘legal’ offspring. Slave labour also released Gaza Nguni women from agricultural work and allowed them to concentrate on the child-producing and child-raising activities that ensured a putative Gaza Nguni ‘purity’ and, consequently, the perpetuation of the exploitative structure of Gaza society.

In a society that had no concept of ‘free’ labour, i.e. labour freed from its former means and relations of production, the distinction between slave and non-slave labour was often blurred, and a disadvantaged kinsman could hypothetically be materially worse off than a slave. Zulu and Swazi forms of servility are examined and are shown to have been only marginally different from Gaza slavery. From this it is deduced that Gaza slavery had its roots in the relations of production taken northwards from the Nguni area. Slavery is seen as a new and more exploitative social relationship that arose in response to the emergence of new forms of production in southern Mozambique.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

2 To cite only the most recent literature, cf. Philip LeVeen, E., ‘The African slave supply response’, African Studies Review, xviii, i (1975)Google Scholar; discussion by Curtin, , Anstey, and Inikori, in J. Afr. Hist, xvii, iv (1976)Google Scholar; and Eltis, David, ‘The export of slaves from Africa, 1821–1843J. Econ. History, xxxvii, ii (1977).Google Scholar

3 See especially Meillassoux, C. (ed.), L'esclavage en Afrique Précoloniale (Paris, 1975)Google Scholar; Miers, S. and Kopytoff, I. (eds.), Slavery in Africa (Madison, 1977)Google Scholar; Klein, M. A., ‘The Study of Slavery in Africa’, J. Afr. Hist, xix, iv (1978)Google Scholar; Cooper, F., ‘The Problem of Slavery in African Studies’, J. Afr. Hist, xx, i (1979)Google Scholar; Gemery, H. A. and Hogendorn, J. S., The Uncommon Market: Essays in the economic history of the Atlantic slave trade (London, 1979)Google Scholar; Lovejoy, P-, ‘Indigenous Slavery in Africa', Historical Reflections, 1979.Google Scholar Work on indigenous forms of slavery in southern Africa has been restricted to various Tswana-speaking chiefdoms. See Tlou, T., ‘Servility and political control: Botlhanka among the BaTawana of north-western Botswana, 1750–1906’, in Miers, and Kopytoff, , Slavery in Africa; and for earlier work, I. Schapera, A Handbook of Tswana Law and Custom (London, 1938), 66–8, 248–53Google Scholar; idem, ‘The political organisation of the Ngwato’, in M. Fortes and E. Evans-Pritchard (eds.), African. Political systems (London, 1940), 77–8; London Missionary Society: South African District Committee, The Masarwa (Bushmen) (London, 1935)Google Scholar; Joyce, J. W., Report on the Masarwa in the Bamangwato Reserve (League of Nations Publications vi. B. Slavery, 1938).Google Scholar

4 Bryant, A. T., The Zulu People (Pietermaritzburg, 1949), 444, 604Google Scholar; Theal, G. M., The Yellow and Dark-Skinned People of Africa south of the Zambezi (London, 1891), 249Google Scholar; Stuart, James (ed.), The Diary of Henry Francis Fynn (Pietermaritzburg, 1950), 299Google Scholar; James Stuart Archive, Killie Campbell Library, Durban (JSA), file 72, 3–6; Morris, D., The Washing of the Spears (London, 1965), 70Google Scholar.

5 Wilson, Monica, ‘The Nguni People’ in Wilson, M. and Thompson, L.M. (eds.), Oxford History of South Africa (Oxford, 1969), 1, 121, 130.Google Scholar

6 Kuper, Hilda, An African Aristocracy (London, 1947), 68.Google Scholar

7 Omer-Cooper, J. D., The Zulu Aftermath (London, 1966), 84.Google Scholar

8 Gerhard Liesegang, ‘Notes on the Internal structure of the Gaza kingdom of Southern Mozambique 1840–1895’, paper presented to the Nguni conference, June 1979, Rhodes University, Grahamstown and to be reproduced in Peires (ed.), Before and After Shaka; Hedges, David, ‘Trade and Politics in Southern Mozambique and Zululand in the 18th and early 19th centuries’ (Ph.D. thesis, London University, 1978)Google Scholar, especially chapter 3.

9 Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Lisbon (A.H.U.), Moçambique: Governor's correspondence, Pasta 21: Governor of Lourenço Marques (GLM) to Governor General of Mozambique (GGM), 31 March 1863 in GGM to Overseas Ministry, 2 September 1863; das Neves, D. Fernandes, A Hunting Expedition to the Transvaal (London, 1897), 4Google Scholar; Longle, A., ‘De Inhambane a Lourenço Marques’, Boletim da Sociedade de Geographia de Lisboa (BSGL), (1886) 33Google Scholar; Boletim Official de Moçambique (BO), ‘Terras de Gaza’, No. 6, 11 February 1888; Kruger, D. W., ‘ Die Weg na die See’, Archives Year-book of South Africa (AYSA) (1938), 1, 44Google Scholar; Erskine, St Vincent, ‘Second Journey to Umzila’, MS in collection of Royal Geographical Society, London p. 107.Google Scholar

