'Mountaineers' as mantatees : a critical reassessment of events leading up to the Battle of Dithakong

Critical reassessment of the events leading up to the Battle of Dithakong in South Africa on June 26, 1823. The author argues that the Battle of Dithakong, which is generally seen in connection with the 'African Mfecane', a process of social, political and military change internal to African society, can be explained without reference to the Mfecane. It was rather the result of a combination of the tensions that existed between and within the polities affected, coupled with the impact of the advancing Cape colonial frontier