AFRICANWARSAND WHITEINVADERS
among numerous peoples and polities. Africans were trying to recuperate
from the Mfecane disruptions,
to regain control of their land, and to
preserve their political autonomy vis-a-vis the Whites; Afrikaners were
trying to assert hegemony over the region and to safeguard their own
autonomy from imperial Britain. The highveld was still peripheral to the
capitalist global economy. Communications
were primitive. Mails, if any,
were entrusted to itinerant traders or African runners. Roads were tracks
worn by wagons, horses, and pedestrians. Money was scarce. Neverthe-
less, increasing numbers of missionaries and traders were penetrating the
territory from the Cape Colony and Natal, and the dominant trends were
the growth of linkages between the diverse communities, the diffusion of a
money economy, the dissemination of Western, especially Christian, ideas,
and the enhancement of white power. The outcome, however, was far from
certain in 1870.68
The Afrikaner population of the region gradually increased, reaching
about fifty thousand in 1870. Families were large, and newcomers filtered
in from the Cape Colony. They were still uniformly committed to the
stockfarming
and hunting way of life. Aliens, mainly English-speaking
people from the Cape Colony