10 Duffy, James, A Question of Slavery (Cambridge, Mass., 1967)Google Scholar; Webster, David, ‘The Origins of Migrant Labour, Colonialism and Underdevelopment in Southern Mozambique’, in Bonner, P. (ed.), Working Papers in Southern African Studies, 1977 (Witwaters-rand University, 1979), 253.Google Scholar

11 Lobato, A., História do Presídio de Lourenço Marques, II (17871799) (Lisbon, 1960), 356.Google Scholar

12 See, e.g., Read, Margaret, The Ngoni of Nyasaland (London, 1956), 29, 41, 43, 81, 84, 88Google Scholar; Barnes, J. A., Politics in a Changing Society (London, 1954), 78–9, 100Google Scholar; Kerr, W., The Far Interior (London, 1886), I, 125Google Scholar; Vail, Leroy, ‘Environment, Economics and Ideology’, paper presented at the Nguni Conference, Grahamstown, June 1979 and to be reproduced in Peires, (ed.), Before and after ShakaGoogle Scholar; Thomas, T. M., Eleven Years in Central South Africa (London, 1873), 327Google Scholar; Cobbing, J., ‘The Ndebele under the Khumalos 1820–96’ (Ph.D. thesis, Lancaster University, 1976), 115–18.Google Scholar

13 Kay, S., Travels and Researches in Caffraria (London, 1833), 396Google Scholar; MacKeurtan, C., The Cradle Days of Natal (1497–1845) (London, 1930), 74–5.Google Scholar For the eighteenth-and early nineteenth-century slave trade from Lourenço Marques and Inhambane, see Lobato, A., Evolucão Adminīstrativa e Económica de Moçambique 1752–1763 (Lisbon, 1957), 263Google Scholar; Lobato, , História do Presidio, 356–8Google Scholar; Cabral, Augusto, Raças, Usos e Costumes dos Indigenas do Distrito de Inhambane (Lourenço Marques, 1910), 23Google Scholar; anon, ‘Memorias da Costa d'África 1762’ and ‘Instrucção…a quern suceder o governador’ in d'Andrade, António Alberto, Relações de Moçambique Settecentista (Lisbon, 1955), 212, 321Google Scholar; Smith, Alan, ‘The Struggle for Control of Southern Mozambique 1720–1835’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of California, Los Angeles, 1970), 41, 44, 49, 68Google Scholar, no, 118, 347; Alpers, E. A., Ivory and Slaves (London, 1975), 152, 199Google Scholar; J. C. Armstrong, ‘The Slaves, 1652–1795’, in Elphick, R. and Giliomee, H., The Shaping of South African Society (Cape Town, 1979), 78–9Google Scholar; Rea, W. F., The Economics of the Zambezi Missions 1580–1759 (Rome, 1976), 118Google Scholar; Curtin, P. D. and Vansina, J., ‘Sources of the nineteenth century Atlantic slave trade’, J.Afr. Hist. v (1964), 205Google Scholar; Coetzee, C. G., ‘Die Kompanjie se Besetting van Delagoabaai’, AYSA, (1948), 11, 177, 197Google Scholar; Bannister, S., Humane Policy (London, 1830), 144Google Scholar; Hoppe, Fritz, A África Oriental Portuguesa no tempo do Marques de Pombal, 17501777 (Lisbon, 1970), 65, 107, 272.Google Scholar

14 From 1795 to 1811, East African ports provided 3 per cent of Rio de Janeiro's slaves. By 1825–30, this figure had risen to 25 per cent. Herbert Klein, S., The Middle Passage (Princeton, 1978), 55, 75CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Isaacman, A., Mozambique: The Africanization of a European Institution: the Zambezi Prazos (Madison, 1972), 90–2Google Scholar; Curtin, P. D., The Atlantic Slave Trade (Madison, 1969), 267.Google Scholar

15 ‘Statement of Conselho Ultramarino, 20th March 1833’, Santana, F. (ed.), Documentação avulsa Moçambicana do Arquivo Historico Ultramarino (Documentação) I (Lisbon, 1964), 205Google Scholar; ‘Quatro documentos relaçionados com a contrabando de escravos em Lourenco Marques, March 1829’ in Documentação, 11 (Lisbon, 1967), 290–3Google Scholar; ‘Documentação sobre a Companhia Comercial de Baía de Lourenço Marques e Inhambane’, statement by Santos, Dos, 10 February 1832, in Documentação, ii, 204–5.Google Scholar

16 Public Record Office, London (P.R.O.)/ADM 1 /2269, Owen to Admiralty, 8 March 1824. For similar reports from other parts of Africa, see Allan, and Fisher, Humphrey, Slavery and Muslim Society in Africa (London, 1970), 77Google Scholar.

17 P.R.O./ADM 1/2269, Owen to Admiralty, 8 March 1824 and 19 June 1824, Owen to Admiralty, 9 October 1823; FO. 97/303, Owen to Governor General of Mozambique, 10 May 1825; Owen, W., Narrative of Voyages to Explore the Eastern Coast of Africa, Arabia and Madagascar (London, 1833), 1, 270Google Scholar; Boteler, Thomas, Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery to Africa and Arabia (London, 1835), 11, 301.Google Scholar

18 P.R.O./ADM 1/2269, Owen to Admiralty, 9 October 1823; Boteler, Narrative of a Voyage, 249. Slaves sold for Spanish $150 to $200 in Rio. I estimate one Spanish dollar to have been worth about 5 sterling shillings in the 1820s. In Quelimane, they sold for Spanish $20 to $30 and in the interior for one-sixth of that price.

