Women, gender and colonialism: Rethinking the history of the British Cape Colony and its frontier zones, c. 1806-70

Journal of African History

Volumn 37, Issue 3, 1996, Pages 351-370

  Bradford, Helen ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN   (South Africa)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 2442758260     PISSN: 00218537     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s0021853700035519     Document Type: Review

References (151)

1. A. Imam, 'The presentation of African women in historical writing', in S. Kleinberg (ed.), Retrieving Women's History (Oxford, 1988), 31, quoting G. Emeagwali. See also B. Awe, 'Writing women into history: the Nigerian experience', in K. Offen, R. Pierson and J. Rendall (eds.), Writing Women's History (London, 1991), 211-12.
2. A. Imam, 'The presentation of African women in historical writing', in S. Kleinberg (ed.), Retrieving Women's History (Oxford, 1988), 31, quoting G. Emeagwali. See also B. Awe, 'Writing women into history: the Nigerian experience', in K. Offen, R. Pierson and J. Rendall (eds.), Writing Women's History (London, 1991), 211-12.
3. M. Formes, 'Review essay: beyond complicity versus resistance: recent work on gender and European imperialism', Journal of Social History, XXV (1995), 629.
4. The articles, by C. Bundy, T. Kirk, S. Newton-King and S. Trapido, are in S. Marks and A. Atmore (eds.), Economy and Society in Pre-Industrial South Africa (London, 1980).
5. J. Peires, The House of Phalo (Johannesburg, 1981), 4, 41, 104.
6. T. Davenport, South Africa (3rd ed., Johannesburg, 1987), 681, 691.
7. C. Bundy, The Rise and Fall of the South African Peasantry (2nd ed., London, 1988), preface to second edition, np.
8. B. Nasson, Abraham Esau's War (Cambridge, 1991), 3.
9. V. Bickford-Smith, Ethnic Pride and Racial Prejudice in Victorian Cape Town (Cambridge, 1995).
10. N. Southey, 'The historiography of Cape slavery: some reactions' (Paper presented at 'Cape slavery and after conference', University of Cape Town [hereafter UCT], Aug. 1989), 13.
11. H. Lamar and L. Thompson, 'Epilogue', in H. Lamar and L. Thompson (eds.), The Frontier in History (New Haven, 1981), 314.
12. R. Shell, Children of Bondage (Johannesburg, 1994), 285.
13. For this region and period, the key critiques are J. Guy, 'Gender oppression in Southern Africa's precapitalist societies', in C. Walker (ed.), Women and Gender in Southern Africa to 1945 (London, 1990), 33-47, and P. van der Spuy, 'Gender and slavery: towards a feminist revision', South African Historical Journal (hereafter SAHJ), XXV (1991), 184-8. But see also S. Marks, 'Racial capitalism: a cultural or economic system?' SAHJ, XXVIII (1993), 316; P. Scully, 'Private and public worlds of emancipation in the rural Western Cape, c. 1830-1842', in N. Worden and C. Crais (eds.), Breaking the Chains (Johannesburg, 1994), 202.
14. For this region and period, the key critiques are J. Guy, 'Gender oppression in Southern Africa's precapitalist societies', in C. Walker (ed.), Women and Gender in Southern Africa to 1945 (London, 1990), 33-47, and P. van der Spuy, 'Gender and slavery: towards a feminist revision', South African Historical Journal (hereafter SAHJ), XXV (1991), 184-8. But see also S. Marks, 'Racial capitalism: a cultural or economic system?' SAHJ, XXVIII (1993), 316; P. Scully, 'Private and public worlds of emancipation in the rural Western Cape, c. 1830-1842', in N. Worden and C. Crais (eds.), Breaking the Chains (Johannesburg, 1994), 202.
15. For this region and period, the key critiques are J. Guy, 'Gender oppression in Southern Africa's precapitalist societies', in C. Walker (ed.), Women and Gender in Southern Africa to 1945 (London, 1990), 33-47, and P. van der Spuy, 'Gender and slavery: towards a feminist revision', South African Historical Journal (hereafter SAHJ), XXV (1991), 184-8. But see also S. Marks, 'Racial capitalism: a cultural or economic system?' SAHJ, XXVIII (1993), 316; P. Scully, 'Private and public worlds of emancipation in the rural Western Cape, c. 1830-1842', in N. Worden and C. Crais (eds.), Breaking the Chains (Johannesburg, 1994), 202.
16. For this region and period, the key critiques are J. Guy, 'Gender oppression in Southern Africa's precapitalist societies', in C. Walker (ed.), Women and Gender in Southern Africa to 1945 (London, 1990), 33-47, and P. van der Spuy, 'Gender and slavery: towards a feminist revision', South African Historical Journal (hereafter SAHJ), XXV (1991), 184-8. But see also S. Marks, 'Racial capitalism: a cultural or economic system?' SAHJ, XXVIII (1993), 316; P. Scully, 'Private and public worlds of emancipation in the rural Western Cape, c. 1830-1842', in N. Worden and C. Crais (eds.), Breaking the Chains (Johannesburg, 1994), 202.
