The Political Economy of Pondoland 1860–1930

The book questions some of the assumptions in the literature on 'underdevelopment' in Africa.

William Beinart (Author)

9780521099554, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 8 January 2009

240 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.35 kg

This book examines in detail how the people of one formerly independent African chiefdom were absorbed into the wider South African society during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The first two chapters discuss the nature of the pre-colonial polity, changes in agricultural production during the early stages of colonisation, colonial policy and the beginnings of mass labour migrancy up to about 1910. The last three chapters, focusing on the period between about 1910 and 1930, analyse changing patterns of rural production and labour migrancy, the changing form of African homesteads, the position of chiefs in rural South African and new patterns of rural differentiation. The book questions some of the assumptions in the literature on 'underdevelopment' in Africa.

List of Maps
Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. The political economy of Pondoland in the nineteenth century
2. Crops, cattle and the origins of labour migrancy, 1894–1911
3. Rural production and the South African state, 1911–1930
4. Chiefs and headmen in Pondoland, 1905–1930
5. Rural differentiation, alliance and conflict, 1910–1930
Postscript
Tables
Notes
Select bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP]