Conflict in Qumbu: Rural Consciousness, Ethnicity and Violence in the Colonial Transkei, 1880-1913

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Periodical article

Title:	Conflict in Qumbu: Rural Consciousness, Ethnicity and Violence in the Colonial Transkei, 1880-1913
Author:	Beinart, William
Year:	1981
Periodical:	Journal of Southern African Studies
Volume:	8
Issue:	1
Period:	October
Pages:	94-122
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Transkei South Africa
Subjects:	ethnic relations colonial policy indigenous peoples history 1850-1899 1900-1949 History and Exploration Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Ethnic and Race Relations colonialism Law, Human Rights and Violence
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/2636851
Abstract:	Historical reconstruction of the events leading to a 'wave of lawlessness' in Qumbu district, Transkei, in 1912 and 1913. The author demonstrates that factional violence of this kind - the Mpondomise fighting 'Fingo' communities -, apparently based on ethnic alignments, has a particular history within the changing political economy and cannot be interpreted merely terms of traditional inter-ethnic or inter-communal hostility. This paper attempts to discover the changing form and trajectory of rural popular movements in the district without losing sight of the cultural roots and symbols of the communities in which they were based. In conclusion, some suggestions are made about the importance of such movements in shaping the nature of control imposed by the South African state in the Transkei. Fig., notes.