17. L. Manicom, 'Ruling relations: rethinking state and gender in South African history', J. Afr. Hist., XXXIII (1992), 463. For an overview of criticisms, see P. Hetherington, 'Women in South Africa: the historiography in English', Int. J. Afr. Hist. Studies, XXVI (1993), 247-69.
18. L. Manicom, 'Ruling relations: rethinking state and gender in South African history', J. Afr. Hist., XXXIII (1992), 463. For an overview of criticisms, see P. Hetherington, 'Women in South Africa: the historiography in English', Int. J. Afr. Hist. Studies, XXVI (1993), 247-69.
19. Examples are legion: for a recent text, see S. Newton-King, 'The enemy within', in Worden and Crais (eds.), Breaking the Chains. Categories implicitly including women in this collection include 'masters', 'townsmen', 'frontiersmen', 'Bushman', 'bondsman' and 'white men'.
20. J. Scott, 'The problem of invisibility', in Kleinberg (ed.), Women's History, 15.
21. J. Peires, 'Nxele, Ntsikana and the origins of the Xhosa religious reaction', J. Afr. Hist., XX (1979), 55, and The Dead Will Arise (London, 1989), 129. The white population of Cape Town in 1819 was allegedly 'made up of Government officials, merchants, hotel keepers and some artisans'. Was it almost entirely male?: A. Ross, John Philip (1775-1851) (Aberdeen, 1986), 16. How does one interpret the claim that 'the 1,300-1,400 Khoikhoi living on boer farms' in Graaff-Reinet owned 7,571 cattle, averaging 5 cattle 'per man'? Were the 1,300-1,400 Khoikhoi all men? Did tax enumerators only count men among the many more Khoi on the farms? Or should 'per man' be read as 'per person'?: C. Crais, The Making of the Colonial Order (Johannesburg, 1992), 44.
22. J. Peires, 'Nxele, Ntsikana and the origins of the Xhosa religious reaction', J. Afr. Hist., XX (1979), 55, and The Dead Will Arise (London, 1989), 129. The white population of Cape Town in 1819 was allegedly 'made up of Government officials, merchants, hotel keepers and some artisans'. Was it almost entirely male?: A. Ross, John Philip (1775-1851) (Aberdeen, 1986), 16. How does one interpret the claim that 'the 1,300-1,400 Khoikhoi living on boer farms' in Graaff-Reinet owned 7,571 cattle, averaging 5 cattle 'per man'? Were the 1,300-1,400 Khoikhoi all men? Did tax enumerators only count men among the many more Khoi on the farms? Or should 'per man' be read as 'per person'?: C. Crais, The Making of the Colonial Order (Johannesburg, 1992), 44.
23. J. Peires, 'Nxele, Ntsikana and the origins of the Xhosa religious reaction', J. Afr. Hist., XX (1979), 55, and The Dead Will Arise (London, 1989), 129. The white population of Cape Town in 1819 was allegedly 'made up of Government officials, merchants, hotel keepers and some artisans'. Was it almost entirely male?: A. Ross, John Philip (1775-1851) (Aberdeen, 1986), 16. How does one interpret the claim that 'the 1,300-1,400 Khoikhoi living on boer farms' in Graaff-Reinet owned 7,571 cattle, averaging 5 cattle 'per man'? Were the 1,300-1,400 Khoikhoi all men? Did tax enumerators only count men among the many more Khoi on the farms? Or should 'per man' be read as 'per person'?: C. Crais, The Making of the Colonial Order (Johannesburg, 1992), 44.
24. J. Peires, 'Nxele, Ntsikana and the origins of the Xhosa religious reaction', J. Afr. Hist., XX (1979), 55, and The Dead Will Arise (London, 1989), 129. The white population of Cape Town in 1819 was allegedly 'made up of Government officials, merchants, hotel keepers and some artisans'. Was it almost entirely male?: A. Ross, John Philip (1775-1851) (Aberdeen, 1986), 16. How does one interpret the claim that 'the 1,300-1,400 Khoikhoi living on boer farms' in Graaff-Reinet owned 7,571 cattle, averaging 5 cattle 'per man'? Were the 1,300-1,400 Khoikhoi all men? Did tax enumerators only count men among the many more Khoi on the farms? Or should 'per man' be read as 'per person'?: C. Crais, The Making of the Colonial Order (Johannesburg, 1992), 44.
25. T. Kirk, 'The role of the missionaries in conquest', J. Afr. Hist., XVII (1976), 143; C. Saunders, 'James Read: towards a reassessment', in The Societies of Southern Africa in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Collected Seminar Papers (hereafter SSAS), VII (University of London, 1976), 22.
26. T. Kirk, 'The role of the missionaries in conquest', J. Afr. Hist., XVII (1976), 143; C. Saunders, 'James Read: towards a reassessment', in The Societies of Southern Africa in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Collected Seminar Papers (hereafter SSAS), VII (University of London, 1976), 22.
