To Swim with Crocodiles: Land, Violence, and Belonging in South Africa, 1800-1996 - Kelly, Jill E.

Offers a fresh perspective on the history of rural politics in South Africa, from the rise of the Zulu kingdom to the civil war at the dawn of democracy in KwaZulu-Natal. The book shows how Africans in the Table Mountain region drew on the cultural inheritance of ukukhonza, a practice of affiliation that binds together chiefs and subjects, to seek social and physical security in times of war and upheaval. Grounded in a rich combination of archival sources and oral interviews, this book examines relations within and between chiefdoms to bring wider concerns of African studies into focus, including land, violence, chieftaincy, ethnic and nationalist politics, and development.

Softcover. English. Michigan State University Press. 2018. ISBN: 9781611862850 . 340 pp. Used. Book No: 2504108