The Dead Will Arise: Nongqawuse and the Great Xhosa Cattle-Killing Movement of 1856-7 / Edition 1

by J. B. Peires

Overview

"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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253205247
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	09/22/1989
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

Table of Contents

List of Maps and Illustrations

Preface
Notes on Terminology and Pronunciation
Dramatis Personae

1. Riverman's War
1. Mlanjeni the Riverman
2. A Surprise for Sir Harry Smith
3. The War of Mlanjeni (1850-3)
4. Goliath

2. Crooked Like a Snake
1. The Artful Dodger of Governors
2. Changing Enemies into Friends
3. Cutting down the Chiefs
4. The Russians Are Coming

3. Nongqawuse
1. Down by the Gxarha
2. The Python That Encircles Hohita
3. Seeing Is Believing
4. The First Disappointment

4.'There Is a Thing Which Speaks in my Country'
1. The Revival of the Prophecies
2. Grey Intervenes
3. The Cruise of the Geyser
4. The Central Beliefs of the Xhosa Cattle-Killing

5. To the Bitter End
1. Waiting for Nixito
2. The Great Disappointment
3. The Agony of the Unbelievers
4. The Hard and the Soft

6. The Apotheosis of Major Gawler
1. A disciple of Colonel Eyre
2. Mhala Gets a Message
3. Bulungwa Ploughs
4. Nonkosi Speaks
5. The Battle Is Joined
6. Gawler Triumphant

7. The Chiefs' Plot
1. 'The Late Great Plot'
2. Transportation
3. The Clear Sweep
4. The End of Mhala

8. Kaffir Relief
1. The Poor Calves of the Road
2. No Bread for the Idle
3. Enter the Kaffir Relief Committee
4. Private Benevolence Is Not Requisite
5. The True Charity of Governor Grey

9. Under Our Thumb
1. The Fadana Patrol
2. Eating Thorns
3. The Reward of Virtue
4. Go to Jail
5. The Island

10. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Xhosa Cattle-Killing

11. And Last

Bibliography
Index