27. The same phrase is used by A. Odendaal, 'South Africa's black Victorians: sport, race and class in the nineteenth century', in J. Mangan (ed.), Pleasure, Profit, Proselytism (London, 1988), 197; J. Rutherford, Sir George Grey (London, 1961), 302; C. Saunders, 'Africans in Cape Town in the nineteenth century: an outline', in C. Saunders and H. Phillips (eds.), Studies in the History of Cape Town, (Cape Town, 1980), ii, 23; E. Walker, A History of Southern Africa (3rd ed., London, 1968), 237. The existence of the woman herself is largely confined to a little known biography: J. Hodgson, Princess Emma (Johannesburg, 1987).
28. The same phrase is used by A. Odendaal, 'South Africa's black Victorians: sport, race and class in the nineteenth century', in J. Mangan (ed.), Pleasure, Profit, Proselytism (London, 1988), 197; J. Rutherford, Sir George Grey (London, 1961), 302; C. Saunders, 'Africans in Cape Town in the nineteenth century: an outline', in C. Saunders and H. Phillips (eds.), Studies in the History of Cape Town, (Cape Town, 1980), ii, 23; E. Walker, A History of Southern Africa (3rd ed., London, 1968), 237. The existence of the woman herself is largely confined to a little known biography: J. Hodgson, Princess Emma (Johannesburg, 1987).
29. The same phrase is used by A. Odendaal, 'South Africa's black Victorians: sport, race and class in the nineteenth century', in J. Mangan (ed.), Pleasure, Profit, Proselytism (London, 1988), 197; J. Rutherford, Sir George Grey (London, 1961), 302; C. Saunders, 'Africans in Cape Town in the nineteenth century: an outline', in C. Saunders and H. Phillips (eds.), Studies in the History of Cape Town, (Cape Town, 1980), ii, 23; E. Walker, A History of Southern Africa (3rd ed., London, 1968), 237. The existence of the woman herself is largely confined to a little known biography: J. Hodgson, Princess Emma (Johannesburg, 1987).
30. The same phrase is used by A. Odendaal, 'South Africa's black Victorians: sport, race and class in the nineteenth century', in J. Mangan (ed.), Pleasure, Profit, Proselytism (London, 1988), 197; J. Rutherford, Sir George Grey (London, 1961), 302; C. Saunders, 'Africans in Cape Town in the nineteenth century: an outline', in C. Saunders and H. Phillips (eds.), Studies in the History of Cape Town, (Cape Town, 1980), ii, 23; E. Walker, A History of Southern Africa (3rd ed., London, 1968), 237. The existence of the woman herself is largely confined to a little known biography: J. Hodgson, Princess Emma (Johannesburg, 1987).
31. The same phrase is used by A. Odendaal, 'South Africa's black Victorians: sport, race and class in the nineteenth century', in J. Mangan (ed.), Pleasure, Profit, Proselytism (London, 1988), 197; J. Rutherford, Sir George Grey (London, 1961), 302; C. Saunders, 'Africans in Cape Town in the nineteenth century: an outline', in C. Saunders and H. Phillips (eds.), Studies in the History of Cape Town, (Cape Town, 1980), ii, 23; E. Walker, A History of Southern Africa (3rd ed., London, 1968), 237. The existence of the woman herself is largely confined to a little known biography: J. Hodgson, Princess Emma (Johannesburg, 1987).
32. Peires, House of Phalo, 20. 'Nguni physique' has also been described as 'moulded not by...tillage...but by the leaner demands of herding, the chase and the athletic competitions that trained them for combat': N. Mostert, Frontiers (New York, 1992), 195.
33. Peires, House of Phalo, 20. 'Nguni physique' has also been described as 'moulded not by...tillage...but by the leaner demands of herding, the chase and the athletic competitions that trained them for combat': N. Mostert, Frontiers (New York, 1992), 195.
34. M. Legassick, 'The northern frontier to c. 1840: the rise and decline of the Griqua people', in R. Elphick and H. Giliomee (eds.), The Shaping of South African Society, 1652-1840 (2nd ed., Cape Town, 1992), 400; M. Wilson, 'The Nguni people', in M. Wilson and L. Thompson (eds.), The Oxford History of South Africa (2 vols.) (Oxford, 1969), i, 127; D. Coplan, In the Time of the Cannibals (Chicago, 1994), 34; L. Switzer, Power and Resistance in an African Society (Madison, 1993), 132.
35. M. Legassick, 'The northern frontier to c. 1840: the rise and decline of the Griqua people', in R. Elphick and H. Giliomee (eds.), The Shaping of South African Society, 1652-1840 (2nd ed., Cape Town, 1992), 400; M. Wilson, 'The Nguni people', in M. Wilson and L. Thompson (eds.), The Oxford History of South Africa (2 vols.) (Oxford, 1969), i, 127; D. Coplan, In the Time of the Cannibals (Chicago, 1994), 34; L. Switzer, Power and Resistance in an African Society (Madison, 1993), 132.