19 Vatua is the ‘lusitanianization’ of the word Bá-tuá or Bá-tsuá which was used by the peoples living on the coast to the north of Zululand to refer to the San and Nguni whose languages contain clicks. Bryant, A. T., Olden Times in Zululand and Natal (London, 1929), 448–9Google Scholar; Junod, H. A., The Life of a South African Tribe (London, 1927), 1, 18.Google Scholar For the ethnographic problem, see Montez, C., ‘As Raças indigenas de Moçambique’, Moçambique, no. 23 (1940), 65.Google Scholar

20 Governor of Lourenco Marques to GGM, 9 01 1830, in Documentação, XI, 173Google Scholar; GLM to GGM, 28 May 1853, ibid., 1, 209; P.R.O./ADM 1/2269 Owen to Crocker, 15 April 1823: P.R.O./CO. 48/62, Owen to Philip (n.d.) in Philip to Somerset, 13 April 1824, encl. in Somerset to Bathurst 22 April 1824; P.R.O./FO. 97/303, Owen to GGM 10 May 1825; P.R.O./ADM 1/2269, Owen, , ‘Description of the Peoples of Delagoa Bay’; Threlfall, Ċape Monitor, 20 08 1853Google Scholar; Natal Archives SNA 1/1/26 R1187 Dubois Report 8 June 1873; Kistner, W., ‘The Anti-slavery agitation against the Transvaal Republic, 1852–1868’, AYSA (1952), 11, 233Google Scholar; South African Archival Records: Transvaal. 1, Notule van die Volksraad 1845–1850 (Cape Town, 1949), 88–9Google Scholar; interview with Ndengeza Wamunungu, 2 April 1979 (tape stored in history department, University of Cape Town). See also footnotes 75, 76.

21 On Nguni movements in Southern Mozambique, see Liesegang, Gerhard, ‘Ngoni Migrations between Delagoa Bay and the Zambezi 1821–1839’, African Historical Studies iii, iii (1970)Google Scholar and ‘Dingane's attack on Lourenço Marques in 1833‘, J. Afr. Hist, x, iv (1969)Google Scholar. I have found only one reference to Zulu participation in slave practices at Delagoa Bay and that refers to the ransoming of captives: see Alvaro Caetano to Commander HMS Pelican, 16 January 1836, in Shiffner MS no. 3216, East Sussex Record Office.

22 In Mauritius, the ‘Mozambiquer’ community in 1828 consisted of 15,444 males and 3,713 females. A similarly disproportionate ratio of male to female slaves is to be found in vessels passing the Cape. Parliamentary Papers: Slave Trade, vol. 76 (1828–9), Report of Commission of Inquiry upon the slave trade at Mauritius, 12 March 1828, p. 26. Cape Archives, G.H. 28/1. Enclosure to Dispatch 45, Court of Commissioner 24 April 1808; G.H. 23/5, Somerset to Bathurst, 21 May 1818.

23 Klein, , Middle Passage, 76–7.Google Scholar

24 The Governor of Lourenço Marques in 1828–9, a man who made £6,000 in 14 months from smuggling slaves, previously had spent several years in northern Brazil. GGM to de Basto, Conde, 8 12 1829, in Documentação, I, 938Google Scholar. Quinze Documentos respeitantes a Teixeira, Jose Antonio, 26 11 1836, in Documentação, 11, 662–5.Google Scholar

25 I base this estimate on a report from the Commander of HMS Helicon to GGM in 1828 in which he reported the activities of twelve Bourbon slavers in southern Mozambique, one of which was apprehended with a cargo of 230 slaves. Documentação, 1, 459; FO 97/303, Owen to Admiralty, 6 September 1825; FO 97/303, Acland to Adm. 6 April 1828 in Adm. to FO, 16 July 1828. See also Parliamentary Papers, 1829, xxvGoogle Scholar, ‘Report of the Commissioners of Inquiry upon the slave trade at Mauritius, 12 March 1828’, p. 38.

26 FO 97/303, Acland to GLM, 29 March 1828 in Admiralty to FO, 16 July 1828; Pinto and Juerra to GGM, 30 August 1831 and Manifesto of ‘Fler de Inhambane’, 27 June 1832, in Documentação, iii (Lisbon, 1974), 14, 672Google Scholar; Boteler, , Narrative of a Voyage, 1, 323.Google Scholar

27 P.R.O./ADM 1/5547, Commander Peel to Percy, 18 April 1845, in Percy to Adm. 21 April 1845; FO 63/698, Pauker to Palmerston, 18 February 1848; Documentação, iii, 220, GLM to GGM, 5 June 1831; Documentação, 11, 561–3, Antonio Lamengo Cabral to GGM, 26 July 1830; José Capela, , As Burguesias Portuguesas e a Abolição do Tráfico da Escravatura, 18101842 (Oporto, 1979), 161.Google Scholar

28 José Fortunado Soares to Dinis Casta, 11 April 1829, in Documentação, I, 1104–5; Capela, , As Burguesias, 161Google Scholar; Fynn, , Diary, 3940Google Scholar; Parl. Papers, 1853, xxxix, 109, 114 (evidence of Commander Bunce); P.R.O./ADM 1/2269, Owen, , ‘Report on the Portuguese Settlements’, 15 04 1823Google Scholar; Parl, . Papers, 1850, IXGoogle Scholar, ‘Report from Select Committee of the House of Lords, 1850’, Appendix 1, p. 229.

