Colin Bundy
A LION AMONGST THE CATTLE: RECONSTRUCTION=20 AND RESISTANCE IN THE NORTHERN TRANSVAAL by=20 Peter Delius (Ravan, R89,95)
AT the heart of this book (writes Peter=20 Delius) “is an account of two rebellions=20 less than 30 years apart”. Twice in three=20 decades, the Pedi “reserve” in the Northern=20 Transvaal was convulsed by protests against=20 government policies. Twice, Pedi=20 communities were polarised as young men=20 attacked and killed elders whom they=20 identified as betraying or bewitching them;=20 twice, local and rural struggles were=20 linked with national political movements;=20 twice, resistance was followed by reprisals=20 and repression.
Yet the differences between the two=20 instances are more striking than any=20 apparent similarities. A signal achievement=20 of this elegant and incisive work is an=20 analysis of each episode in its own terms.=20 If its larger narrative is how 50 years of=20 segregation, apartheid and racial=20 capitalism rewound the armature of Pedi=20 society, the two case studies reveal=20 precisely the complex circuitry of struggle=20 and schism at highly charged moments.=20
In 1958, the Sekhukhuneland Revolt erupted=20 as a “last-ditch defence of land, livestock=20 and chieftainship”. Peasant struggles the=20 world over have sought not to capture the=20 state but to stave it off; to shore up the=20 crumbling walls of familiar social=20 structures against magistrates and=20 merchants.=20
Delius recounts the formation of a Pedi=20 migrant workers’ organisation (Sebatakgomo)=20 in the 1950s, and how its members -=20 commoners and younger men – sought to purge=20 from Pedi society the chiefs, headmen,=20 traders and teachers who accepted Bantu=20 Authorities and/or rural “betterment”=20 programmes. They fought for what remained=20 of an autonomous Pedi life, championing=20 chiefs who resisted the blandishments of=20 Pretoria. Nine men were killed; many were=20 injured; and more were burnt out of their=20 homes and fields during the uprising.=20
In 1986, the apex of the youth revolt=20 across the country, the militant youth of=20 Lebowa won national headlines. These=20 resisters barely mentioned land or cattle=20 and were contemptuous of the chiefs. Their=20 somewhat inchoate programme was to confront=20 the state, and to demand a place in the=20 larger society on new terms. Their=20 organisational roots lay in the Congress of=20 South African Students (Cosas), the United=20 Democratic Front and the underground=20 African National Congress; their numbers=20 included school pupils, college and=20 university students, unionists and youthful=20 unemployed.=20
They were ardent, angry and intense; they=20 sang struggle songs and discussed the=20 Freedom Charter; they debated “whether or=20 not the women who sold vegetables by the=20 roadside formed part of the bourgeoisie”.=20
And they burned witches. An eclectic=20 ideology and programme wove together local=20 grievances and loathing of the security=20 forces with fears of witchcraft. In the=20 Abel and Nkwana villages, the cradle of=20 youth mobilisation, 32 men and women=20 accused of witchcraft were killed between=20 February and April 1986. Most of them were=20 burned alive on pyres of wood and tyres.=20
A lasting image is that of bands of youth=20 (the average age of those involved was 19)=20 moving through the villages searching for=20 victims, singing: “We have come to take=20 you/ It may be that we will burn you” while=20 plumes of black smoke stained the sky.=20
In a virtuoso piece of contemporary=20 history, Delius explores and explains this=20 grisly exercise in building a new moral and=20 social order. He charts a middle course=20 between politically correct sympathy and ex=20 post facto judgementalism. He subjects the=20 youthful comrades to the same kind of=20 historical sociology that laid bare the=20 dynamics of their parents’ struggle in the=20 1950s, or their grandparents’ experiences=20 in the 1930s.=20
He does not flinch from detailing the=20 brutality of the youth, as they flailed out=20 at immediate and available objects of their=20 wrath; nor does he ever lose sight of the=20 corrupt and repressive bantustan order=20 which shaped the youths’ politics.=20
A Lion Amongst the Cattle is the work of a=20 mature and gifted historian. It is also the=20 latest in an impressive sequence of studies=20 using the techniques of oral history to=20 understand the past. The Wits History=20 Workshop has promoted, and validated, the=20 approach over the years: Phil Bonner,=20 Belinda Bozzoli, Isabel Hofmeyr, Deborah=20 James, Paul la Hausse and Charles van=20 Onselen are among Delius’s colleagues who=20 have made sustained and fruitful use of=20 interviews and the analysis of oral=20 testimony.=20
In a brief introduction, Delius remarks=20 that “oral material is the foundation of=20 the book”, and writes of “the men and women=20 whose=20
voices sound through the text”. And don’t=20 skip an appendix at the other end of the=20 book, called “Research Revisited”. It is as=20 engaging and anecdotal an essay in research=20 methodology as one will ever encounter -=20 with some of the best jokes in the book.=20
It describes how and when interviews were=20 conducted; how the research enquiry was=20 shaped and reshaped by the encounter with=20 informants; and how the oral material is=20 cross-fertilised with archival and=20 documentary sources. It should become=20 essential reading for any student setting=20 off with a tape recorder to carry out=20 research in the South African countryside.=20
Colin Bundy is the author of The Rise and=20 Fall of the South African Peasantry (1979);=20 he also coedited Hidden Struggles in Rural=20 South Africa (1987)