36. M. Legassick, 'The northern frontier to c. 1840: the rise and decline of the Griqua people', in R. Elphick and H. Giliomee (eds.), The Shaping of South African Society, 1652-1840 (2nd ed., Cape Town, 1992), 400; M. Wilson, 'The Nguni people', in M. Wilson and L. Thompson (eds.), The Oxford History of South Africa (2 vols.) (Oxford, 1969), i, 127; D. Coplan, In the Time of the Cannibals (Chicago, 1994), 34; L. Switzer, Power and Resistance in an African Society (Madison, 1993), 132.
37. M. Legassick, 'The northern frontier to c. 1840: the rise and decline of the Griqua people', in R. Elphick and H. Giliomee (eds.), The Shaping of South African Society, 1652-1840 (2nd ed., Cape Town, 1992), 400; M. Wilson, 'The Nguni people', in M. Wilson and L. Thompson (eds.), The Oxford History of South Africa (2 vols.) (Oxford, 1969), i, 127; D. Coplan, In the Time of the Cannibals (Chicago, 1994), 34; L. Switzer, Power and Resistance in an African Society (Madison, 1993), 132.
38. R. Davenport, 'The consolidation of a new society: the Cape Colony', in Wilson and Thompson (eds.), Oxford History, i, 285.
39. D. Warren, 'Class rivalry and Cape politics in the mid-nineteenth century: a reappraisal of the Kirk thesis', SAHJ, XXVI (1991), 119. Entirely focused on race, numerous scholars agree that British rulers introduced 'legal equality', but differ over the dating of 'the removal of arbitrary forms and differential standards of justice, together with the legal emancipation of subject groups': A. Bank, 'The erosion of urban slavery at the Cape, 1806-1834', in Worden and Crais (eds.), Breaking the Chains, 85; Davenport, 'Consolidation of a new society', 272-3.
40. D. Warren, 'Class rivalry and Cape politics in the mid-nineteenth century: a reappraisal of the Kirk thesis', SAHJ, XXVI (1991), 119. Entirely focused on race, numerous scholars agree that British rulers introduced 'legal equality', but differ over the dating of 'the removal of arbitrary forms and differential standards of justice, together with the legal emancipation of subject groups': A. Bank, 'The erosion of urban slavery at the Cape, 1806-1834', in Worden and Crais (eds.), Breaking the Chains, 85; Davenport, 'Consolidation of a new society', 272-3.
41. D. Warren, 'Class rivalry and Cape politics in the mid-nineteenth century: a reappraisal of the Kirk thesis', SAHJ, XXVI (1991), 119. Entirely focused on race, numerous scholars agree that British rulers introduced 'legal equality', but differ over the dating of 'the removal of arbitrary forms and differential standards of justice, together with the legal emancipation of subject groups': A. Bank, 'The erosion of urban slavery at the Cape, 1806-1834', in Worden and Crais (eds.), Breaking the Chains, 85; Davenport, 'Consolidation of a new society', 272-3.
42. B. le Cordeur, The Politics of Eastern Cape Separatism 1820-1854 (Cape Town 1981), 2.
43. P. Maylam, A History of the African People of South Africa (London, 1989), 108.
44. Switzer, Power and Resistance, 90; Bundy, Rise and Fall, 130.
45. Switzer, Power and Resistance, 90; Bundy, Rise and Fall, 130.
46. Odendaal, 'Black Victorians', 195; Switzer, Power and Resistance, 116; Ross, Philip, 80.
47. Odendaal, 'Black Victorians', 195; Switzer, Power and Resistance, 116; Ross, Philip, 80.
48. Odendaal, 'Black Victorians', 195; Switzer, Power and Resistance, 116; Ross, Philip, 80.
49. S. Trapido, 'The emergence of liberalism and the making of "Hottentot nationalism", 1815-1834', in SSAS, XVII (University of London, 1992), 40, 41.
50. Ross, Philip, 73.
51. Wilson, 'Nguni people', 124; Ross, Philip, 15; Mostert, Frontiers, 183, 202, 493, 1075.
52. Wilson, 'Nguni people', 124; Ross, Philip, 15; Mostert, Frontiers, 183, 202, 493, 1075.
53. Wilson, 'Nguni people', 124; Ross, Philip, 15; Mostert, Frontiers, 183, 202, 493, 1075.
54. Peires, Dead Will Arise, 67.
55. Cape of Good Hope, Report of the Law of Inheritance Commission for the Western Districts (Cape Town, 1866), xi. See also Government Gazette Extraordinary, I July 1853.
56. Cape of Good Hope, Report of the Law of Inheritance Commission for the Western Districts (Cape Town, 1866), xi. See also Government Gazette Extraordinary, I July 1853.