29 For the effectiveness of the anti-slavery squadron and of international action aimed at ending the slave trade, see E. Philip Leveen, ‘A quantitative analysis of the impact of British Suppression policies in the volume of the Nineteenth Century Atlantic Slave Trade’, in Engermann, S. L. and Genovese, E. D., Race and Slavery in the Western Hemisphere: Quantitative Studies (Princeton, 1975)Google Scholar; Vail, Leroy and White, L., Capitalism and Colonialism in Mozambique: A Study of Quelimane District (London, 1980)Google Scholar, Ch. 1; Curtin, , Atlantic Slave Trade, 269Google Scholar; Bethell, L., The Abolition of the Brazilian Slave Trade (Cambridge, 1970)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lloyd, C., The Navy and the Slave Trade (London, 1949), 190248Google Scholar; Beachey, R. W., The Slave Trade of Eastern Africa (London, 1976)Google Scholar; Capelo, As Burguesias.

30 P.R.O./ADM 1/2269, Owen to Adm., 9 October 1823. For slave prices, see Documentação, 1, 157; 11, 173, 561; Parl. Papers, 1853, xxxix, 113Google Scholar (Bunce); FO 84/515, Mixed Commission, Cape Town (MC) to Earl of Aberdeen, 11 March 1844; FO 312/13, MC to Earl of Aberdeen, 28 April 1845; FO 312/17, MC to Lord Stanley, 1 October 1866, to Lord Russell, 15 May 1862. On the Gaza slave trade with the Transvaal, see FO 312/14, MC to Aberdeen, 21 August 1848, and MC to Aberdeen, 2 January 1851; FO 63/698, Parker to Palmerston, 18 February 1848; Parl. Papers, 1850, ixGoogle Scholar, ‘Report from Select Committee of House of Lords, 1850’, p. 229; Agar-Hamilton, J., The Native Policy of the Voortrekkers (Cape Town, 1928), 212Google Scholar; Kistner, , ‘Anti-slavery agitation’, AYSA (1952), ii, 233Google Scholar; Muller, C. J. F., Die Britse Owerheid en die Groot Trek (Cape Town, 1947), 283–5Google Scholar; Swiss Mission Archives, Lausanne (SMA), MS 1760. Grandjean diary, p. 270; Dewaal, J. B., ‘Die Rol van João Albasini in die Geskeidenis van die Transvaal’, AYSA, 1953, 127Google Scholar; SAAR Natal, Vol. 2 Records of the Natal Executive Council 1846–8 (Cape Town, 1960), 234Google Scholar, evidence of Mabaleni 31 December 1847; SAAR Transvaal vol. 1 Notule van die Volksraad, 1845–1850, p. 86, E.V.R. No. 1, Ohrigstad 7 October 1848; E.V.R. No. 1, Ohrigstad 6 December 1848, pp. 89–91.

31 Barnard, F. L., A Three Years' Cruise in the Mozambique Channel (London, 1848), 164, 223–4, 254, 270Google Scholar; FO 312/13, Mixed Commission, Cape Town (MC) to Aberdeen, 28 April 1845.

32 FO 84/566 No. 2, MC to Aberdeen, 1 January 1845; FO 312/14, MC to Aberdeen, 1 March 1851; FO 312/15, MC to Aberdeen, 7 March 1851; FO 312/16, MC to Malmesbury, 23 January 1859; FO 312/17, MC to Russell, 15 May, 18 and 20 September 1862; McLeod, Lyons, Travels in Eastern Africa (London, 1860), 1, 182, 184, 194, 203Google Scholar; Baines, T., The Gold Regions of South Eastern Africa (London, 1877), 107Google Scholar; Beachey, , Slave Trade of Eastern Africa, 1617.Google Scholar

33 See McLeod, , Travels, 1, 302Google Scholar ff.; Duffy, , A Question of Slavery, 42Google Scholar ff.; Shepherd, Gill, ‘The Comorians and the East African Slave Trade’ in Watson, J. L. (ed.), Asian and African Systems of Slavery (Oxford, 1980)Google Scholar; FO 312/16, Despatches and Reports of Mixed Commission in Cape Town; Botelho, Jose Justino Teixeira, História Militar e Político dos Portugueses in Mocambique de 1833 aos nossos dias (Coimbra, 1921), 159.Google Scholar

