Workshop: From The Ashes Reborn: Reconsidering the 'Time of Troubles' in Southern Africa in the Context of Global History

This two-day event is by invitation only.

In Southern African history, the period of the Mfecane, or 'Time of Troubles', has come to be known as a cataclysmic event that entailed a series of inter-related wars that originated from a single source, Shaka Zulu, and raged throughout Southern Africa. However recent work on societal collapse indicates that societies do not collapse due to single causes, history is far more complex. This insight, coupled with a greater appreciation for Global interactions, allows us to reconsider the Mfecane in the context of themes such as population growth, climate change and mass-migration.

This project asserts that the 'Time of Troubles'/Mfecane is more complex in origin and consequences than the activities of a single man, Shaka Zulu, or a single ethnicity, and can be better understood in the context of global interactions.

Event organizer: Lucy Wiseman

Speakers and/or discussants