Recapturing Captives and Conversations with ‘Cannibals’: In Pursuit of a Neglected Stratum in South African History*

Abstract

The central argument of this article is that the role of captives in African society has been neglected despite there being sufficient evidence to explore the issue in some depth. This omission has limited our understanding of important dimensions of the historical experiences of women and children, and of vital power dynamics in decisive phases of social transformation. This perspective also allows for a re-analysis of the ‘cannibal narratives’, which have thus far proved to be a tantalising yet intractable form of evidence. The article concludes by suggesting that the silences within oral traditions, Africanist sensibilities, structuralist approaches to slavery, and the particular form of the ‘mfecane’ debate have all contributed to the failure to engage with this topic effectively.