34 Schoelcher, V., Restauration de la Traite des Noirs (Paris, 1877)Google Scholar; Anti-slavery Reporter, 1 April 1876; Necessidades, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lisbon (hereafter cited as Nec), Portuguese Consul in London, Caixa 663, Duprat to Ministry, 11 September 1873; AHU Mozambique, Governor's correspondence, pasta 28; GGM to Ministry, 21 January, 27 May, 7 June 1873; GGM to Lt. Governor, Natal, 3 June 1873. Natal Archives (NA)/G.H. 845, GLM to Elton, 23 October 1871, T. Costello 1874 (London, n.d.), pp. 9–10; FO 84/1616, O'Neill to FO, 14 February 1882; NA/I.I. 1/15, 4359/83, Bennet to Protector of Immigrants (P.I.), 6 November 1883; NA/I.I. 1/16 889/78 Polkinghorne to Col. Sec. 16 April 1877; NA/CSO 608. 3283, NGR contractors to Col. Sec, 30 August 1877; NA/GH 837, Br. Consul, LM to Lt. Gov., 12 January 1880; NA/CSO 787. 4971/79, P.I. to Col. Sec, 7 November 1879. The maritime flow of labour from Lourenço Marques and Inhambane was later regulated by agreement with the Cape and Natal Governments in 1875 (portaria No. 152), 1877 (portaria No. 147) and 1888 (portaria No. 596). A major argument used by the Portuguese in their attempt to control and tax all labour migration was that clandestine workers were unprotected and that this form of emigration encouraged the slave trade, BO, No. 49, 1888, portaria 596; BO, No. 15, portaria 209. AHU Mozambique 2a Rep. pasta 5; GG to Overseas Ministry, 21 June 1888; Nec, Portuguese consul in Natal, Caixa 697, Borges de Castro to Ministry, 28 September 1891.

35 Natal Archives SNA. 1/1/26, R1187, Dubois Report, 8 June 1873.

36 Isaacman, , Mozambique, 115–16Google Scholar; Newitt, M. D. D., Portuguese Settlement on the Zambesi (London, 1973), 227, 345.Google Scholar

37 AHU Mozambique, pasta 19, GGM to Overseas Ministry, 28 February 1862, pasta 21, GLM to GGM, 8 February 1863; GLM to GG, 13 August 1862, in GGM to Overseas Ministry, 14 October 1862; GLM ‘Report for 1864’in BO, 27 May i86s;NA/SNA 1/96 ‘Statement of messenger from Umzila‘, 16 August 1870; Erskine, St V., ‘First Journey – 1866’ (as cited in n. 9) p. 40Google Scholar; Merensky, A., Erinnerungen aus dem Missionsleben in Transvaal (Bielefeld, 1888), 83.Google Scholar

38 These ‘acculturated’ Gaza Nguni are sometimes referred to as Mabuyandlela or ‘ path-breakers’, but there is some uncertainty as to the justification of this usage: see Junod, , Life of a South African Tribe, 1, 24, 34, 450Google Scholar; de Sà Nogueira, R., Dicionário Ronga-Português (Lisbon, 1960), 216–17Google Scholar. Others refer to them as ‘Shangaan’: Xavier, C., ‘Reconhecimento do Limpopo’, BSGL (1894), p. 138Google Scholar; da Cruz, Daniel, Em Terras de Gaza (Oporto, 1910), 56Google Scholar; Omer-Cooper, , Zulu Aftermath, 59.Google Scholar

39 The importance of labour in non-capitalist social formations in Africa is commonly accepted: Gray, R. and Birmingham, D. (eds.), Pre-Colonial African Trade (London, 1970), 1718.Google Scholar

40 On Zulu and Swazi immigrants see de B. Webb, C. and Wright, J. (eds.), The James Stuart Archive (Pietermaritzburg, 1978), I, 64Google Scholar (evidence of Bikwayo), 95 and 107 (evidence of Dinya ka Zokozwayo), 11, 59 (evidence of Madikane and Mayinga), 251; NA/SNA 1/1/96, R.974, St V. Erskine to SNA, 30 November 1872; NA/SNA 1/1/26, R 1187, Dubois Report 8 June 1873; Xavier, Caldas, ‘Reconhecimento do Limpopo’, BSGL (1894), 114, 140Google Scholar. See also Kruger, D. and Pretorius, H. S. (eds.), Voortrekker Argiefstukke (Pretoria, 1937), 329.Google Scholar

41 Erskine, St V. ‘Second Journey’ (as cited in n. 9) p. 91Google Scholar; NA/SNA 1/1/96, R974, Erskine to SNA; Xavier, Caldas, ‘Reconhecimento’, 138–9, 147–8.Google Scholar

42 Erskine, St V., ‘Journey to Umzila's, South East Africa in 1871–1872’, J. Royal Geog. Soc. xlv (1875), 124Google Scholar; ‘Third and Fourth Journey to Gaza’, J. Royal Geog. Soc. xl.vii (1878), 45Google Scholar; da Cruz, Daniel, Em Terraz de Gaza (Lisbon, 1910), 47Google Scholar; Killie Campbell Africana Library, Durban: James Stuart Archive, file 74, p. 66, evidence of Majuba.

43 Erskine, , ‘Journey to Umzila's’, 104Google Scholar; Liengme, , ‘Rapport sur la visite‘, Bull. de la Mission Suisse en Afrique du Sud (BMSAS), no. 106 (1892), 160.Google Scholar On the role of the Zulu regiments in production and royal accumulation, see Guy, J., ‘Production and exchange in the Zulu Kingdom’, Mohlomi, 11 (1978)Google Scholar. See also Guy, J. J., The Destruction of the Zulu Kingdom (London, 1979), 1012, 2130Google Scholar. For the Ndebele see Cobbing, ‘Ndebele under the Khumalos’, chs. 3 and 4; Idem, ‘The evolution of the Ndebele Amabutho’, J. Afr. Hist, xv (1974), 4.

