AFRICANWARSAND WHITEINVADERS
South Africa. Independent African territories formed a semicircle around
the colonies and republics, stretching from the Tswana chiefdoms in the
northwest, through the Venda in the north, to the Swazi, Zulu, and Mpon-
do in the east. The colonial and republican states were fragile entities.
There were large areas within the boundaries they proclaimed where they
had little influence. In the Transvaal, in Natal, and in the Transkei many
African communities still had effectivecontrol overtheir own lives.Numer-
ous Africans, moreover, were adapting to the opportunities as well as the
constraints created by the invaders. Although some were being reduced to
serflike status, most were keeping control of enough of their ancestral land
to feed themselves and produce a surplus of grain for consumption by
Whites.
Great Britain, unchallenged by European rivals, dominated the external
trade of the region. In spite of the ambitions of their creators, the Afrikaner
states were inexorably part of the informal British Empire. As the Orange
Free State had discovered, the British had a powerful lever in the threat to
apply sanctions against the flow of arms and ammunition. The Trans-
vaalers had tried but failed to open up an outlet to the sea on Delagoa Bay;