Mashingaidze discusses how black- white relations between the Xhosa and the Dutch settlers was sometimes full of turmoil. In 1652, Jan van Riebeeck's settlement at the Cape stretched northward which caused conflict with the blacks that were pushing their settlement towards the Cape. There was also conflict between the Nguni and Khoisan people because of stock- raiding by the San (Khoisan). Mashingaidze points out that another source of conflict was because even though the Fish River was considered a boundary by the Cape's government, neither the colonists nor the Africans respected the bounds. Also, both group's common interest in economic development and the arrival of Nguniland were also factored in the arising reasons for conflict.
The author briefly speaks on the hardships waged by the 1820s settlers. Financial burden, shortage of labor, volatile situation of the Eastern Frontier, and unskilled workers (the settlers) were some of the main problems stopping the settlers from advancing.
The author goes in depth on the beginning of the Mfecane movement. This was peculiar how it came down to one conflict between the Zwide's Ndwandwe and Sobuza's Ngwane that sparked the flame that was to become the Mfecane Movement. There is a lot of detail throughout the article which helps to give a good background knowledge of the events that followed.
Mashingaidze has a good way of depicting the information to where the reader can get a grasp of the main ideas. It lacks simplicity, though. The fact that there is a lot of information