44 Liesegang, G., ‘Aspects of Gaza Nguni history, 1821–1897’, Rhodesian History, vi (1975), 10Google Scholar; Elton, F., ‘Journal of an exploration of the Limpopo River’, J. Roy. Geog. Soc. xlii (1872), 36.Google Scholar

45 Erskine, St V., ‘Journey to Umzila's’, 104.Google Scholar

46 NA/SNA 1/1/23 St V. Erskine to SNA, 23 February 1872; SNA 1/1/26, R1187, Dubois Report, 8 June 1873. Berthoud, P., ‘Lettre de Valdezia’, 20 12 1884, L'Afrique Explorée et Civilisée, vi (1885), 99.Google Scholar

47 SMA, MS 840. Liengme to sec, 3 January 1896; Montanha, Joaquim, ‘Viagem de ida, estate e volta dos Hollandezes da Republica Hollandeza (1855–6)’ in Anais do Conselho Ultramarino (ACU) (1857), 331.Google Scholar

48 Gaza labour migration should not be confused with labour migration from south of the Limpopo River, an area that was almost entirely independent of Gaza control after 1862. For the origins of Gaza labour migration, see NA/SNA 1/1/95, R974, Erskine to SNA, 30 November 1872; SNA 1/1/96, no. 73, ‘Reply of Sir Henry Bulwer to Umzila’, 4 February 1878 and encl. Col. Sec. to Lt. Gov., n.d. (October 1873); NA/I.I. 1/1, R496/75, Shires to SNA, 26 August 1875; AHU, Mozambique, 2nd Rep. pasta 1. GG to Overseas Ministry, 28 March 1884; American Board Mission Archives, Boston (ABM), ABC 15.4 vol. 12, Wilcot to Strong, 7 May 1885; Cabral, , Raças, Usos e Costumes, 31.Google Scholar

49 Liengme, , ‘Un Potentat Africain’, Bulletin de la Société Neuchateloise de Géographie (BSNG), xiii (1901), 126Google Scholar. Berthoud-Junod, Ruth, Du Transvaal à Lourenço Marques (Lausanne, 1904), 231–2Google Scholar; Berthoud, P., Les Nègres (Lausanne, 1904), 195Google Scholar; Erskine, , ‘Journey to Umzila‘s in 1871–1872’, MS cited in n. 9, p. 155Google Scholar; Junod, , Life, 1, 284.Google Scholar

50 Liengme, , ‘Rapports sur la visite faite à Goungounyanerls;, BMSAS, no. 106 (12, 1892), 160.Google Scholar

51 For razzias against the Chopi, see American Board Mission (ABM): ABC 15.4, vol. 12, Richards to Smith, 21 May 1885; Richards to Bebour, 21 May 1885 and 2 November 1886; Ousley to Smith, 25 October 1886; Erskine, , ‘Second Journey’ (cited in n. 9), 91Google Scholar; Grandjean, A., ‘L'Invasion des Zoulou…‘, BSNG (1899), 8990Google Scholar; Cabral, , Raças, Usos e Costumes, 32–4Google Scholar. BO, no. 6, 11 February 1888, Terras de Gaza’; NA/SNA 1/1/21, Leslie-SNA 28 July 1871; Liengme, , ‘Antioka’, BMSAS no. 109(1893), 275–7Google Scholar; SMA, MS 467 Grandjean, 1890; MS 483, Grandjean to Leresche, 20 February 1890; South Africa (weekly), 9 February 1889.

52 AHU Mozambique (Diversos), Caixa 2. Fornasini to GGM, 19 November 1834, in GGM to Overseas Ministry, 18 February 1835; Montanha, , ‘Viagem e volta dos Hollandezes da Republica Hollandeza Africana’ in ACU (1857), 335–7Google Scholar; Report of Governor of Inhambane (G. Inh.) for 1863 in ACU (1866), 3940Google Scholar; Cabral, , Raças, Usos e Costumes, 25, 2731Google Scholar; Xavier, Caldas, ‘Reconhecimento’, 144.Google Scholar

53 Transvaal Archives, SSa 5, RA 71/94, Portuguese Consul to SS, 10 June 1891; SSa6, Native Commissioner Spelonken to Sup. Natives, 22 July 1891; also declarations of Klopper, Mashilahushe in Schiel to Supt. Natives, 9 August 1891; SS 365, R6802/92, Cmdt. General & Supt. of Natives to delegation from Gungunyana, August 1892; Junod, H. A., ‘Les Baronga’, BSNG (1897), 94Google Scholar; Liengme, , ‘Le Suicide’, BSNG (1895), 178.Google Scholar

54 The Mabudu pawned people when subject to Zulu rule: Webb, and Wright, , The James Stuart Archive 11 (1979), 143Google Scholar evidence of Mahungane. See also p. 313, above.

55 ABM: ABC 15.4, vol. 12, Richards to Smith, 21 May 1885; Liengme, ‘Antioka’, 31 10 1892Google Scholar; BMSAS, no. 107 (February 1893), 202; H. Berthoud, private MS.

