Zulu Terror: The Mfecane Holocaust, 1815-1840

When the wagons of the Voortrekkers – the Boers, those hardy descendants of the Dutch – moved into the southern African interior in 1836, on the Great Trek, their epic journey to escape British control at the Cape, the wheels of their wagons crunched over carpets of skeletons of those slain in the Mfecane.

The years 1815 to 1840 were probably the most devastating and violent period of South Africa’s turbulent history. The Mfecane (Zulu) or Difaqane (Sotho) was a result of many factors includ...