57. G. Fredrickson, White Supremacy (New York, 1981), 140.
58. N. Worden, The Making of Modern South Africa (Oxford, 1994), 68.
59. Fredrickson, White Supremacy, 183; Trapido, 'Emergence of liberalism', 35. For similar references to property as central to power, and omission of the fact that it was also necessary to be male, see Warren, 'Class rivalry', 126; R. Ross, Adam Kok's Griquas (Cambridge, 1976), 4-5.
60. Fredrickson, White Supremacy, 183; Trapido, 'Emergence of liberalism', 35. For similar references to property as central to power, and omission of the fact that it was also necessary to be male, see Warren, 'Class rivalry', 126; R. Ross, Adam Kok's Griquas (Cambridge, 1976), 4-5.
61. Fredrickson, White Supremacy, 183; Trapido, 'Emergence of liberalism', 35. For similar references to property as central to power, and omission of the fact that it was also necessary to be male, see Warren, 'Class rivalry', 126; R. Ross, Adam Kok's Griquas (Cambridge, 1976), 4-5.
62. Fredrickson, White Supremacy, 183; Trapido, 'Emergence of liberalism', 35. For similar references to property as central to power, and omission of the fact that it was also necessary to be male, see Warren, 'Class rivalry', 126; R. Ross, Adam Kok's Griquas (Cambridge, 1976), 4-5.
63. Personal Narratives Group, 'Origins', in Personal Narratives Group (eds.), Interpreting Women's Lives (Bloomington, 1989), 4, quoting E. Minnich.
64. Le Cordeur, Politics.
65. R. Ross, 'The origins of capitalist agriculture in the Cape Colony: a survey', in W. Beinart, P. Delius and S. Trapido (eds.), Putting A Plough to the Ground (Johannesburg, 1986).
66. Fredrickson, White Supremacy, 127, 94-135.
67. Shell, Children of Bondage, 52, 145-6, 411-12, xlii, 304. For an alternative interpretation of the significance of their domestic labour, see E. Eldredge, 'Slave raiding across the Cape frontier', in E. Eldredge and F. Morton (eds.), Slavery in South Africa (Boulder, 1994), 94-6.
68. Shell, Children of Bondage, 52, 145-6, 411-12, xlii, 304. For an alternative interpretation of the significance of their domestic labour, see E. Eldredge, 'Slave raiding across the Cape frontier', in E. Eldredge and F. Morton (eds.), Slavery in South Africa (Boulder, 1994), 94-6.
69. G. Bock, 'Women's history and gender history: aspects of an international debate', Gender and History, 1 (1989), 12.
70. Crais, Colonial Order, 130, 20, 206-7, 12.
71. The narrative strategies evoking inferiority are various: reproduction of contemporary misogynist comments without interpretation; description of women in language usually reserved for non-humans; explicit references to female deficiencies. Xhosa women, for example, were allegedly 'less capable of foraging for themselves' than men; their war-cry was 'a sharp cry like that of a wild dog'; the 'large numbers... rejecting various oppressions, such as unwanted husbands, the levirate, and [forced sex]' were 'misfits', 'peripheral to Xhosa society', Out of place there': Peires, House of Phalo, 158, 136, 77, 106. Perhaps more typically, women are simply insignificant. 'What of his family?' asks a historian, five pages from the end of his 214-page biography of a man. 'They have not figured largely in this story because there is no evidence that his two wives and children influenced his actions': D. Williams, When Races Meet (Johannesburg, 1967), 210. Olive Schreiner receives similar treatment, losing both her sex and her international feminist reputation in the process. 'There was hardly any impressive literature, but authors and poets such as Cooper, Schreiner, Huet and S. J. du Toit may be deemed the heralds of the South African literature of the twentieth century': P. Scholtz, 'The Cape Colony, 1853-1902', in C. Muller (ed.), Five Hundred Years (5th ed., Pretoria, 1993), 212.
72. Legassick, 'Northern frontier', 365.
73. M. Hall, 'The secret lives of houses: women and gables in the eighteenth-century Cape', Social Dynamics, XX (1994), 17. For women's centrality in capital accumulation in England, see L. Davidoff and C. Hall, Family Fortunes (London, 1987.) Although the topic has attracted almost no attention for the nineteenth-century Cape, marriage to the daughters of wealthy men, or to widows, was highly significant for numerous men.
74. M. Hall, 'The secret lives of houses: women and gables in the eighteenth-century Cape', Social Dynamics, XX (1994), 17. For women's centrality in capital accumulation in England, see L. Davidoff and C. Hall, Family Fortunes (London, 1987.) Although the topic has attracted almost no attention for the nineteenth-century Cape, marriage to the daughters of wealthy men, or to widows, was highly significant for numerous men.
75. Guy, 'Gender oppression', 41.
76. Proceedings of, and Evidence Taken By, the Commission on Native Affairs (Grahamstown, 1865), 14.
77. E. van Heyningen, 'The diary as a historical source: a response', Historia, XXXVIII (1993), 20.
78. J. Guy, 'A landmark, not a breakthrough', SAHJ, XXV (1991), 229-30.
79. P. Scully, 'Rape, race, and colonial culture: the sexual politics of identity in the nineteenth-century Cape Colony, South Africa', Amer. Hist. Rev., c (1995), 343.