56 SMA, MS 1760, Grandjean Diary, 25 March 1893; Jeannert, P., ‘Les Ma-Knoça’, in BSNG, viii (1894), 127.Google Scholar

57 Longle, A., ‘De Inhambane a Lourenço Marques’, BSGL vi, 1 (1886), 33Google Scholar; SMA, MS 502/A, Paul Berthoud to Leresche, 20 August 1899; MS 528/A, P. Berthoud to Leresche, 23 November 1893; Junod, H., ‘Les Baronga’, BSNG (1898), 96Google Scholar; Liengme, , ‘Un Potentat Africain’, BSNG, xiii (1901), 127Google Scholar; SMA, MS 497/B; Berthoud, P., ‘L'état du Littoral’, 09 1887Google Scholar; MS 497/E. P. Berthoud to Leresche, 28 November 1888; MS 528/A P. Berthoud to Leresche, 23 November 1893; MS 1255/B, ‘Rapport sur l'expédition à Magude’, H. Berthoud, 6 October 1885.

58 Junod, , Life of a South African Tribe, 1, 491Google Scholar; Berthoud-Junod, , Du Transvaal à Lourenço Marques, 230–1.Google Scholar

59 Xavier, Caldas, ‘Reconhecimento’, 148.Google Scholar

60 South African Archival Records, Transvaal 1. Notule van die Volksraad, September and December 1848, 88–91; Alvaro Caetano de Lima to Cmdr. HMS Pelican, 16 January 1836, in Shiffner MS no. 3216, East Sussex Record Office; Liengme, ‘Un Potentat’, 102, 105; Wagner, R. in Marks, S. and Atmore, A. (eds.), Economy and Society in pre-industrial South Africa (London, 1980), 344–5.Google Scholar

61 Junod, , Life of a South African Tribe, I, 283.Google Scholar

62 Cardosa, A. M., ‘Expedição as Terras de Muzilla em 1882’, BSGL vii (1887), 184Google Scholar; Longle, A., ‘De Inhambane a Lourenço Marques’, BSGL (1886), 33Google Scholar; BO, no. 6, 11 February 1888, ‘Terras de Gaza’; das Neves, D. Fernandes, A Hunting Expedition to the Transvaal (London, 1897), 4.Google Scholar It seems possible that Gungunyane prohibited any slave trade not controlled by himself as king, i.e. the profits of which did not accrue to him as the centre of the Gaza nation. A royal monopoly of slave sales is more akin to pawning as the payments return to ‘the nation’, i.e. to the royal lineage.

63 To European observers of Gaza culture, women were ‘wealth’. See da Cruz, , Em Terras de Gaza, 114Google Scholar; da Costa, Gomas, Gaza 1897–1898 (Libson, 1899), 40Google Scholar; AHU Mozambique, Pasta 9. 2a, Rep. 1891, Relatório de Freire d'Andrade in GLM to director Geral dos Negócios da Marinha e Ultramar, 20 October 1891; Threlfall, , Cape Monitor, 9 07 1853Google Scholar; Boteler, , Narrative, 44–5.Google Scholar

64 Cuénod, R., A Tsonga-English Dictionary (Pretoria, 1967)Google Scholar. For general evidence of enslavement of females and children, see AHU Mozambique, 18 Rep. pasta 6, ‘Corres-pondência relativa a questão Binguana’, in G. Inh. to GGM, 9 September 1886; AHU Mozambique 2a Secçao, ia Rep. cxa 4, Gaza resident-GGM, 18 November 1889; Liengme, , ‘Un Potentat’, BSNG (1901), 106–7, 126–7Google Scholar; Junod, , ‘Les Baronga’, 95–6Google Scholar; Xavier, , ‘Reconhecimento’, 140, 147–8Google Scholar; NA/SNA 1/1/26, R 1187, Dubois Report; ABM: ABC 15.4, vol. 2, Richard to Bebour, 21 May 1885; Liengme, , ‘Antioka’, 24 02 1893. BMSAS 109 (1893), 277Google Scholar; SMA, MS 467, Grandjean 1890; Liengme, , ‘Rapport sur la Visite…’, BMSAS 106 (12 1892), 160.Google Scholar

65 Liengme, , ‘Un Potentat’, 101, 105.Google Scholar

66 Liengme, , ‘Rapports sur la visite’, 160Google Scholar; Cardosa, A. M., ‘Expedição as Terras de Muzilla em 1882’, BSGL vii (1887), 184.Google Scholar

67 Liengme, , ‘Journal du voyage à Mandlakazi’, BMSAS no. 113 (1894)Google Scholar. Cardosa, A. M., ‘Expedição as Terras’, 184.Google Scholar ABM: ABC 15.4, vol. 12, Richards to Smith 21 May 1885.

