Traders and Trading Stations of the Central and Southern Transkei (2nd Edition)

A superb book on the early history of trading in the central and southern Transkei covering a period of over one hundred years up to the period between 1965 and 1980. 

It is a social history of the efforts of ordinary people to provide a service to their communities through commercial activities. From the earliest traders operating from 1826, the participation by traders rapidly increased. They were supplied such goods as blankets, beads, agricultural implements, knives, horses and firearms to their customers, and in exchange purchased their produce of hides, cattle, ivory and later tobacco, grain and wool.

 This book does not deal with the political events of the period, but is mainly a detailed account of numerous personal details arranged in order of ten weeks of travelling by salesmen servicing the area. Each trip is divided into five days which takes the reader to another part of the Transkei, fully illustrated with maps and numerous photographs. It is a treasure house of information on the subject.