80. Peires, House of Phalo, 71.
81. Trapido, 'Emergence of liberalism', 39.
82. R. Ross, Cape of Torments (London, 1983), 105-16.
83. Ibid. 106, 112, 113.
84. Ibid. 113.
85. For other accounts, see R. Watson, The Slave Question (Johannesburg, 1991), 50-9; M. Rayner, 'Wine and slaves: the failure of an export economy and the ending of slavery in the Cape Colony, South Africa, 1806-1834' (Ph.D. thesis, Duke University, 1986), 174-89. What follows is drawn from P. van der Spuy, 'A collection of discrete essays with the common theme of gender and slavery at the Cape of Good Hope with a focus on the 1820s' (M.A. thesis, UCT, 1993), 199-244, and G. Theal, Records of the Cape Colony from February to April 1825 (Cape Town, 1904), XX, 188-341.
86. For other accounts, see R. Watson, The Slave Question (Johannesburg, 1991), 50-9; M. Rayner, 'Wine and slaves: the failure of an export economy and the ending of slavery in the Cape Colony, South Africa, 1806-1834' (Ph.D. thesis, Duke University, 1986), 174-89. What follows is drawn from P. van der Spuy, 'A collection of discrete essays with the common theme of gender and slavery at the Cape of Good Hope with a focus on the 1820s' (M.A. thesis, UCT, 1993), 199-244, and G. Theal, Records of the Cape Colony from February to April 1825 (Cape Town, 1904), XX, 188-341.
87. For other accounts, see R. Watson, The Slave Question (Johannesburg, 1991), 50-9; M. Rayner, 'Wine and slaves: the failure of an export economy and the ending of slavery in the Cape Colony, South Africa, 1806-1834' (Ph.D. thesis, Duke University, 1986), 174-89. What follows is drawn from P. van der Spuy, 'A collection of discrete essays with the common theme of gender and slavery at the Cape of Good Hope with a focus on the 1820s' (M.A. thesis, UCT, 1993), 199-244, and G. Theal, Records of the Cape Colony from February to April 1825 (Cape Town, 1904), XX, 188-341.
88. For other accounts, see R. Watson, The Slave Question (Johannesburg, 1991), 50-9; M. Rayner, 'Wine and slaves: the failure of an export economy and the ending of slavery in the Cape Colony, South Africa, 1806-1834' (Ph.D. thesis, Duke University, 1986), 174-89. What follows is drawn from P. van der Spuy, 'A collection of discrete essays with the common theme of gender and slavery at the Cape of Good Hope with a focus on the 1820s' (M.A. thesis, UCT, 1993), 199-244, and G. Theal, Records of the Cape Colony from February to April 1825 (Cape Town, 1904), XX, 188-341.
89. Van der Spuy, 'Discrete essays', 220-1, quoting from Theal.
90. R. Shell, 'Tender ties: women and the slave household, 1652-1834', in SSAS, XVII (University of London, 1992), 14; M. Adhikari, 'The sons of Ham: slavery and the making of Coloured identity', SAHJ, XXVII, 1992, 100. A contemporary, claiming abortion was extremely common, gave slave women's minds rather more emphasis.
91. R. Shell, 'Tender ties: women and the slave household, 1652-1834', in SSAS, XVII (University of London, 1992), 14; M. Adhikari, 'The sons of Ham: slavery and the making of Coloured identity', SAHJ, XXVII, 1992, 100. A contemporary, claiming abortion was extremely common, gave slave women's minds rather more emphasis.
92. Theal, Records, 273.
93. Van der Spuy, 'Discrete essays', 214, 225-6.
94. Theal, Records, 216, see also 258.
95. Ross, Cape of Torments, 96, 117.
96. This is derived from the subtitle of Peires, Dead Will Arise.
97. Peires, Dead Will Arise, 319.
98. Guy, 'A landmark', 229-31. The significance of cattle for subsistence has yet to be fully probed. Milk was a crucial element in many diets, but prophecies often allowed people to keep some cattle, and milk cows were the last to be killed. Trade, too, needs to be incorporated into analyses: much grain was purchased with money from the sale of hides of dead cattle.
99. Mostert, Frontiers, 1190.
100. Wilson, 'Nguni people', 127.
101. J. Soga, The Ama-Xosa (Lovedale, 1931), 132. See also J. Zarwan, 'The Xhosa cattle killings, 1856-57', Cah. Et. Afr., XVI (1976), 521; Cape of Good Hope, Appendix I, To Votes and Proceedings of Parliament, 1858, vol. 1, G38-'58, deposition of Nongqawuse, n.p.
102. J. Soga, The Ama-Xosa (Lovedale, 1931), 132. See also J. Zarwan, 'The Xhosa cattle killings, 1856-57', Cah. Et. Afr., XVI (1976), 521; Cape of Good Hope, Appendix I, To Votes and Proceedings of Parliament, 1858, vol. 1, G38-'58, deposition of Nongqawuse, n.p.