68 Liengme, , ‘Un Potentat’, 126Google Scholar; Richards, , Missionary Herald (1885), 358Google Scholar; Xavier, , ‘Reconhecimento’, 148.Google Scholar

69 Junod, , Life, 1, 283Google Scholar; Liengme, , ‘Un Potentat’, 126Google Scholar; de Sa Nogueira, R., Dicionàrio Ronga-Português (Lisbon, 1960).Google Scholar

70 ABM: ABC 15.4, vol. 12, Richards to Smith, 21 May 1885.

71 Jeannert, P., ‘Les Ma-Khoca’, BSNG viii (1894), 126–7Google Scholar; Richards, , Missionary Herald (1885), 358Google Scholar. See also Junod, , Life, 1, 283, 471.Google Scholar

72 Isaacman, A., ‘The origin, formation and early history of the Chikunda of South Central Africa’, J. Afr. Hist, xiii, iii (1972)Google Scholar; A. and B. Isaacman, ‘Slavery and Social Stratification among the Sena of Mozambique’, in Miers and Kopytoff, Slavery in Africa; Newitt, , Portugese Settlement on the Zambesi, 146, 187203.Google Scholar

73 ‘ Código dos Millandos Cafriaes do Districto de Inhambane’ in BSGL (1878), 177–8Google Scholar; Fuller, C. E., ‘An Ethno-historic Study of Continuity and Change in Gwambe Culture’ (Ph.D. thesis, Northwestern University, 1955), 101–2Google Scholar; Boteler, , Narrative, 1,323–4,11, 300Google Scholar; James Stuart Papers, Killie Campbell Library, Durban, file 25, p. 257, evidence of Mahungane and Nhonuza; Threlfall, , Cape Monitor, 20 08 1853.Google Scholar

74 BO 23, 7 June 1862, p. 13; BO 44, 5 December 1862.

75 FO 312/14 encl. 3 in MC to Clarendon, 3 December 1885; ‘The hunting journal of Robert Briggs in Zululand and Tongaland, 1852–1856’ (Stratham MS, private owner), p. 166; Webb, and Wright, , James Stuart, 1, 150Google Scholar (evidence of Giba); Merensky, A., ‘Nachricht’, Berliner Missionsberichte (1860), 267–8Google Scholar. A. Merensky, ‘Tagebuch der Reise’, ibid. (1861), 172; Bryant, , Olden Times in Zululand and Natal, 329–30Google Scholar. On Swazi slavery see especially Bonner, Philip, ‘The rise, consolidation and disintegration of Dlamini power in Swaziland between 1820 and 1889’ (Ph.D. thesis, London University, 1978), 152–8, 174–7Google Scholar. See also interviews with Maswanganyi and Njaganjaga. Tapes housed in history department of University of Cape Town. See also Postscript, p. 329 below.

76 Haig-Smellie, in South Africa (weekly), 2 02 1889.Google Scholar

77 JSA, file 72, pp. 3–6, evidence of Inkando. My thanks to John Wright for drawing my attention to this reference. The families of young girls taken into the isigodlo received no material rewards for their loss. See Mael, R., ‘The Problem of Political Integration in the Zulu Empire’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of California, Los Angeles, 1974), 43Google Scholar. See also Doke, C. M. and Vilikazi, B. W., Zulu-English Dictionary (Johannesburg, 1953).Google Scholar

78 Kuper, Hilda, An African Aristocracy (London, 1947), 67–8Google Scholar; Bryant, , Zulu People, 444, 546, 553, 557, 576–7, 604.Google Scholar

79 Doke and Vilikazi, Zulu-English Dictionary; Webb, and Wright, , James Stuart Archive, 11Google Scholar: see excellent index and especially p. 119; Bryant, , Zulu People, 464Google Scholar; Junod, , Life, 1, 405, 433Google Scholar; 11, 6; Kuper, , African Aristocracy, 67Google Scholar; Sa Nogueira, , Dicionàrio, 174.Google Scholar

80 Leslie, David, Among the Zulus and ama Tongas (Glasgow, 1875), 258Google Scholar; NA/I.I. 1/5 NDR, Contractors to P.I., 1 August 1878; Parl. Papers, 1879, 1.11 (C. 2220), no. 66 and correspondence.

81 Ibid, (evidence of Undawo of Sobana), 187.

82 NA/SNA 1/1/25, no. 54: returns of Zulus entering and leaving the colony; see also SNA 1/1/38, 208/80, SNA 1/1/41, 615/50, SNA 1/1/48, 480/81; Gibson, J. V., The Story of the Zulus (London, 1911), 222–3.Google Scholar

83 NA/CSO 787. 3373/80 Br. Res. to High Commissioner, 10 November 1880, encl. in SNA to Lt. Gov., 21 September 1880.

84 NA/SNA 1/1/42, 648/80, Findley to SNA, 30 October 1880; ZGH 725, Res. Comm., Zululand and Governor, 28 October 1889; Times of Natal, 23 October 1889.

85 Interview with Muhlavaze Makwakwa, Manjacaze. My thanks to Gerhard Liesegang for access to this transcript. Fuller, C. E., ‘Ethnohistoric study’, 101–2.Google ScholarPostscript. With reference to n. 75 (p. 326 above), it is of interest that the account book of an Indo-Portuguese trader working between Lourenco Marques and the Zoutpansberg shows a sudden influx of seventeen slaves in 1863. This would coincide with the Swazi raids on the Delagoa Bay hinterland. A male child (‘Boy pequeno’) sold for between £10 and £30 and an adult male (‘Boy’) for up to £60. (Account book of Manuel da Gama, private MS; Junod, , Life, 1, 150).Google Scholar