Julian Raymond Dennis Cobbing (born June 1944,
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
) is an
English historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...
, and
professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...
of History at
Rhodes University
Rhodes University () is a public research university located in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province.
Established in 1904, Rhodes University is the prov ...
(
Grahamstown
Makhanda, formerly known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 75,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Gqeberha and southwest of East London. It is the largest town in the Makana Local Mun ...
,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
), known best for his controversial and groundbreaking research into
Zulu culture of the early 19th century.
Cobbing gained a BA from the
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...
and a PhD from
Lancaster University
Lancaster University (officially The University of Lancaster) is a collegiate public university, public research university in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established in 1964 by royal charter, as one of several new univer ...
. He is regarded as the first historian to
attempt to discredit conventional historical beliefs about the '
Mfecane
The Mfecane, also known by the Sesotho names Difaqane or Lifaqane (all meaning "crushing," "scattering," "forced dispersal," or "forced migration"), was a historical period of heightened military conflict and migration associated with state fo ...
' - a period of wars during the 1820s and 1830s that resulted in the emergence of the
Zulu Kingdom
The Zulu Kingdom ( ; ), sometimes referred to as the Zulu Empire, was a monarchy in Southern Africa. During the 1810s, Shaka established a standing army that consolidated rival clans and built a large following which ruled a wide expanse of So ...
. In a paper published in the ''
Journal of African History'' in 1988, Cobbing argued that the Mfecane had been the construct of
Apartheid
Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
politicians and historians attempting to justify the longstanding oppression of
black South Africans
Bantu speaking people are the majority ethno-racial group in South Africa. They are descendants of Southern Bantu-speaking peoples who settled in South Africa during the Bantu expansion. They are referred to in various census as ''blacks'', or ...
by the
white minority. Instead of an internally induced process of black-on-black destruction, Cobbing argued that much of the violence had been brought about by European slave traders and settlers, who had contracted local tribal leaders to
capture slaves for sale at
Delagoa Bay
Delagoa is a marine ecoregion along the eastern coast of Africa. It extends along the coast of Mozambique and South Africa from the Bazaruto Archipelago (21°14’ S) to Lake St. Lucia in South Africa (28° 10' S) in South Africa's Kwazulu-Nat ...
(now
Maputo
Maputo () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a population of 1,088,449 (as of 2017) distributed ov ...
). The rise of the Zulu state, under Cobbing's hypothesis, was thus more of a defensive reaction to the slave-trading activities of other tribes in the region, rather than a process of active internal aggression, as argued by some contemporary scholars.
Cobbing's hypothesis was highly controversial when first published. Several books and articles have been written focused on rebutting Cobbing's arguments – a prominent example being
Roger B. Beck's ''Slavery in South Africa: Captive Labor on the Dutch Frontier'', which featured a collection of articles challenging Cobbing's contentions. Often now referred to as the "Cobbing controversy", historians are still very much divided on the issue of the emergence of the Zulu nation and the accuracy of conventional accounts of the Mfecane. Most agree however that Cobbing's analysis offered several key breakthroughs, and offered a robust alternative to accounts of the Mfecane that had been taught in school history curricula during Apartheid.
Cobbing spent two months as a visiting fellow at the
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
in 2002. He currently lives in
Grahamstown
Makhanda, formerly known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 75,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Gqeberha and southwest of East London. It is the largest town in the Makana Local Mun ...
,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
, and recently retired from lecturing in history at
Rhodes University
Rhodes University () is a public research university located in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province.
Established in 1904, Rhodes University is the prov ...
, where his course "The Origins of the Modern World Crisis" was very popular. Cobbing's current work focuses on a variety of subjects including the history of ''
Homo sapiens
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...
'' as a species and the modern world crisis.
Notable academic publications
* Julian Cobbing. "The Mfecane as Alibi: Thoughts on Dithakong and Mbolompo". ''Journal of African History'', 29, 1988.
See also
*
Mfecane
The Mfecane, also known by the Sesotho names Difaqane or Lifaqane (all meaning "crushing," "scattering," "forced dispersal," or "forced migration"), was a historical period of heightened military conflict and migration associated with state fo ...
External links
State Formation in Nineteenth-century South Africa
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cobbing, Julian
Historians of Africa
British historians
Academic staff of Rhodes University
Alumni of the University of London
Alumni of Lancaster University
1944 births
Living people