103. J. Soga, The Ama-Xosa (Lovedale, 1931), 132. See also J. Zarwan, 'The Xhosa cattle killings, 1856-57', Cah. Et. Afr., XVI (1976), 521; Cape of Good Hope, Appendix I, To Votes and Proceedings of Parliament, 1858, vol. 1, G38-'58, deposition of Nongqawuse, n.p.
104. A photograph, depicting a well-developed adolescent, is in Mostert, Frontiers. Nongqawuse also referred to a female initiation rite in her prophecies. African poets and a playwright, like Xhosa oral tradition, saw her as an intombi: H. Dhlomo, The Girl Who Killed To Save (Lovedale, 1936); G. Sirayi, 'The African perspective of the 1856/1857 cattle-killing movement', South African Journal of African Languages, XI (1991), 44.
105. J. Lewis, 'An economic history of the Ciskei, 1848-1900' (Ph.D. thesis, UCT, 1984), 158, 717. Households were clustered in homesteads; 59 per cent of homesteads had ten or fewer cattle in 1848.
106. P. Phoofolo, 'Epidemics and revolutions: the rinderpest epidemic in late nineteenthcentury Southern Africa', Past and Present, CIIIVIII (1993), 118.
107. Phoofolo, 'Epidemics', 142. See also J. Lambert, 'The weakening of family ties among Africans in Natal in the colonial period' (Unpublished paper), 15; L. White, The Comforts of Home (Chicago, 1990), 34.
108. D. Williams, 'The missionaries on the Eastern Frontier of the Cape, 1799-1853' (Ph.D. thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, 1960), 310-11.
109. J. Maclean, comp., A Compendium of Kafir Laws and Customs (Mount Coke, 1858), 126-7.
110. Maclean, Compendium, 62, see also 64, 110-11. The Report and Proceedings of the Government Commission on Native Laws and Customs, G 4 of 1883, contains numerous complaints about decreased punishment for 'fornication' since the 'olden time' - and, specifically, by 1856. Abortion was not previously described as sweepingly: see H. Bradford, 'Herbs, knives and plastic: 150 years of abortion in South Africa', in T. Meade and M. Walker (eds.), Science, Medicine and Cultural Imperialism (New York, 1991), 122.
111. Peires, Dead Will Arise, 87.
112. Ibid. 79, 126, 132, 227.
113. Ibid. 227.
114. R. Austen, 'The moral economy of witchcraft: an essay in comparative history', in J. Comaroff and J. Comaroff (eds.), Modernity and its Malcontents (Chicago, 1993), 99.
115. C. Crais, 'Peires and the past', SAHJ, XXV (1991), 239; Switzer, Power and Resistance, 66.
116. C. Crais, 'Peires and the past', SAHJ, XXV (1991), 239; Switzer, Power and Resistance, 66.
117. Peires, Dead Will Arise, 172-4.
118. J. Lewis, 'Materialism and idealism in the historiography of the Xhosa cattle-killing movement 1856-7', SAHJ, XXV (1991), 249. Little evidence accompanies this assertion.
119. According to evidence scattered in the text, Sarhili was devastated by having no male heir. Four sons had died; chiefs taunted him: 'we have long told you that you cannot keep children'. In mid-1856, some twenty people having been killed for bewitching his last son or the cattle dying from lungsickness, Sarhili descended on Mhlakaza's homestead. The king whose praises celebrated ' his prowess as an uninhibited lover of women' was then confronted with prophecies linking witchcraft to 'fornications' (Peires, Dead Will Arise, 82-4, 87, 227). He commanded obedience to the prophecies, and supported the movement whenever it faltered.
120. Ibid. 127, 142.
121. Maclean, Compendium, 62, see also 115.
122. Mostert, Frontiers, 361; see also Anonymous, 'Nachrichten aus Britisch-Kafferland', Berliner Missionsberichte, III/IV (1877), 45.
123. Appendix I, deposition of Nongqawuse, n.p.; Zarwan, 'Cattle killings', 528.
124. Peires, Dead Will Arise, 148.
125. African literature on incest survivors seems remarkably sparse. Western texts, defining incest more narrowly, argue that common behavioural patterns include uncontrollable flashbacks and dreams, phobic withdrawals from the world, survivors' descriptions of their bodies as tainted, symbolic retelling of abuse in stories filled with aggression, creating an imaginary friend, and/or creating fantasy worlds which are pure, safe, beautiful.
126. The 1906 Xhosa version was translated into English, and published in A. Jordan, Towards an African Literature (Berkeley, 1973), 70-5. Peires has made some use of the original 1888 Xhosa text, which is clearly different.
