"In this first modern history of the Xhosa, J.B. Peires relates the story of one of the most numerous and important indigenous peoples in contemporary South Africa from their consolidation, through an era of cooperation and conflict with whites (whom the Xhosa regarded as uncivilized), to the frontier wars that eventuated in their present position as a subordinate group in the modern South African state"--Back cover.

The essays in this volume concentrate on imperial conflict. Until recently, most historians of empire have concerned themselves with economic issues. More recently, scholarship has turned to social and cultural aspects of Empire. The role of the military, however, continues to be largely ignored. Historians have traditionally viewed the military as an arm of the civil power, an institution which did not create policy but faithfully obeyed the directives given to it. These essays show that indeed the military thought for itself: its officers made policy, introduced new strategies and tactics, and utilized the services of local settlers and indigenes to pursue the interests of empire, and the rank and file informed ideas in Great Britain concerning Africa and Africans. Contributors are Edward M. Spiers, Ian F.W. Beckett, Bill Nasson, John Laband, Paul Thompson, Fransjohan Pretorius, Tim Stapleton, Ian van der Waag, James Thomas, Jeffrey Meriwether, and Bruce Vandervort.

"Anyone who thinks that South Africa's problems began with the Afrikaners and apartheid should read this book." —Richard Dowden, The Independent " . . . should remain the last word for the foreseeable future." —Choice "Peires is the premier historian of the Xhosa people. He speaks the language, knows the terrain, has collected oral traditions and has made an exhaustive study of the documented sources. The result is a fascinating and authoritative account of this astonishing catastrophe . . . The Dead Will Arise is fine scholarship and a good read. " —The Washington Post, Book World " [Peires] has done a splendid job, combining a narrative of epic tragic sweep with a deep grasp of the Xhosa language and society . . . this is a powerfully wrought work, one of the best in recent years on a precolonial South African people . . . " —African Studies Review " . . . The Dead Will Arise is remarkable for its clarity and accessibility. . . . It is bold, imaginative challenge to an orthodoxy which has persisted for one hundred and thirty years. The sophistication and scope of its analysis and its breath-taking literary style qualify The Dead Will Arise for the accolade 'brilliant.' " —International Journal of African Historical Studies " . . . gripping reading. It is now one hundred and thirty years since the tragic events of the Xhosa Cattle-Killing and yet this book is the very first thoroughly researched and authoritative account ever to be written on the subject." —Journal of Religion in Africa "One of the great strengths of this study is the rich biographical material that Peires provides on the various personalities involved in the incident." —American Historical Review Drawing on private letters, spy reports, oral traditions, and obscure Xhosa texts, Peires explains for the first time the motivations which drove 100,000 Xhosa to kill their cattle, destroy their crops, and slowly starve to death—an extraordinary event that has defied historical explanation for over 130 years.

From roughly 1818 to 1867, Faku was ruler of the Mpondo Kingdom located in what is now the north-east section of the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Because of Faku’s legacy, the Mpondo Kingdom became the last African state in Southern Africa to fall under colonial rule. When his father died, Faku inherited his power. In a period of intense raiding, migration and state formation, he transformed the Mpondo polity from a loosely organized constellation of tributary groups to a centralized and populous state with effective military capabilities and a prosperous agricultural foundation. In 1830, Faku allowed Wesleyan missionaries to establish a station within his kingdom and they became his main channel of communication with the Cape Colony, and later Natal. Ironically, he never showed any serious inclination to convert to Christianity. From the 1840s to early 1850s, this Mpondo king played a central, yet often understated, role in the British colonization of South Africa. While over the years his territory and power declined, Faku remained quite astute in diplomatic negotiations with colonial officials and used his missionary connections to optimum advantage. Timothy J. Stapleton’s narrative and use of oral history paint a clear and remarkable portrait of Faku and how he was able to manipulate missionaries, neighbours, colonists and circumstances to achieve his objectives. As a result, Faku: Rulership and Colonialism in the Mpondo Kingdom (c.1780-1867) helps illuminate the history of the entire Cape region.

Born into a Xhosa royal family around 1792 in South Africa, Jan Tzatzoe was destined to live in an era of profound change—one that witnessed the arrival and entrenchment of European colonialism. As a missionary, chief, and cultural intermediary on the eastern Cape frontier and in Cape Town and a traveler in Great Britain, Tzatzoe helped foster the merging of African and European worlds into a new South African reality. Yet, by the 1860s, despite his determined resistance, he was an oppressed subject of harsh British colonial rule. In this innovative, richly researched, and splendidly written biography, Roger S. Levine reclaims Tzatzoe's lost story and analyzes his contributions to, and experiences with, the turbulent colonial world to argue for the crucial role of Africans as agents of cultural and intellectual change.

Xhosa oral poetry has defied the threats to its integrity over two centuries, to take its place in a free South Africa. This volume establishes the background to this poetic re-emergence, preserving and transmitting the voice of the Xhosa poet.