DIAMONDS.GOLD.AND BRITISHIMPERIALISM
tions against the invaders, because by 1870 they occupied distinct ter-
ritorial clusters that were separated by wedges of white settlement. More-
over, the Africans, as well as the Whites, had serious internal cleavages. The
political culture of the African farming societies in Southern Africa had
involved frequent power struggles between segments led by members of
their ruling families-father
versus son, brother versus brother. Recent
strife, including the Mfecane wars, had set chiefdom against chiefdom,
lineage against lineage, and chief against commoner. When African chiefs
and their councillors were confronted with white expansionists,
they had
to make critical choices along the spectrum from outright
physical re-
sistance to outright cooperation,
and in some circumstances cooperation
was a logical option.
Whites, assisted by black allies, dealt with the African societies piece-
meal. Whenever fighting occurred, white access to superior technology, in
transportation
as well as arms, more than offset the Africans' numerical
advantage. The longer a conflict lasted, the more likely the Whites' victory,
since white forces, sustained from commissariats borne by ox wagons from