127. Peires, Dead Will Arise, 311, see also 33-6, 309-10.
128. Ibid. 34, 36. Peires identifies Mhlakaza, a wealthy, Gcaleka chiefs councillor, and a diviner, with Wilhelm Goliath, a Christian, Dutch-speaking husband of a Mfengu woman, and an ex-servant of Archdeacon Merriman. Those querying this claim include Guy, 'Landmark', 227, and N. Tisani, 'Peires, pathbreaker', SAHJ, XXV (1991), 235. Peires however claims the link was 'irrefutably established ' in an archival source, and also noted in a newspaper: Dead Will Arise, 43. In the archival source, the Superintendent of Grahamstown Natives reported, in August 1856, that Willem Goliat, who previously travelled with Merriman, had begun prophesying that cattle were contaminated, that if they were removed from the face of the earth pure stock would replace them, that he saw a new race of people, and that whites would be forced to leave. No link whatever is established between 'Goliat' and Mhlakaza. Five days later, the newspaper to which Peires refers claimed 'their country is now full of Witch Doctors or Prophets', and that Merriman's ex-servant was prophesying 'the usual rubbish about dead chiefs, Kafirs and cattle coming to life again'. Again, no link is established between Goliath and Mhlakaza. Some two weeks later, the same paper reported that 'the Kafir prophet has run away'. This claim is ignored, as is the discrepancy in dates between Nongqawuse's first prophecy (April) and this reference to Goliath (August). Peires also claims the link between Goliath and Mhlakaza was noted by a settler, forty years later, with 'the details' wrong. Mrs Merriman denied it, and twice asked for a retraction. Peires, however, believes the man, who had neither lived in the eastern Cape, nor employed Goliath. This is the sole 'evidence' linking Mhlakaza to Goliath (Ibid. 43-4.)
129. Ibid. 90, 149, 154.
130. Ibid. 87-93.
131. Ibid. 87, 90, 91; see also 310-11. Alternative characterizations to these, which rest on the disparaging comment of a Xhosa man who saw her once, are in Jordan, African Literature, 72; Appendix I, deposition of Nongqawuse, np.
132. Peires, Dead Will Arise, ix, 36, 44, 73, 79, 148, 310, 311.
133. Ibid. 311.
134. Ibid. 173. The correct term is (i)bhinqa.
135. Ibid. 310, 172.
136. Ibid. 172-3.
137. L. Kelly, Surviving Sexual Violence (Cambridge, 1988), 34-8, 47-8, 163-4, outlines rape myths: these revolve around women deserving it; rape happens only to problematic women. Scholars reproducing these myths have argued that raped women are 'more feminine' women, 'refeminized' through rape; they have claimed rapes were 'victim precipitated'; they have failed to problematize rapists' accounts. Similarly, Nongqawuse is positioned in this narrative as a sexually frustrated, peculiarly feminine liar; no attempt has been made to analyse why men should tell and retell a tale centring on silencing her by exercising sexual power.
138. Mostert, Frontiers, 1191. The vision Nongqawuse outlined 'was sophisticated and highly detailed, and it must be remembered that, at Archdeacon Merriman's home, Mhalakaza [sic] had been prone to such'. Sophistication and command of detail, seemingly, were not the province of Xhosa women. Nor, according to Crais, Colonial Order, 206, was the possibility of attaining adulthood; moreover, 'the central place' in Nongqawuse's visions was a 'river with wet banks', an 'area of wetness, of uterine dampness'.
139. Crais, Colonial Order, 204-10; Mostert, Frontiers, 1177-216; Sirayi, 'African perspective', 40-3; T. Stapleton, '"They no longer care for their chiefs": another look at the Xhosa cattle-killing of 1856-1857', Int. J. Afr. Hist. Studies, XXIV (1991), 390; T. Stapleton, 'Reluctant slaughter: rethinking Maqoma's role in the Xhosa cattle-killing (1853-1857), Int. J. Afr. Hist. Studies, XXVI (1993), 369.
140. Guy, 'A landmark', 231.
141. Lewis, 'Economic history', 345.
142. Crais, Colonial Order, 206.
143. Rutherford, Grey, 348.
144. Jordan, African Literature, 75.
145. M. Wilson and L. Thompson, 'Preface', in Wilson and Thompson (eds.), Oxford History, vol. i, v-vi.
146. S. Pienaar, 'Interview with Phyllis Lewsen', SAHJ, XXVIII (1993), 21; Editorial, SAHJ, XXVIII (1993), n.p.
147. S. Pienaar, 'Interview with Phyllis Lewsen', SAHJ, XXVIII (1993), 21; Editorial, SAHJ, XXVIII (1993), n.p.
148. E. Fox-Genovese, Feminism without Illusions (Chapel Hill, 1991), 144.
149. C. Robertson, 'Never underestimate the power of women: the transforming vision of African women's history', Women's Studies International Forum, XI (1988), 440, 450.
150. E. Schmidt, Peasants, Traders, and Wives (Portsmouth, 1992), 1.
151. J. Scott, 'Women's history', in P. Burke (ed.), New Perspectives on Historical Writing (Cambridge, 1993), 60.